Judge Denies Asbestos Company’s Bid to Quash Mesothelioma Claim
Before being diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma, William Theophil spent decades working in New York. He worked a variety of jobs, including during the late 1960s when he worked at the 59th Street Powerhouse. His main responsibilities there included scraping gaskets, cleaning pumps, and re-piping pumps. When he got his fatal diagnosis, he filed suit against multiple companies, including O’Connor Constructors. Though the company attempted to have his case dismissed, the judge hearing the case denied their motion for insufficiently meeting the legal standards.
Mesothelioma Victim Worked Near Boiler Insulators
In his mesothelioma case against O’Connor Constructors, Mr. Theophil claims that when he was employed by Almirall & Alford & Swift, he worked in the vicinity of boilers that were being refurbished and insulated by O’Connor’s workers. He asserts that he was sickened from breathing in asbestos that they were negligently spreading throughout the air.
In response, O’Connor filed a motion to have the mesothelioma case against them dismissed, noting that the victim could not “point to any evidence that he had ever encountered O’Connor’s employees at any point in his life and thus cannot demonstrate that he was exposed to asbestos from a product for which O’Connor would owe a duty to warn.” They also argued that the claim did not belong in a New York courtroom because they were based in Massachusetts.
Judge Denies Motion to Dismiss Mesothelioma Claim
In his analysis of the asbestos company’s petition, Judge Adam Silvera of the Supreme Court of New York County noted that the company had made the mistake of trying to dismiss the mesothelioma claim by pointing to perceived gaps in the victim’s case rather than proving that they hadn’t exposed him to asbestos. He also noted that though they tried to have the case dismissed for jurisdictional reasons, the fact that they had a New York state office belied their argument against doing business in the state. The motion for summary judgment was denied in its entirety and Mr. Theophil’s case can continue through the court system.
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