After Losing Both Parents to Asbestos, Daughters Win Mesothelioma Lawsuit
Melissa Ann Bobo and Shannon Jean Cox lost their mother to malignant mesothelioma sixteen years to the day after their father died of a heart attack following years of battling asbestos-induced lung cancer. The women stepped in as plaintiffs in the personal injury claim their mother filed before her death and were awarded over $3 million in damages from their late father’s former employer. Though Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) appealed that decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld the trial court’s decision and denied the appeal.
Trial Details Second-Hand Asbestos Exposure and Woman’s Mesothelioma Treatment
In his review of the original mesothelioma lawsuit, Chief Judge Ed Carnes summarized how Barbara Bobo had been exposed to asbestos, and how extensively she had suffered. He noted that her late husband, James “Neal” Bobo, had worked for the TVA for more than 22 years, that he had been diagnosed with asbestos-induced lung cancer, and that she was later diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma. He wrote of the many painful treatments and symptoms she endured before her death.
The jury in the original trial had awarded the mesothelioma victim’s daughters over $3 million in damages based on evidence that Mr. Bobo had been exposed to asbestos constantly, as well as that TVA’s own documents confirmed the presence of asbestos products throughout the plant and that the company had failed to adhere to its own internal policies regarding protecting employees and their families from asbestos. As a result, Mr. Bobo’s clothing was caked with asbestos fibers when he returned home from work each day, and Mrs. Bobo inhaled those fibers when she laundered his clothes. Testimony in the case indicated that the family’s laundry room was so filled with asbestos dust that it became “foggy.”
Judge Upholds Lower Court’s Decision in Mesothelioma Claim
Though TVA argued against the jury’s decision on the mesothelioma damages based on two legal technicalities, the Court of Appeals aggressively rejected their argument, pointing out that the company had failed to adhere to its own internal policies and that the outcome for Mrs. Bobo was entirely foreseeable. In a scathing rebuke to the company, the judge wrote in part:
Here is the gist of it. TVA used asbestos-containing products … during the twenty-two years Mr. Bobo worked for it. His duties included cleaning up residue left by insulators and asbestos workers, which in turn allowed asbestos fibers to settle on his clothes. And Mrs. Bobo was exposed to those fibers regularly for 22 years. Her … was that she was exposed to so much dust from shaking out her husband’s work clothes that the air was foggy. Dr. Mark testified that with mesothelioma there is “no known safe level” of exposure to asbestos. Even if there were, the massive amounts of asbestos fibers to which Mrs. Bobo was exposed over more than two decades would far exceed any imaginable safe level. To answer the question with which we began, TVA did cause Mrs. Bobo to die sooner and suffer more in the course of dying than she otherwise would have.
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