Family Awarded $3.4 Million for Calif. Worker’s Mesothelioma Death

Relatives of a California man who died from mesothelioma lung cancer after being exposed to toxic asbestos while working in manufacturing plants have been awarded $3.4 million in damages.

Richard Worthley Sr., of Beaumont, who worked at a Johns-Manville Transite facility, sued the asbestos mining firm Advocate Mines Limited of Newfoundland for producing defective asbestos products and failing to warn him of the risks of the materials. His suit accused the mining company of negligence, products liability design defect, and products liability failure to warn.

Advocate Mines supplied asbestos products to Johns-Manville during Worthley’s time working at the plant. Worthley’s job was to repair manufacturing equipment, which directly exposed him to toxic asbestos fibers and lead to his mesothelioma, jurors found.

Jurors determined that Advocate Mines exposed Worthley to its defective asbestos fiber products in a negligent manner and had failed to warn about the risks of developing mesothelioma, a rare but deadly form of cancer that targets the linings of the lungs, heart, and other internal organs. The panel assessed economic damages of $877,000 and non-economic damages of $2.5 million against Advocate Mines Limited.

Worthley served in the U.S. Marines Corps during the Vietnam War from 1963 to 1967 and later worked at a Johns-Manville plant in Illinois as a painter, production planner, and millwright, his attorneys said. After the plant closed in 1984, Worthley worked as a maintenance mechanic and service technician at various sites in Southern California until he was diagnosed with mesothelioma of the lungs in 2004.

No related posts.