Personal Injury Lawyers > Personal Injury Blog > Mesothelioma / Asbestos > Family of Mesothelioma Victim Receives $3.4 Million Jury Award

Personal Injury Blog

Family of Mesothelioma Victim Receives $3.4 Million Jury Award

A jury in San Francisco has ruled in favor of a plant worker from Beaumont, California who died from mesothelioma, awarding damages of $3.4 million.

The damages were awarded to the family of Richard Worthley Sr. who was a worker at the Johns-Manville Transite plant in Illinois for 24 years. The lawsuit had been filed by Worthley’s family against Advocate Mines Limited of Newfoundland, which supplied the asbestos to the Johns-Manville plant.

Worthley began working at the plant in May of 1968.  He began as a painter, and eventually worked his way up to become a millwright. After the plant closed down in 1994, Worthley continued to work as a technician. In 2004, he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, which is a type of cancer, almost always caused by exposure to asbestos fibers. Mesothelioma is also sometimes known as “asbestos lung cancer,” although this disease is not the same as lung cancer.

Mesothelioma affects the lining of the lungs.  Symptoms of mesothelioma include:

• Shortness of breath
• Dry cough
• Fever
• Fatigue
• Constant pain
• Swelling in the abdomen

Most people who developed this type of cancer were exposed to asbestos fibers in their work place. Common industries that had a high level of exposure to these deadly fibers include the construction industry, because asbestos was heavily used in construction materials like insulation materials. Millions of workers were exposed to the fibers. Several decades later, the effects of asbestos exposure became evident when hundreds of thousands of workers began to develop asbestos-related illnesses, like mesothelioma and asbestosis.   People who worked in shipyards, asbestos mines, and heating industries were at a high risk of developing mesothelioma. Mesothelioma treatment may be impacted by the fact that the disease is often diagnosed late, and only when it is already in an advanced stage and harder to treat.

Today, workers have a much lower risk of being exposed to asbestos because the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sets acceptable exposure standards for asbestos in the work place.

In Worthley’s case, Advocate Mines Limited supplied the asbestos to the Johns-Manville plant between 1968 and 1984. Worthley was exposed to asbestos dust every single day. He was not only required to be present in the contaminated plant every day, but was also in charge of cleaning and repairing the equipment that included dust collection equipment and ventilators. These activities increased his exposure to the fibers.

His family filed a lawsuit against the asbestos manufacturer, claiming that the risk from asbestos exposure had been well established by 1963, and that the company should have provided stronger warnings and more safety measures with their products. A San Francisco jury has now found in favor of the family. They have been awarded $2,500,000 in non-economic damages, and $877,750 in economic damages.

Since the dangers of asbestos were established in the 60′s, mesothelioma lawyers have filed more than 600,000  personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits against employers, as well as manufacturers and suppliers of asbestos.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of  mesothelioma. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

---