Justice is finally coming for the families of four Texas men who were diagnosed with mesothelioma and other asbestos cancers decades ago. Though they first filed their claims in 1995, filings by defendants have kept them waiting for their day in court. A ruling in late June of this year from a Houston appeals court is finally moving them a step closer to getting the compensation they deserve.
Mesothelioma Cases Sidetracked for Years
Each of the four asbestos-exposed men had been impacted by mesothelioma or another asbestos-related cancer, and each had been diagnosed by 2002. One died in 1995, the same year the lawsuits were filed. Another died in 2000, and a third in 2003. The cases have been moving through the courts ever since, but they were sidetracked in 2017, when the families added insurance companies to their claims.
One of the insurers named in the mesothelioma lawsuits removed the cases from the local courts where they’d been filed as individual claims into a special Houston court that handles large numbers of asbestos claims together. Known as the Texas MDL, or multi-district litigation court, it is mainly intended to hold claims from people who’ve been exposed to asbestos but who have not been diagnosed with an illness. People who’ve been confirmed as having an asbestos-related cancer are supposed to be able to skip that line.
Mesothelioma Families Followed the Rules
Mesothelioma patients and their families are protected by a 2005 Texas law that says that if a case was filed before September 2003, and the victim was diagnosed with mesothelioma or another asbestos cancer, the case does not belong in the MDL. In 2020, an appeals court determined that these four families needed to submit medical reports to prove that they’d each received a diagnosis of an illness to be released from the MDL. Those reports were filed with the courts in 2024, but in an attempt to evade liability, the insurers argued that the paperwork had been filed too late based on a 90-day deadline that had been established in 2005. The MDL judge agreed and kept the cases.
The families in this claim filed an appeal of this decision and were finally provided with relief. Writing for the majority, Justice Veronica Rivas-Molloy said that the 90-day rule applied to a different part of the law and that the cancer diagnosis exception has no deadline. She specifically noted that judges are ot permitted to invent a deadline that lawmakers never wrote. The court agreed that the family members of those who’d died of mesothelioma and other cancers decades ago had waited long enough and that forcing them through more MDL proceedings would end with the decision being overturned later, which would waste time and money. The court ordered the cases sent back to Jefferson and Orange Counties, where they were originally filed.
Being diagnosed with mesothelioma presents significant medical, emotional, and legal challenges, but the Patient Advocates at Mesothelioma.net are here to help. Contact us today at 1-800-692-8608 to learn more.
