Mesothelioma Information Sydney NSW

Notable Mesothelioma Class Actions

Burel v Fibreboard

Lawyers filed the first Burel v Fibreboard action in 1969. These lawyers continued to appeal the case until it reached the Supreme Court in 1973, which ruled that companies had the duties to warn consumers of any dangers their products posed and to assume product liability. Ultimately this decision led to asbestos product labeling and consumer safety warnings.

The United States v W.R Grace

W.R. Grace owned the asbestos mine in Libby, Montana. It produced vermiculite that was tainted with tremolite asbestos from the same mines. Not only did the processing mill release as much as 5,000 pounds of asbestos per day into the air where it would drift down onto the community below, it flew off from the truckloads and railcars as they moved the product to buyers’ sites in Canada and the U.S. Asbestos was incorporated into products used in homes and gardens, and even into animal feed.

What was notable about this case is that lawyers handled it as one of the first asbestos and mesothelioma cases tried as a criminal case. The EPA did an investigation and found that Grace had covered up facts and knowledge about the dangerous exposure and damage its workers and the community were incurring. Charges included obstruction of justice, fraud and violation of the Clean Air Act.

June Hancock v Turner & Newall

In 1995 a U.K. woman, June Hancock sued nearby asbestos manufacturer J.W. Roberts and its parent company Turner & Newall for damages after being diagnosed with mesothelioma. Hancock never worked in the factory. Rather, she just lived near it, played on the factory property as a child, and attended the school across the road from the factory. Although her most intense exposure was during her childhood, in the 1930s when she and her friends played with the asbestos dust, the particles were easily observed to drift out the factory windows and blow throughout her community. Her mother’s death from mesothelioma in 1982 was hard enough for her to deal with, but when she was diagnosed with it herself in 1993 she decided to pursue her precedent-setting case. She was the first to file a claim for damages as a community member, not a former employee, and not a household member of an employee. Her landmark case opened the way for others who, like her, had their lives and health destroyed by the negligence of corporate-think.

A 1997 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, Amchem Products Inc. v George Windsor which overturned a lower court ruling that would have allowed defendants in asbestos and mesothelioma cases to limit their liability, especially to future claimants, companies like J.W. Roberts and Turner & Newall were again held responsible for their negligence. Claimants retained their right to hire their own lawyers and sue for individual claims.

Companies that presented themselves as community servants in these cases are increasingly being exposed for their deceptive manipulations of employees for the primary purpose of gaining a profit. These manipulations resulted in preventing employees from knowing just how much danger they were exposing themselves and their families to. And many people are suffering and dying because of their deceit.

If you have been the victim of such an employer, possibly evidenced by a diagnosis of mesothelioma, please visit the website of Parker, Dumler & Kiely, LLP, the experienced mesothelioma lawyers in Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/law-articles/notable-mesothelioma-class-actions-956184.html