Dallas, TX, Mar. 26--After a month-long trial, a Fort Worth, TX jury returned a defense verdict for American Biltrite, Inc. and the three other defendants in the suits filed by siblings Paul and Suzanne Verret, each of whom was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma.
American Biltrite, which was represented by Lane Young of Hawkins & Parnell in Atlanta and Ed Slaughter of Hawkins, Parnell & Thackston in Dallas, showed that its floor tile could not have caused their injury, and that neighborhood exposures to crocidolite asbestos from a nearby factory were the more likely cause of their cancer.
Mesothelioma is a rare but deadly cancer of the outside linings of the lungs. It is usually associated with asbestos exposure, and a frequent source of litigation, but can also occur in cases with no known exposure, such as the recent death of rock singer Warren Zevon. Trials involving mesothelioma are the highest stakes trials in this litigation, because of the tragic nature of the disease and the association with asbestos.
Plaintiffs claimed they were exposed to asbestos-containing construction materials marketed by each of the defendants which were used by their family business, West Side Home Improvement, from the time they were children into the 1980s. However, the evidence at trial suggested a more likely cause. The Verrets' family home was a half mile from a Johns Manville manufacturing facility where crocidolite asbestos was used in making cement pipe during their youth. Asbestos tailings from that plant were used in driveways and parking lots in the neighborhood where the Plaintiffs lived as children. Defense experts testified that the crocidolite asbestos from the Johns Manville plant was the most likely cause of their disease and that the presence of at least 19 other cases of mesothelioma in proximity to the plant represented a significant cancer cluster which supported their opinion about the cause of the Verrets' disease.
The defense also disputed any exposure to floor tile as trivial. Plaintiffs' own experts were forced to admit that studies of floor tile show no greater release of asbestos than occurs naturally in the ambient air of any American urban area.
While efforts to reform asbestos litigation are still a topic of debate in Congress, asbestos litigation continues at a record pace, involving more and more companies that have never before been a target in such litigation.
