Source: http://www.telegram.com, July 13, 2014
By: Aaron Nicodemus
Can asbestos-laden dust, brought home day after day for 35 years on the work clothes of your loved one, cause you to get cancer?
That is the thrust of a civil lawsuit brought in March against Norton Co. (now Saint-Gobain) in Middlesex Superior Court by Joan A. Girard, a 74-year-old widow who lives in Worcester.
In her lawsuit, Mrs. Girard alleged she “has developed malignant mesothelioma and other asbestos-related disease” and has “incurred medical expenses, suffered a dramatic reduction in her life expectancy, incurred great medical and physical pain and suffering, and suffered an impairment in her enjoyment of life, which damages are continuing in nature.”
The lawsuit alleged that Mrs. Girard “was exposed to and did ingest the asbestos fibers which did escape from the premises of the defendant, Saint-Gobain Abrasives, f/k/a The Norton Company, by way of the work clothes and person of her husband, Richard W. Girard Jr.”
The lawsuit asks for compensatory damages, plus interest and cost.
Her husband, Dick Girard, died on Oct. 5, 2012, at the age of 75 due to acute respiratory failure and stomach cancer, according to a death certificate on file at the Worcester city clerk’s office. According to his obituary, Dick Girard worked for 35 years at Norton Co., which was later purchased by the French construction conglomerate Saint-Gobain.
In addition to Saint-Gobain, the lawsuit names Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.; Cleaver-Brooks Inc.; Riley Power Inc.; Plastics Engineering Co.; Union Carbide Corp.; A.W. Chesterton Co.; General Electric; Swindell Dresser Corp.; and Lindberg/MPH.
Mrs. Girard and her attorneys have demanded a jury trial.
This lawsuit came to my attention due to an advertisement placed in the Telegram & Gazette on Monday, with a young-looking photo of Dick Girard under the headline, “Attention former employees of Norton Co., Worcester, MA”
“If you worked at Norton Company from 1959 to the 1970s and remember working with Richard W. Girard Jr., we need your help. He worked as a laborer in Plant 8, machine operator at Abrasive 2, and foreman at Supply 6,” the ad stated.
“If you recall the gentleman in the photo, please call Charles LePauloue at (617) 531-3936 at Thornton & Naumes, LLP, 100 Summer St., 30th Floor, Boston MA 02110. Thank you.”
I called Mr. LePauloue, who is a private investigator for Thornton & Naumes. He put me in touch with Andrew Wainwright, the lead attorney on the case.
Mr. Wainwright said it was “not at all uncommon” for workers to bring asbestos-laden dust home on their clothing, which would contaminate the house and be breathed in by family members. It is not mentioned in the lawsuit, but Mrs. Girard’s father also worked at Norton Co., he said.
Norton Company “is a fairly regular defendant in asbestos cases,” he said, “because of the asbestos material they used in the grinding wheels they used to make. There were potentially other products (with asbestos), as well as equipment in facility like steampipes, boilers and other equipment that had insulation with asbestos.”
But the case lacks witnesses, he said, hence the advertisement.
“We’re having a hard time finding a co-worker of Mr. Girard’s,” Mr. Wainwright said. “We’d like to interview someone he worked with.”
Interestingly, all civil asbestos cases in Massachusetts are filed in Middlesex Superior Court under Judge Charles Hely, who is considered an expert on asbestos cases.
Asbestos-related lawsuits filed by the affected workers themselves have become commonplace.
Also common are wives and children of those workers filing lawsuits after the worker has died from a complication related to asbestos exposure. While a lawsuit regarding contracting mesothelioma second-hand through a spouse is a rarer case, it is not without precedent.
In 2010, a California woman was awarded $208.5 million in her lawsuit against A.W. Chesterton Co. She alleged that she developed a form of cancer related to asbestos from washing her husband’s clothes for 25 years, not knowing they contained asbestos fibers, according to a description of the case on the website of the Mesothelioma Center, www.asbestos.com.
Her husband worked for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and came in contact with asbestos fibers on the job.
According to center’s website, more than 10,000 companies have been sued in asbestos lawsuits. What the center’s website does not say, but was quoted in a 2013 New York Times opinion piece, is that 100 companies have filed for bankruptcy as a result of asbestos litigation.
Four months after Mrs. Girard’s lawsuit was filed, Saint-Gobain should have filed a response. And it has. But I cannot report on its contents for you.
A spokeswoman for Saint-Gobain said the company has filed a response to Mrs. Girard’s lawsuit “in a special docket set up by the court system in Massachusetts specifically to process this category of claims in which access is typically limited to attorneys representing the parties involved in the litigation.” The court is in Woburn, and the person who handles the asbestos cases for Middlesex County was out of the office Friday.
Saint-Gobain’s spokeswoman said the company would not comment on pending litigation.