A federal appeals court has overturned an $8 million mesothelioma verdict against BNSF Railway, ruling the railroad cannot be held liable for two asbestos deaths in Libby, Montana, because its “common carrier” status required it to transport contaminated vermiculite despite the deadly health consequences.
Mesothelioma Victims’ Families Lose Appeal in Landmark Libby Case
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a Tuesday opinion siding with BNSF after a 2024 Helena jury awarded $4 million each to the estates of mesothelioma victims Joyce Walder and Thomas Wells, who died in 2020. The mesothelioma wrongful death case blamed BNSF for allowing asbestos-contaminated vermiculite to accumulate in downtown Libby’s rail yard, where the material created deadly dust exposure for residents.
Judge Morgan Christen wrote that “the dangerous condition here—accumulated asbestos dust—arose solely from BNSF’s operation as a common carrier executing its federally mandated duty to transport vermiculite,” concluding the railroad was “protected from strict liability by the common carrier exception.” This mesothelioma ruling shields BNSF from legal responsibility despite evidence that asbestos contamination in the rail yard contributed to residents’ fatal diseases.
Attorneys for the mesothelioma victims’ estates expressed disappointment, stating they had sought to have Montana Supreme Court decide the case but were denied. The mesothelioma legal team said they are “talking with our clients and evaluating our options for an appeal” after the federal court’s decision.
Mesothelioma Crisis in Libby Has Killed Hundreds Since Mine Closure
The mesothelioma case represents the first of numerous lawsuits against BNSF to reach trial over operations in Libby, where health officials estimate asbestos exposure has killed several hundred people and sickened thousands. Current and former residents of the town tried to hold BNSF accountable for its alleged role in the mesothelioma epidemic stemming from vermiculite shipments.
Libby’s vermiculite contained high concentrations of naturally occurring asbestos and was shipped nationwide for use in insulation and commercial products. After extraction from a mountaintop mine, the mesothelioma-causing material was loaded onto rail cars that spilled contents in BNSF’s Libby rail yard, with residents describing piles of vermiculite stored in the facility and dust blowing through downtown.
W.R. Grace & Co., which operated the mountaintop vermiculite mine until its 1990 closure, played a central role in Libby’s mesothelioma tragedy. The Maryland-based company paid significant settlements to victims but avoided greater liability through bankruptcy—a pattern familiar in mesothelioma litigation where companies use Chapter 11 to limit compensation for asbestos disease victims.
Mesothelioma Cleanup Continues Decades After Mine Closure
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway acquired BNSF in 2010, two decades after the mine stopped shipping the contaminated mineral. The Environmental Protection Agency declared Libby the nation’s first public health emergency under the Superfund cleanup program in 2009, following 1999 news reports of mesothelioma illnesses and deaths among mine workers and families.
Federal prosecutors indicted W.R. Grace and executives on criminal charges in 2005, but a jury acquitted them in 2009—leaving many mesothelioma victims without justice despite overwhelming evidence of Libby’s asbestos contamination causing hundreds of preventable deaths.
