West Virginia Mesothelioma Lawyer and Legal Information

With a long history of mining injuries and asbestos-related diseases, the state of West Virginia sees a great deal of asbestos litigation. The rules of jurisdiction and scope of industry in West Virginia has made it a court of choice for many plaintiffs. The Kanawha Circuit Court handles a lot of asbestos-based lawsuits each year. The high number of cases filed in the courts have led to a number of trial innovations and precedent setting court decisions.

Determination of Liability

West Virginia follows a modified comparative negligence - 50 percent system in deciding whether or not to award damages to the plaintiff. Under the 50 percent rule, a judge or jury may assign a percentage of fault to each party involved in causing the injury, including the plaintiff, if applicable. The injured party may only recover damages if their part in causing the injury is judged to be 49 percent or less. If the plaintiff is judged to be 50 percent or more responsible for the injury, there is no damage awarded. If the plaintiff is judged to be less than 50 percent at fault, the amount of damages awarded is reduced in proportion to their share of the blame. Thus, in a lawsuit where the jury has determined that damages amount to $100,000 and the plaintiff is 25 percent at fault, the plaintiff may recover $75,000.

In cases that involve more than one defendant, the West Virginia courts follow a modified joint and several liability approach in apportioning judgments among them. Generally, the court applies pure several liability to multiple defendant cases. Under several liability, a defendant is only financially responsible to pay the portion of the damages that is equal to their percentage of the fault. However, there are a number of statutes that can subject a defendant to joint and several liability, under which they could be held liable for the entire judgment.

West Virginia Asbestos Litigation

In 2003, six railroad employees with asbestosis brought suit against the railroad under FELA (Federal Employer Liability Act), which preserves the right of railroad workers to sue their employers for occupational injuries. The six workers received an additional settlement based on emotional distress caused by fear of developing mesothelioma in the future. The damage awards ranged from $770,000 to $1.2 million. The ruling was significant as it allowed the plaintiffs to recover damages for emotional distress despite the fact that they had no symptoms or diagnosis for mesothelioma. The Supreme Court of West Virginia upheld the ruling.

2002 - In one of the most famous asbestos lawsuits of the decade, a West Virginia judge ordered the consolidation of all pending asbestos cases into one mass asbestos trial. The trial started out with more than 8,000 plaintiffs bringing suit against 259 defendants. All but one of the original defendants settled before the case came to trial in September 2002. While the trial was in process, the United States Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Exxon Mobil and Honeywell International to have the trial dismissed because the cases were too unrelated. The case continued and in October 2002, the court found that the single remaining defendant, Dow Chemical, was liable for injuries caused by exposure to asbestos from the products manufactured by subsidiary Union Carbide.

2002 - Cox v. DuPont: A Kanawha County jury entered a $6.4 million verdict against DuPont in the case of a Braxton County man who died of mesothelioma at the age of 53. Cox had never worked with asbestos, and the suit alleged that his mesothelioma had been caused by exposure to his father's asbestos-contaminated work clothing when he was a child.

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