Mesothelioma Victims and Their Families Win Lawsuits against Insulation Supplier

October 31, 2017

Boston, MA: Veteran attorney Andrew Wainwright and the Thornton Law Firm in Boston, Massachusetts have been handling mesothelioma lawsuits on behalf of individuals with asbestos-related illnesses since 1978. He knows the issues well. Although the use of asbestos has been curtailed Wainwright says victims of its deadly effects and cases of mesothelioma continue to come forward.



“You are going to see the incidence of mesothelioma plateau,” says Wainwright from his office in Boston. “The latest information from the actuarial tables shows that the incidence will level off somewhere around 2020 or 2025. However, people with these diseases continue to come forward because there is a very long latency period for asbestos-related illnesses and for mesothelioma in particular.”



Lawyers from the Thornton Law Firm, and co-counsel Waters & Kraus, recently won two back-to-back cases against The New England Insulation (NEI) company that supplied asbestos to industrial facilities until the early 1970s.



A Superior Court in Boston returned a verdict of $7.55 million against New England Insulation in a lawsuit brought by Gerald Sylvestre. Sylvestre is currently undergoing treatment for mesothelioma.



“Sylvestre was a power plant operator, employed by a utility company in Southern New Hampshire at a power plant called the Marrimack Station in Bow, New Hampshire,” says Wainwright. “He was exposed to asbestos-containing insulation materials that were supplied, installed and also at times removed during maintenance and repair work that was being performed at the Marrimack Station.”



In the other case, a Superior Court jury in Boston returned a $6.8 million verdict against NEI brought by the widow and the estate of the late Timothy Ross who died from mesothelioma.



“Timothy Ross, as a young teenager, from the age of 12, and through his teenage years, worked on summer holidays and weekends for his next door neighbor who had a very small insulation business. It employed neighborhood kids to give them some spending money doing insulation work. They used asbestos-containing insulation from New England Insulation.



“They installed insulation on boilers at various locations throughout the Boston metropolitan area starting in 1965 and well into 1978 when Mr. Ross went to work for the post office,” says Wainwright.



According to the evidence in the two lawsuits against New England Insulation the company was aware of the dangers of asbestos exposure as early as the mid-1960s.



“Bear in mind,” says Andrew Wainwright, “Timothy Ross’s exposure and Gerald Sylvestre’s exposure started about that time and continued for years after that. That was the basis of the liability against New England Insulation.”



The only known cause of mesothelioma is asbestos exposure. Cancerous tumors develop in the lungs and essentially suffocate patients to death. It has a reputation as a particularly devastating type of cancer.