Warren Buffett’s trial against BNSF Railway begins Monday over the lung cancer deaths of two people who lived in a small northwestern Montana town where thousands of people were exposed to asbestos from a vermiculite mine.
For decades, the W.R. Grace & Company mine near Libby produced contaminated vermiculite, exposing residents to asbestos, making thousands sick and killing hundreds.
The estates of Thomas Wells of La Conner, Oregon, and Joyce Walder of Westminster, California, allege that BNSF and its predecessor companies stored asbestos-laden vermiculite in the town’s large rail yard before shipping it. , filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2021. Used on heated and expanded plants for use as insulation.
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The lawsuit says the railroad failed to contain the dust from the vermiculite, and the vermiculite and its asbestos content were blown across town without warning residents of the dangers.
The lawsuit alleges that people who lived and worked in Libby breathed in microscopic, needle-like asbestos fibers that can cause mesothelioma, a lung cancer, and lung scarring called asbestosis.
Wells, 65, spoke in 2020, a day after giving a 2 1/2-hour recorded deposition for the lawsuit, in which he spoke about his exposure during seasonal work for the U.S. Forest Service in the Libby area in the late 1970s. He passed away on March 26th. 1980s. He said his pain was excruciating and he was sorry his son and friends had to take care of him.
In the 1960s, a baseball field next to a train yard in Libby, Montana, housed vermiculite that had been contaminated with asbestos after being mined from a nearby mountain. Thousands of people in the Libby area have been diagnosed with asbestos-related illnesses after being exposed to asbestos. (Western News, Associated Press)
Wells said she was diagnosed with mesothelioma in the fall of 2019 after experiencing back pain and a severe cough. Initially, her doctors said there might be surgical treatment, but that was quickly ruled out. Chemotherapy didn’t help, she said, and she had to sell her house to cover her medical bills.
Walder passed away in October 2020 at the age of 66. The court heard she had lived in Libby for at least 20 years and may have been exposed to asbestos while fishing or floating in the river that runs through the area where the vermiculite was loaded onto the train car. . record. According to court records, her exposure also came from playing and watching a baseball field near a railroad yard, walking along railroad tracks, and occasionally heating pieces of vermiculite and watching it swell. There is a possibility that this may have occurred.
BNSF Railway There is no evidence that Mr. Wells and Mr. Walder were exposed to levels of asbestos exceeding federal standards, that if they were in a railroad yard, it would have been trespassing, and that Mr. Wells and Mr. Walder’s medical conditions were caused by BNSF. It is expected that he will argue that it is not a thing.
U.S. District Judge Brian Morris is overseeing the trial and said he expected it to last at least two weeks.
Morris has already ruled that BNSF cannot shift liability to other companies that may be responsible for asbestos exposure at Libby. But the railroad is expected to argue that any amounts paid to Mr. Wells, Mr. Walder or their estates by other parties responsible for asbestos exposure should be deducted from the damages awarded in the lawsuit.
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The human and environmental disaster in Libby affected thousands of residents, including those who worked in mines and railroads, families of workers who brought home asbestos fibers on their clothing, and residents who say they were exposed elsewhere. caused a civil lawsuit. .
Legal settlements amount to millions of dollars for W.R. Grace & Company, BNSF Railway, and other companies and their insurance companies. WR Grace paid $1.8 billion into its asbestos trust fund in 2021 after the company emerged from bankruptcy protection. The company has resolved many individual lawsuits to date.
A separate lawsuit against BNSF Railway alleging asbestos exposure in the community, not work-related, will be heard next month in U.S. District Court in Missoula, according to attorney Ross Johnson, who represents the estate of Mary Diana Moe. He said it was planned. She passed away in December 2022 at the age of 79 from mesothelioma.
