Mesothelioma Victim Awarded $15 Million by Connecticut Jury
When Nicholas Barone first filed his mesothelioma lawsuit against Vanderbilt Minerals, LLC., he submitted to a deposition and was asked about the presence of asbestos in the GE plant where he’d worked. His answer, along with other evidence, had a powerful impact on the jury hearing his case. Though Mr. Barone died by the time the case was heard, the jury awarded his estate $10 million in compensatory damages and another $5 million for loss of consortium.
Compelling Asbestos Testimony Leads to $15 Million Mesothelioma Verdict
Mr. Barone was diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma nearly sixty years after having worked at General Electric in Pittsfield in its phenolic resin compounding facility. When asked about asbestos, he replied, “It came in boxcars. It was manually unloaded. Guys used to screw around having snowball fights with it. They’d unload it into like, I guess, hoppers, and it was used in most formulations that were going to be in a hot application.”
Mr. Barone’s mesothelioma lawsuit charged Vanderbilt Minerals as a successor to International Talc, for having exposed him to the carcinogenic material. His attorneys successfully argued that the talc provided by International Talc was contaminated with asbestos and that Vanderbilt had been aware of this in 1974 when they purchased the company.
Testimony in Mesothelioma Trial Proved Victim’s Argument to Jury
Among the many things that the Connecticut jury heard in the mesothelioma trial was that those handling talc had never worn a dust mask or respirator, and that Mr. Barone hadn’t either because nobody had been warned of its dangers. The only defense that Vanderbilt Minerals offered against the charge was that because Mr. Barone had been a GE employee, workers’ compensation was the only remedy available to him. The jury took just two hours to reach its verdict.
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