$5 Million Settlement for Victim of Secondary Asbestos Exposure

Beasley Allen’s mesothelioma attorney Charlie Stern secured a $5 million settlement on behalf of a 56-year-old woman diagnosed with mesothelioma due to secondary asbestos exposure. Our client’s father had worked for the company for nearly 30 years in various positions, during which he was exposed to the known carcinogen.

Our client’s father worked with and around asbestos-containing products and materials, during which his bib overalls would become covered in tiny asbestos fibers. Growing up, our client frequently rode with her mother to pick up her father from work. Upon seeing him approach, our client would jump out of the car to greet and hug him while he was still dressed in the same bib overalls he’d worked in all day. Additionally, our client routinely helped launder her father’s work clothes while growing up, resulting in her unwitting exposure to the deadly asbestos fibers.

Secondary asbestos exposure — exposure to the cancer-causing mineral on the clothes of someone who worked in an environment contaminated with asbestos — can be just as dangerous as primary asbestos exposure. A 1997 study by Durham and Duke University Medical Centers among women diagnosed with mesothelioma found that half of them were victims of secondary asbestos exposure from either their spouse, parent, or child who worked in an asbestos-contaminated environment.

Charlie had this to say about the settlement:

Decades after the dangers of asbestos were widely known, some companies continued to cover up the fact that their workplaces were toxic to workers and their families. A lot of law firms shy away from cases like this. But we were not going to let our client down. This settlement is a small remedy to an otherwise terrible and unnecessary situation.