A trial is set to begin against BNSF Railway over the lung cancer deaths of two people who lived in a northwestern Montana town where thousands of people were exposed to asbestos from a vermiculite mine. Jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday morning in Helena. For decades, the W. R. Grace & Co. mine produced the contaminated vermiculite.
Hundreds of people have died and more have been sickened from asbestos exposure in the Libby, Montana area. BNSF Railway faces accusations of wrongful death for failing to control clouds of contaminated dust. The railroad denies the charges. FILE - The town of Libby, Mont., is seen Feb. 17, 2010. Thousands of people have been sickened and hundreds killed by asbestos contamination in the Libby area.
The railroad failed to contain the dust from the vermiculite, allowing it — and the asbestos it contained — to be blown around town without warning residents about its dangers, the lawsuit states. 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 spot where vermiculite was loaded onto train cars, according to court records. Her exposure may have also come from playing on and watching games on the baseball field near the rail yard or walking along the railroad tracks and occasionally heating up pieces of vermiculite to watch it puff up, court records said.
Morris has already ruled that BNSF cannot try to shift blame onto other companies that might also be liable for asbestos exposure in Libby. However, the railway is expected to argue that amounts paid to Wells, Walder or their estates by other parties responsible for asbestos exposure should be deducted from any damages granted in this case.
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