Family Seeks Justice Following Loved One’s Mesothelioma Death
After Dennis Freeman died of malignant mesothelioma, the former insulation contractor’s family members filed a personal injury lawsuit against many of the companies they blame for having exposed him to asbestos. Though several of those companies asked the courts to dismiss them from the case on various grounds, the majority of their motions for summary judgment were denied.
Family Files Mesothelioma Suit in California Court System
Mr. Freeman’s malignant pleural mesothelioma is blamed on the asbestos he was exposed to when he worked in shipyards in Washington state, Hawaii, and California. They filed their lawsuit in the California court system against Huntington Ingalls Incorporated, National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO), and BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair Inc., among others.
In their petition to have the case removed, those companies asserted that the widow and her daughters had failed to state a claim, and the repair company also questioned the court’s personal jurisdiction over the case and asked for the widow’s claim for loss of consortium to be dismissed. BAE and NASSCO both asked for the family’s fraud and punitive damages claims to be dismissed from the family’s overall claim.
U.S. District Court Judge Denies Most of Mesothelioma Defendants’ Requests
The arguments against the mesothelioma claim were heard by Hon. M. James Lorenz of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. The judge quickly dismissed BAE’s argument against its jurisdiction, as well as questions that had been asked about the applicability of maritime law to the facts of the case and the remedies being sought by the victim’s surviving family members. He also struck down the argument that no specific cause of action had been submitted for each defendant, noting that none was required because they had all been accused of the same thing.
Though the judge granted the request to dismiss the widow’s claims for loss of consortium, he also denied the companies’ request to dismiss the charges of strict liability claims based on the proof of exposure to asbestos that had been submitted. The case will move forward largely intact.
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