August saw the end to a long journey to justice for a 66-year-old asbestos lung cancer victim. The immigrant and former boiler worker and his wife were awarded $38 million in damages by a New York jury that agreed that commercial boiler manufacturer Burnham LLC was liable for his illness, despite his extensive history of smoking cigarettes.
Asbestos Lung Cancer Victim Removed Commercial Boilers
The plaintiff, Romeo Maffei, was diagnosed with asbestos-related lung cancer in 2017. He and his wife filed a personal injury claim against multiple defendants, but only Burnham elected to defend itself in court. The couple blamed his illness on his years of removing Burnham LLC’s commercial boilers, which were heavily contaminated with the carcinogenic material.
In response to being blamed for Maffei’s asbestos lung cancer, Burnham’s attorneys countered by pointing to his decades-long smoking habit and argued that he had not been diagnosed with asbestosis, malignant pleural mesothelioma, pleural plaques, or any other asbestos-related condition.
Smoker’s Lung Cancer Risk Made Worse by Exposure to Asbestos
Though Burnham argued that they should not be held responsible for Mr. Maffei’s lung cancer because he had been a smoker and had no other asbestos-related disease, the victim’s attorneys presented a significant amount of scientific evidence indicating that there was no basis for asserting that there needed to be an underlying non-malignant disease to attribute exposure to a toxin known to cause the same cancer, and that “Smoking affects the body’s defense mechanisms, so when you breathe in and breathe out, smoking allows the body’s defense mechanisms to fail, so it allows asbestos to be more easily breathed in.”
Though Burnham attempted to lay blame for the victim’s lung cancer victim for having smoked, his attorneys effectively argued that when he had immigrated to the United States, information about smoking’s dangers was not as widely known as today, and his habit was well established. The jury assigned Mr. Maffei 15% responsibility for his own sickness and 85% to Burnham: The total award of $38 million included $6.5 in punitive damages because the company had been aware that asbestos could cause the illness.
If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease, the Patient Advocates at Mesothelioma.net are here to help. Contact us today at 1-800-692-8608.
