Mesothelioma Victims’ Survivors Accuse Railway of Strategic Delays
Though recently awarded millions in compensation, the families of two mesothelioma victims are arguing that the plaintiff in their claim – BNSF Railway Company – purposely delayed making payments or offering a settlement, enriching themselves instead of working to achieve justice.
Montana Railroad Found Guilty in Mesothelioma Negligence Claims
The case involves the families of Tom Wells and Joyce Walder, Libby, Montana, residents who both died of malignant mesothelioma. After years of seeking compensation for the suffering their loved ones endured, the families were each awarded millions of dollars by a federal jury in 2024. Now they’re arguing that the company and its insurer purposely delayed resolving the claims to earn interest income on the money they’d eventually be ordered to pay them.
Both Wells’ and Walders’ mesothelioma was blamed on “abnormally dangerous activity” demonstrated by BNSF in the way that it ran its operations in Libby. It was only after the Asbestos Claims Court of Montana agreed that the company was liable and the decision was upheld by the Montana Supreme Court that the families were able to have their claims heard and achieve legal justice. Each estate was awarded $4 million.
Failure to Make Offer is Basis for Claim by Mesothelioma Families
After the mesothelioma verdicts were handed down in April 2024, the families filed an additional suit against the railroad company and its insurance company, arguing that they failed to make timely or reasonable settlement offers or to pay any medical care expenses. They accuse the company of being opportunistic in its handling of their claim, “delaying resolution.”
The claim filed by the mesothelioma victims’ estates notes that “At an average annual rate of return in excess of 11%, defendants VNSF and Zurich have earned hundreds of millions of dollars on the Libby asbestos claim reserves for fully accrued clear liability claims over the past twenty years of litigation.” They are asking the court for equitable relief of disgorgement of profits and damages for violations of insurance claim handling duties.
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