EXPOSURE TO ASBESTOS
Jury awards $20M to worker’s grandchild for secondhand exposure to asbestos

EXPOSURE TO ASBESTOS LINKED TO GRANDPA'S JOB IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

Grandfather brought asbestos dust home on workclothes from his job in Washington, D.C. Asbestos exposure can occur in the home or in the workplace through everyday activities like doing the laundry or through contact with products such as: asbestos shingles, asbestos ceiling tile, asbestos insulation, brake pads, boilers and more.

News Brief

November 2, 2009 - A Baltimore City Circuit Court jury last week awarded more than $20 million to a University of Maryland nursing professor who contracted mesothelioma through secondhand exposure to asbestos 40 years ago.

Jocelyn Farrar, 57, was diagnosed with the asbestos-related cancer in June 2008.

As a teenager in the late-1960s, Farrar helped with the laundry at her grandparents’ Silver Spring home. Secondhand asbestos exposure occurred while washing the asbestos-dusted work clothes of her grandfather, an insulation worker at the Forrestal Building in Washington, D.C., from December 1968 through the following spring.

As part of her medical treatment, doctors removed Farrar’s right lung. The tumors are not progressing and her prognosis is good.

Asbestos insulation for the building was provided by Georgia Pacific Corp., the defendant in the case.

After a two-week trial, the jury returned with its $20,272,000 verdict award.

Of the award, $18.5 million was for non-economic damages (such as pain and suffering); $1.6 million was for lost earnings and earnings capacity; $97,000 was for past medical expenses, and $75,000 was for future medical expenses.

Time to seek justice

Weitz & Luxenberg has protected the legal rights of workers since 1986. And in that time the firm's mesothelioma lawyers have won several billion dollars in verdicts and settlements for clients injured by asbestos.

If you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma and seek a free case review, please notify us through the communication form on this page. We will pursue your claim with vigilance to help you pay for medical bills, lost wages, and suffering.

The firm works on a contingency basis so there is no cost to you until we obtain a verdict or reach a settlement in your favor.