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Mass Tort Update Asbestos Update
Part 2: The Beginning of the Asbestos Story
The Asbestos Story: America's Greatest Industrial Tragedy
A Tale of Deceit, Design & Temerity
By Christopher M. Placitella
Cohen, Placitella & Roth, P.C.
The Asbestos story begins in 1898 in Great Britain. The Chief Inspector of the Factories classifies Asbestos as one of the four most hazardous dusts known to man. Shortly thereafter, the insurance industry begins to track the incidence of death and disease concerning people working in Asbestos factories.
By 1918, an insurance statistician in a widely circulated publication notes the unusually early deaths of Asbestos workers and reveals that it is common practice for insurers to deny coverage for workers because of the assumed health and injurious condition in the Asbestos industry.
The year is now 1924. A young woman age 33, named Nelly Kershaw, fights for her life. Nelly has worked in the Turner Brothers Asbestos factory in Great Britain for more than 20 years. She visits her doctor unable to eat and unable to work. Nelly Kershaw writes to her employer, the Turner Brothers Asbestos Company:
What are you going to do about my case? I have been home nine weeks now and not received a penny.. I am needing nourishment and the money.
Shortly thereafter, Nelly Kershaw dies with the dubious distinction of being the first person to make a claim for compensation as a result of Asbestos poisoning. Instead of compensating Nelly and making her final days easier, Turner Brothers urges its insurance carrier to fight Nelly's claim to the death.
It will be exceedingly dangerous to accept any liability whatsoever in [this] case . . .. We ought to do all in our power to repudiate the claim.
Instead of compensating Nelly, Turner Brothers tries to blame her death on another disease called tuberculosis. This represents the first documented effort by an Asbestos manufacturer to deny compensation for an Asbestos related illness by blaming it on some other disease.
The coroner however, holds a full inquest with a jury to determine the cause of death. Nelly's widower husband and Turner Brothers are both represented by attorneys. The coroner jury disagrees with Turner Brothers and finds that Nelly's death was caused by Asbestos.
This case is the first in history in which a jury rejects an Asbestos company's position and decides that the underlying claim has merit.
Unfortunately, a similar series of events will often be repeated throughout the history of Asbestos litigation. News of the death of Nelly Kershaw travels fast in the Asbestos industry and not before too long Turner Brothers is corresponding with the other Asbestos giant in the United States, Johns Manville, about the problem of workers dying from Asbestos.
Johns Manville has similar problems in its New Jersey factory and other facilities, as many of its workers are also getting sick.
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