Posts Tagged Veterans Mesothelioma

The daughter of a Utah home builder was just awarded $5.2 million in compensatory and punitive damages from a mesothelioma settlement.  The Utah jury determined that Vickie Warren should be awarded the sum from building manufacturing companies Georgia-Pacific and Hamilton Materials, and asbestos mining company Union Carbide after she was diagnosed with mesothelioma.  Mesothelioma is a rare and aggressive cancer caused almost exclusively by asbestos exposure.  It can take 15-40 years to develop and often starts in the lungs (pleural mesothelioma) or the abdomen (peritoneal mesothelioma).  The average life expectancy of a victim post-diagnosis is around a year.

Ms. Warren suffered her exposure as a teenager in Provo, Utah.  She often worked alongside her father, a Geneva Steel employee, who built homes on the side.  He unknowingly used an asbestos-containing compound to smooth out joints in walls as part of these jobs.   This process involved shaving the walls down and Ms. Warren helped her father by cleaning up the dust and debris left behind.  The shaving and clean-up of debris released microscopic asbestos fibers into the air which were then inhaled by Ms. Warren.

Ms. Warren is now so ill from the asbestos exposure that her story was recounted to the Deseret News by one of her mesothelioma attorneys, Bob Gilchrist.  Because many of the asbestos manufacturers were aware of the potential hazards yet hid the information from the public, the area of mesothelioma law has evolved to help compensate victims.  In this particular case, the jury awarded $1.4 million in economic damages and $3.7 million in non-economic damages.  Gilchirst has stated that the $5.2 million awarded after the 6 week trial may be the largest mesothelioma verdict ever in Utah or the surrounding states and is a victory for not only himself and Warren, but other mesothelioma victims as well.

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