Adult Children of Mesothelioma Victim Prevail Against Chemical Company
Marty Marteney was diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma after a lifetime history of exposure to asbestos. He and his wife Marie filed suit against the asbestos companies whose products he was exposed to, settling with some and winning verdicts against other cases in court. After his death his adult children filed their own wrongful death claims and one company — Elementis — objected. They argued that Marty’s sons and daughter should be limited to accessing the settlement funds that their mother had received. The Court of Appeals of California disagreed and allowed his heirs to make their claim.
Asbestos Company Argues Against Adult Children’s Mesothelioma Claims
When the mesothelioma victim and his wife filed suit against the asbestos companies they believed responsible for his illness, they included manufacturers of truck brakes he’d worked with at the age of 9 and the suppliers of joint compound he worked with thirty years later. When a jury found the company Elementis to have been negligent, a percentage of liability was apportioned to them.
The company filed an appeal, both to the way that their apportionment was calculated and to Mr. Marteney’s adult children filing a wrongful death claim separate from their mother’s settlement. They argued that the children were limited to the terms that their mother had agreed to, and pointed to financial gifts the couple had given to them as prior to Marty’s death as proof that the parents had been acting as their children’s financial agents.
Judges Dismiss Asbestos Company’s Attempts to Evade Mesothelioma Liability
In denying the asbestos company’s appeal, the judges of the Court of Appeals of California not only noted that the apportionment was calculated correctly, but also that the adult children’s claims were separate from the widow’s wrongful death claim. They wrote that the “reject the central premise underlying Elementis’s contentions” and that the company had “failed to show that respondents were subject to Marty’s and Marie’s settlements.”
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