A New Jersey man with mesothelioma has filed an asbestos-related lawsuit in Madison County, Illinois. The lawsuit claims that he was diagnosed with mesothelioma in April 2008, and that his disease was wrongfully caused.

The lawsuit was filed on July 17 in Madison County Circuit Court, and in it John Scarduzio claims that during the course of his employment as a plant manager and materials processor between 1949 and 2000, he was exposed to asbestos. In addition, he claims he may have been exposed while carrying out home and automotive repairs.

Scarduzio names a total of 75 defendant companies in the lawsuit, including Bondex International, CBS, Chrysler, Federal-Mogul Asbestos Personal Trust, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, General Motors, Goodyear, Honeywell International, Ingersoll-Rand, International Paper, John Crane, MetLife, Philips Electronics and Trane US.

According to the lawsuit filed by Scarduzio, his “exposure and inhalation, ingestion or absorption of the asbestos fibers was completely foreseeable and could or should have been anticipated by the defendants.”

Scarduzio claims that the named defendants either knew or should have known that the asbestos in their products could have a serious and potentially lethal effect on people who were exposed.

In addition, the lawsuit claims that the defendants continued to use asbestos in their products even though adequate substitutes for asbestos were available, and also that the companies failed to provide warnings about asbestos exposure, or any instructions on how to work safely with asbestos to prevent exposure from occurring.

As a result, Scarduzio alleges, he continued to work with and around asbestos without knowledge of the dangers he was exposed to, and without taking any safety precautions which could have prevented exposure.

Due to the alleged negligence of the named defendants, Scarduzio claims he was exposed to deadly asbestos fibers, and developed the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma as a direct result of that exposure.

Scarduzio is seeking damages to help pay for medical expenses, as well as compensation for physical and mental pain and suffering, lost income, and lost earning capacity. In addition the lawsuit is seeking punitive damages to punish the defendants for “willful, wanton, intentional and reckless” behavior.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 5:34 pm and is filed under Asbestos Litigation, Illinois. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Responses are currently closed, but you trackback from your own site.