Asbestos Company Maligns Mesothelioma Victim’s Testimony
Malignant mesothelioma is a cruel disease. Caused by exposure to asbestos, it doesn’t reveal itself until decades later: many victims are elderly when they’re first diagnosed, and the aggressive form of cancer debilitates them rapidly. Despite this, they use their last days to pursue justice against those responsible for their exposure. When one victim did so, the asbestos company used some contradictions in the man’s testimony to seek dismissal of his case, but the New York judge rejected that attempt.
Dismissal of Mesothelioma Claim Sought by Asbestos Pipe Company
The mesothelioma claim was filed by Rudolf Horvath, a former New York City plumber who’d spent years working with pipes made by Ameron International Corporation. He blamed asbestos in those pipes, but Ameron argued that there was no proof of his exposure or that their pipes had caused his illness, and pointed to inconsistencies in the victim’s testimony to support their request for the case against them to be dismissed.
The company based its request for summary judgment on the mesothelioma victim having testified about exposure to their pipes in the West Side of New York. His specific words were, “I think I did once for the City, contracted from the City, in, I think, the West Side area, a chemical plant where they took raw sewage and created — you know, make that drinkable and stuff like that.” The company argued that at the time that he had been referring to, between the 1960s and the 1990s, their pipes no longer contained asbestos.
Judge Points to Mesothelioma Victim’s “Declining Condition”
In denying the company’s request, Justice Adam Silvera of the Supreme Court of New York noted and agreed with the mesothelioma victim’s survivors’ assertion that his previous testimony about exposure had been unequivocal and that at the time of the deposition in question, he had been in a “declining condition.” He said that the previous testimony carried enough weight to counter the company’s arguments and that the case should go to trial for a jury to decide the facts.
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