Mesothelioma Disease, Mesothelioma Types

Texas lawyer was the first to litigate an asbestos product lawsuit. This action, filed in December of 1966 in Beaumont Texas.-The plaintiff w, a former asbestos worker from Lake Charles, Louisiana. There were eleven named defendants, which included Johns-Manville and Owens-Corning, among others.

The plaintiff had been diagnosed with what his doctor called "pulmonary mesothelioma dust disease," which had all the symptoms of asbestosis.

The complaint's allegation stated that the defendants had either known or had an obligation to be aware of health hazards of asbestos; their liability was based on a failure to warn Plaintiff of these hazards. (Today, "failure to warn" is a mesothelioma primary element in asbestos lawsuits.)

Of the eleven defendants, five were ultimately dropped from the suit; the jury found in favor of a sixth defendant. The other five defendants however agreed to an out-of-court settlement. In Stephenson's opinion, this indicated that the asbestos industry had legal vulnerability.

In October of 1969, a second suit was filed against many of the same defendants by one of the previous plaintiff’s fellow workers who was suffering from advanced mesothelioma, a rare form of asbestos cancer, at the time. He died eight months later shortly after giving his deposition ( testimony given live and recorded in writing). Four of the defendants, including Owens-Corning, settled with the plaintiff’s estate before the trial began in September of 1970. During that trial, the accident prevention manager for Johns-Manville - whose wife, ironically would later die of malignant mesothelioma - testified that he had never heard of asbestos toxicity prior to 1964, when Dr. Irving Selikoff presented a paper on the subject to the New York Academy of Sciences; therefore, the corporation could not be held liable for injuries related to asbestos exposure occurring prior to that time.