A lawsuit begins against the railroad over deaths in Montana town where thousands were exposed to asbestos
HELENA, Mont. — A trial begins Monday against Warren Buffett’s BNSF Railroad over the lung cancer deaths of two people who lived in a small town in northwestern Montana where thousands of people were exposed to asbestos from a vermiculite mine.
For decades, the WR Grace & The Co. mine near Libby produced the contaminated vermiculite that exposed residents to asbestos, sickening thousands and killing hundreds.
The estates of Thomas Wells, of LaConner, Oregon, and Joyce Walder, of Westminster, California, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2021, alleging that BNSF and its predecessors had stockpiled asbestos-laden vermiculite at a major rail yard in the city before it was shipped. to factories where it was heated to expand it for use as insulation.
The railroad failed to contain the dust from the vermiculite, allowing it — and the asbestos it contained — to be blown across the city without warning residents of its dangers, the lawsuit said.
People who lived and worked in Libby inhaled the microscopic needle-shaped asbestos fibers that can cause the lung cancer mesothelioma or lung scarring called asbestosis, the lawsuit argues.
Wells, 65, died on March 26, 2020, a day after giving a 2.5-hour recorded statement for the trial in which he spoke about his exposure while working seasonal for the US Forest Service in the Libby area in the late 1970s and early seventies. 1980s. He said his pain was unbearable and he felt sorry that his sons and boyfriend had to care for him.
Wells said he was diagnosed with mesothelioma in the fall of 2019 after feeling pain in his back and developing a severe cough. Initially, doctors said surgical treatment may be needed, but that was quickly eliminated. Chemotherapy also didn’t help, but he had to sell his house to pay the medical bills, he said.
Walder died in October 2020 at the age of 66. She lived in Libby for at least 20 years and could have been exposed to asbestos while fishing and floating on a river that flowed past a site where vermiculite was loaded into rail cars, according to court records. records. Her exposure also may have resulted from playing and watching games at the baseball field near the rail yard or walking along the railroad tracks and occasionally heating up pieces of vermiculite to watch it swell, according to court records.
BNSF Railway is expected to argue that there is no evidence that Wells and Walder were exposed to asbestos levels above federal limits, that if they were in the yard they were trespassing on the property and that Wells and Walder’s medical conditions were not caused by BNSF.
U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris is overseeing the trial and expects it to last at least two weeks.
Morris has already ruled that BNSF cannot attempt to shift blame to other companies that may also be liable for asbestos exposure in Libby. However, the railroads are expected to argue that amounts paid to Wells, Walder or their estates by other parties responsible for asbestos exposure should be deducted from damages awarded in this case.
The human and environmental disaster in Libby has led to civil claims from thousands of residents, including people who worked at the mine or for the railroad, relatives of workers who brought home asbestos fibers on their clothing, and residents who say their exposure occurred elsewhere . .
The legal settlements for WR Grace are in the millions of dollars & Co., BNSF Railway, other companies and their insurers. WR Grace paid $1.8 billion to an asbestos trust fund in 2021 after the company emerged from bankruptcy protection. The company had previously handled many individual cases.
Another case against BNSF Railway, alleging community – rather than work-related – exposure to asbestos, will be heard next month in U.S. District Court in Missoula, said Ross Johnson, an attorney representing the estate of Mary Diana Moe . She died in December 2022 at the age of 79 from mesothelioma.
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Brown reported from Libby, Mont.