12/28/2010 // Chicago, IL, USA // Mesothelioma Lawyers – Cooney & Conway // Cooney & Conway
A West Virginia couple has named 95 defendants—ranging from manufacturers to power companies to insurers—in an asbestos-contamination lawsuit, according to court filings with the Kanawha Circuit Court in Charleston, W.Va., The documents claim that all are responsible for the husband’s mesothelioma, an aggressive, incurable form of cancer that is almost always caused by asbestos exposure.
Mesothelioma lawyers say the large number of defendants is not unusual in asbestos lawsuits. They say that in an industrial setting like the one in which the husband, William R. Henthorn, worked, asbestos can be found in many places, with dozens of companies having, but failing in, a duty to warn and protect against potential dangers.
Known for its heat- and fire-resistant qualities, asbestos was long used in a wide range of products, ranging from insulation to automobile brakes to pipes. Its risks, too, have long been known. When asbestos particles are released into the air and inhaled, they can lodge in the lungs and trigger deadly diseases like mesothelioma and lung cancer.
The development of asbestos-related disease can take decades, but once diagnosed, the victim’s prognosis—particularly in the case of mesothelioma—is typically grim.
While mesothelioma lawyers have been able to recover large jury awards and settlements for asbestos victims, physical recovery is unlikely: Mesothelioma has no known cure, and even the most sophisticated treatment typically extends a patient’s life by a matter of months, at most.
In the West Virginia case, Henthorn and his wife, Eva Louise, of New Martinsville, allege that his mesothelioma resulted from asbestos exposure over the course of employment at the PPG Natrium Plant, also in New Martinsville, from 1959 to 1977.
Mesothelioma lawyers say that many mesothelioma lawsuits follow a similar pattern—a worker was exposed to asbestos over a long period of time, even though many manufacturers, employers, and suppliers were aware of the presence of asbestos in parts handled by the worker or within the environment within which he or she worked, but they said and did nothing to protect that individual.
The Henthorns, who filed their asbestos lawsuit in late October, are seeking both compensatory and punitive damages. Mesothelioma lawyers say that this, too, is not unusual, because mesothelioma is a painful disease that can be catastrophic financially and emotionally, as well as physically.
Among the 95 defendants named in the asbestos suit—which has been assigned to a visiting judge—are: Armstrong International, Inc.; Bayer Corporation; Consolidated Aluminum Corporation; FMC Corporation; General Electric Company; Honeywell, Inc; Honeywell International, Inc.; Ingersoll-Rand; Insul Company, Inc.; ITT Corporation; Metropolitan Life Insurance Company; Monongahela Power Company; Ohio Power; Owens-Illinois, Inc.; Sunbeam Products, Inc.; Union Carbide Corporation; and Virginia Electric and Power Company, Inc.
This news story was brought to you by the mesothelioma lawyers at Cooney & Conway. For more than half a century, we have been advocates for those injured due to the wrongful actions of others. We have litigated and resolved some of the nation’s most significant asbestos lawsuits, bringing justice—and compensation—to victims of asbestos exposure and the lung cancer, mesothelioma, and other deadly diseases it can cause.
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