Mesothelioma Wrongful Death Case Results In $6.8M Verdict For Insulator’s Widow

The widow of a Massachusetts insulator has been awarded $6.8 million in a mesothelioma lawsuit filed against New England Insulation over the wrongful death of Timothy Ross, who worked with asbestos insulation materials that were sold by the company until the early 1970s.

The verdict marks the second massive damage award returned in a lawsuit against the asbestos insulation manufacturer in recent weeks, after a separate case brought by a former power plant worker, Gerald Sylvestre, resulted in a $7.55 million verdict against New England Insulation late last month.

This latest case involved a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Amy Ross, whose husband died of mesothelioma cancer in August 2013, according to a press release issued by lawyers involved in the trial.

Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos and breathing asbestos fibers.  It is a lethal disease that is often at a very advanced stage when a diagnosis is made, resulting in a very short life-expectancy.

Litigation against manufacturers and suppliers of asbestos products has been one of the largest mass-torts in U.S. history, with hundreds of thousands of Mesotheslioma cases brought nationwide against more than 6,000 defendants, due to injuries caused by inhaling the toxic fibers.

Prior projections by the CDC suggested that the number of asbestos deaths from malignant mesothelioma would peak years ago. However, that does not appear to be the case. Instead, from 1999 to 2015, the annual mesothelioma death rate increased by 4.8%, from 2,479 deaths in 1999 to 2,579 deaths in 2015.