A trial against Warren Buffett's BNSF Railway begins Monday over the lung cancer deaths of two people in a small northwestern Montana town where thousands were exposed to asbestos from a vermiculite mine.
The W.R. Grace & Co. mine near Libby produced asbestos-contaminated vermiculite for decades, sickening thousands and killing hundreds.
In 2021, the estates of Thomas Wells of LaConner, Oregon, and Joyce Walder of Westminster, California, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against BNSF and its corporate predecessors for storing asbestos-laden vermiculite in a large rail yard in town before shipping it to plants where it was heated to expand it for insulation.
The lawsuit claims the railroad failed to confine vermiculite dust, enabling it and its asbestos to spread across town without notice. The lawsuit claims that Libby residents and workers inhaled minute needle-shaped asbestos fibers that can cause mesothelioma and asbestosis.
After providing a 2 1/2-hour recorded deposition for the lawsuit about his exposure during seasonal work for the U.S. Forest Service in Libby in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Wells, 65, died on March 26, 2020. He was in excruciating agony and felt horrible that his sons and friends had to care for him.
After a severe cough and back pain, Wells was diagnosed with mesothelioma in fall 2019. Doctors considered surgery, but they swiftly dropped it. He stated chemotherapy didn't help, so he sold his house to pay medical fees.
BNSF Railway is anticipated to claim that Wells and Walder were trespassing in the rail yard, that they were not exposed to asbestos over regulatory limits, and that BNSF did not cause their medical issues.
W.R. Grace & Co., BNSF Railway, and other companies and insurers have paid millions in lawsuit settlements. After bankruptcy, W.R. Grace paid $1.8 billion into an asbestos trust fund in 2021. Many cases were settled by the corporation.
Ross Johnson, attorney for Mary Diana Moe's estate, said another complaint against BNSF Railway alleging community-wide asbestos exposure will be tried next month in Missoula's U.S. District Court. She died of mesothelioma at 79 in December 2022.
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