A former pipe worker has been awarded $10 million in an asbestos case against a major manufacturer of building materials. The worker says that he was exposed to asbestos while working with defective Asbestos Cement (AC) pipe manufactured by the company. He claimed that the manufacturer knew of the risks of handling and working with its products, but intentionally concealed them from workers. The worker said that the company fraudulently misrepresented the product as a “non-harmful use of asbestos pipe.” The jury agreed with the worker and handed down one of the largest verdicts of its kind in California history.
The plaintiff in the case was employed in the plumbing industry in the 1970s. He worked for an engineering firm and a plumbing company where his job was to cut and bevel AC pipe (made by the defendant) at construction sites across California. Cutting through the pipe with hand tools and a saw created an extremely dusty working environment where the plaintiff unknowingly breathed asbestos dust daily. In May 2016, the plaintiff was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma. He was 65 and had been married to his wife for 46 years.
Sources
"Mesothelioma." MedlinePlus. U.S. National Library of Medicine, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), 26 Feb. 2017. Web. 05 May 2017.
"$10 Million Mesothelioma Verdict Awarded for Defective Asbestos Cement Pipe." K5-Hawaii, Health News. HITV Operating Company, Inc., 2017. Web. 05 May 2017.
