$7.5M Settlement Awarded in Asbestos Mesothelioma Lawsuit

January 26, 2012

Los Angeles, CA: A California construction worker who developed a highly aggressive form of cancer after exposure to asbestos has received $7.5 million in settlement of legal claims against six companies that manufactured or distributed asbestos-cement pipe.

The 57-year old man, whose identity and current city of residence are withheld at his request, sued last August after he was diagnosed less than one year earlier with asbestos mesothelioma.

The man was a construction worker who, in the 1970s and 1980s, helped install underground water and sewer lines. These pipes -- 6 to 48 inches in diameter -- were made of a concrete-asbestos composite material for strength but also for ease of fabrication. The defendants made, sold or delivered them," said the man's attorney.

The plaintiff's job in part was to cut asbestos-concrete pipes so they could be properly laid and connected beneath public and private streets in and around the Sacramento Valley city of Chico. However, according to the court filing, the task of cutting this particular type of pipe posed extreme health risks. The cuts generated an enormous amount of cement-asbestos dust, which flew in every direction from the saw's whirring blades and engine exhaust blast. This snowstorm of asbestos dust was at times so thick you couldn't see the person standing three feet away. By the end of each workday, the plaintiff was covered from head to toe in a thick layer of asbestos dust.

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