“Weak” Warning Plays Role in $2.38 Million Mesothelioma Verdict
After years of battling to have her case heard, a mesothelioma widow heard a New Jersey jury order corporate giant Union Carbide to pay her $2.38 million in damages. Among the evidence that swayed the jury was the company’s own internal document indicating that hazard labeling on the company’s bags of asbestos was “weak.”
Union Carbide Asbestos Blamed for Worker’s Mesothelioma Death
Thomasina Fowler filed the mesothelioma lawsuit against Union Carbide after her husband, 75-year-old Willis Edenfield, died of the rare, asbestos-related disease in 2011. Mr. Edenfield had worked as a chemical compounder from 1954 to 1994. Union Carbide successfully filed motions to have the case dismissed based on lack of evidence that it was their company’s asbestos that caused his illness, but that decision was later overturned and the case sent to trial.
The jury in the mesothelioma lawsuit heard details of Mr. Edenfield’s duties at the manufacturing plant where he worked. Though Mr. Edenfield died before being able to testify to whether the bags he worked with were marked as having come from Union Carbide, co-workers testified that he had worked the only shift that mixed the dry raw ingredients used in the plant’s products. Evidence was also presented showing that Union Carbide had shipped over 50,000 pounds of its asbestos to the facility during the years that Edenfield worked there.
Company Found Guilty of Failing to Warn That Asbestos Causes Mesothelioma
The company had argued against being held responsible for Mr. Edenfield’s mesothelioma, continuing to point to lack of direct evidence that it was their product that sickened him and asserting that the asbestos they provided was not the type that causes the disease. They also pointed to a warning that had been placed on their asbestos bags, but that argument was diminished by an internal document that described the warning as “weak” and watered down in order to prevent problems with unions.
The jury found the warnings placed on the company’s bags of asbestos to have been insufficient to have adequately warned Mr. Edenfield of the dangers of mesothelioma. They found that the company’s asbestos was to blame for the man’s fatal illness and death and awarded the widow $2.37 million in damages.
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