The Saint-Louis Post-Dispatch reported on Tuesday that the Missouri Court of Appeals upheld a $5 million judgement on secondhand mesothelioma. Stephanie Foster died at age 43 from mesothelioma resulting from exposure while a toddler in California 40 years ago. Her father, Robert Foster, worked as a machinist on missiles at Aerojet and unknowingly exposed her to asbestos dust on his work clothes coming home.
Verdicts for secondary asbestos exposure are "becoming more and more common," said Ted Gianaris, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers. "In our office, we have been representing some young women with the disease, and they are almost always the daughters of tradesmen, mechanics or laborers."
The $5 million judgement consisted of $3 million for wrongful death, $2 million for pre-death pain and suffering, and $119,000 for lost wages and medical expenses. How much do you think Gianaris' firm was paid? Ted Gianaris works for the Simmons Firm, which handles nothing but asbestos cases.
"We currently have about 1,400 cases," Bono said, "and we are not the biggest asbestos firm. But we are the biggest firm when it comes to mesothelioma."An article on the original judgement can be found at law.com - from the looks of it Aerojet made some pretty big mistakes. The article (12/2002) also gives some statistics on number of cases:
The Foster case was one of about 300,000 asbestos-related cases now before state and federal courts, experts say. And that number is expected to grow at a rate of more than 50,000 new cases a year as people who fear they were exposed to cancer-causing asbestos -- in many cases decades ago -- but may not even become aware of the health risks.Posted by torque at May 13, 2004 12:12 PM | TrackBack