Career painter awarded one of the largest Texas verdicts of its kind

DALLAS, March 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Baron & Budd, P.C. announced an approximately $11 million asbestos cancer verdict today for a Dallas family. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of mesothelioma patient and career painter Vernon Walker and wife Patsy Walker. Baron & Budd attorneys John Langdoc and Alana Kalantzakis, who represented the Walkers, proved that, despite continued asbestos industry arguments that their "Chrysotile" and "Calidria" brand asbestos does not cause cancer, Mr. Walker's mesothelioma was caused by his work with asbestos-containing painting products.

Mr. Walker, 67, began his career as a grocery store stocker for a humble 50 cents an hour. When given the opportunity to triple his salary, Mr. Walker became a union painter. As a painter he worked in the construction of skyscrapers, strip malls and homes. Through his work, Mr. Walker came in contact with numerous asbestos containing painting products, including texturing paints, block fillers and drywall compounds, some of which were banned by the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) in 1978 as being "unreasonably dangerous" and likely to cause cancers such as mesothelioma in users. While the CPSC advised the asbestos industry that use of these products as little as four times would result in thousands of excess cancers, commercial painters like Mr. Walker worked with the contaminated products most work days before the products were banned.

The jury awarded Mr. Walker and his wife approximately $11 million, apportioning 40 percent of the blame to asbestos mining company Union Carbide Corporation, and the remaining liability to product manufacturers Kelly Moore, Georgia Pacific and Bondex. Many of the manufacturers chose to settle before or during trial. Bondex was the only remaining defendant at the time of the verdict.

"The asbestos industry has spent decades developing false science used to argue that asbestos is safe," said Langdoc. "Asbestos industry witnesses in this case continued to push asbestos industry false science that the shape or the length or even the mining location of the asbestos fibers sold by these companies meant they could not cause cancer, which has been rejected by every mainstream scientific organization in the world, and fortunately rejected by this jury."

About Baron & Budd, P.C.

Dallas-based Baron & Budd, P.C., with offices in Baton Rouge, Austin and Beverly Hills, is a nationally recognized law firm with more than three decades of experience representing people and communities harmed by corporate negligence. The firm resolved one of the first asbestos cases in the United States in the 1970s and continues to serve people diagnosed with mesothelioma and asbestos-related lung cancer.

SOURCE Baron & Budd, P.C.

Back to top

RELATED LINKS
http://baronandbudd.com