Woman’s Mesothelioma Death Blamed on Asbestos-Contaminated Home Renovation Products
Imagine being diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma with absolutely no known exposure to asbestos. You didn’t work with the material and neither did anybody in your family, and you didn’t live anywhere near an asbestos mine or plant. Only after extensive research is the mystery solved: the asbestos came from the joint compound used fifty years earlier when your home was renovated. This is exactly what the Mellor family says happened to their mother Esther. They have filed suit against Union Carbide Corporation, the company whose product she was exposed to.
Union Carbide Tries to Evade Mesothelioma Lawsuit
In response to the mesothelioma lawsuit filed against them, Union Carbide filed a motion for summary judgment, asking for it to be dismissed. They claimed that there was no specific evidence that it had been their joint compound used fifty years earlier for the renovation, but Mrs. Mellor’s daughter remembered the five-gallon buckets that she had seen around the house during the project, and the family provided evidence that all the joint compound the company had sold in five-gallon buckets at the time were contaminated with asbestos.
Family Claims Mesothelioma Victim Inhaled Asbestos Fibers from Renovation Project
Mrs. Mellor’s family points to the enormous amount of dust that was released in their home from Union Carbide’s Georgia-Pacific Ready Mix joint compound, which had to be sanded after application. They say that she inhaled the dust when she cleaned the house during and after the project, as well as when she laundered the family’s clothing, which was constantly covered with the dust.
In handing down its ruling, the Superior Court of Rhode Island pointed to the significant amount of evidence that the mesothelioma victim’s family had provided, and said that it provided a jury with a “basis on which to find it is more probably true than false” that the product had contained asbestos. They denied the company’s motion for summary judgment and allowed the case to move forward.
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