Kanawha County, West Virginia – A woman whose husband died of malignant mesothelioma has filed a lawsuit on behalf of his estate.

Betty Bailes, a Nicholas County resident, files the suit on behalf of her husband, George Bailes, naming a total of fifty companies as defendants. The suit specifically names Union Carbide Corporation and T.H. Agriculture and Nutrition.

Both of the defendants specifically named have been involved in numerous other asbestos-related lawsuits in the past, including several in Kanawha County.

According to the lawsuit filed by Betty Bailes, she and husband George lived in Nicholas County. George Bailes worked in Kanawha County, and was exposed to asbestos during the course of his work.

As a result of the asbestos exposure, the lawsuit claims, George Bailes developed malignant mesothelioma, a type of cancer.

Malignant mesothelioma is an asbestos-related disease, so called because the only known cause is asbestos exposure. The cancer can develop after relatively low levels of asbestos exposure, but its effects are no less serious. Mesothelioma is a deadly cancer that is difficult to diagnose and treat, and leaves very few survivors.

Despite the dangers of the substance asbestos was heavily used by many companies for much of the twentieth century. Asbestos was cheap to produce and add to manufactured products, and provided improved fire resistance and durability to thousands of different types of construction products.

The legacy of the heavy use of asbestos is now being seen, however, as thousands of people exposed to asbestos prior to the 1980s develop asbestos-related diseases in the twenty-first century. Mesothelioma has a long latency period, of up to five or six decades, and it’s likely that George Bailes and others like him were exposed to asbestos in the 1970s or even earlier.

The lawsuit filed by Betty Bailes includes nine counts, and alleges that the companies named in the suit knew that asbestos was dangerous, and were negligent in their failure to warn employees about those dangers. The lawsuit alleges also that the defendants did not advise employees about the proper safety precautions that should be taken to prevent exposure to asbestos at work.

Betty Bailes is seeking both compensatory and exemplary damages in the nine count suit, which alleges that both George and Betty Bailes suffered when George Bailes was diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma, due to the devastating nature of the disease.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 9:27 am and is filed under Asbestos Litigation, West Virginia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Responses are currently closed, but you trackback from your own site.