People who’ve been diagnosed with mesothelioma or other asbestos-related diseases face more than illness. Their new reality includes overwhelming medical expenses, lost income, and immense physical and emotional suffering. Filing a personal injury lawsuit gives them a way to seek financial compensation for these damages and hold companies accountable for the harm they’ve done. One of the most important legal theories used in these cases is negligence.
What Is Negligence in Personal Injury Law?
The definition of negligence under the law is the failure to behave with the level of care that a reasonable person would have exercised under the same circumstances. This is one of the most basic principles of civil law; the fundamental duty not to harm or cause harm to others is foundational to the social contract that all members of society have entered. Determining whether an entity or individual has been negligent is the question that courts must answer when actions or failure to act are accused of causing harm to another person.[1]
When a company is found guilty of negligence in a personal injury lawsuit, the injured party receives financial compensation to cover economic costs, including medical bills, lost wages or earning capacity, and long-term care needs. It also provides a sense of justice and recognition for the harm they’ve suffered and sometimes includes punitive damages when a defendant’s negligence is found to be egregious.
Negligence in Mesothelioma Claims
For mesothelioma victims, negligence lawsuits offer hope for more than financial compensation. It also provides accountability and justice in the face of tragedy that could have been prevented. Mesothelioma is almost exclusively caused by exposure to asbestos, and when people diagnosed with the disease file suit against companies, employers, or other parties that failed to protect them from the known dangers of asbestos, the charges against them almost always include negligence.[2]
The Five Essential Elements of Negligence
To successfully prove negligence in a mesothelioma lawsuit, their attorneys need to establish five critical and specific elements.[1] Each element must be proven for the case to succeed, making it essential for victims to work with experienced mesothelioma lawyers who understand the complexities of these claims.
The five elements are:
1. Legal Duty of Care
The first element requires proving that the defendant owed a legal duty of care to the victim. In asbestos cases, this duty is typically connected to the defendant’s knowledge or reasonable expectation that their conduct could expose others to asbestos and therefore could cause harm.
Several factors can establish this duty of care in mesothelioma cases:
- Creation of Risk: When a company manufactured, used, or distributed asbestos-containing products, it created a risk of exposure that established a duty to protect others from harm.
- Knowledge: Companies that knew or should have known that their products contained asbestos and that asbestos exposure causes serious health problems had a duty to protect workers, consumers, and people at risk of secondary exposure.
- Business Relationships: Certain relationships automatically create duties of care. These relations include those between employers and their employees, manufacturers and the consumers who use their products, or property owners and the visitors who enter their environment.
- Voluntary Undertaking: When a company voluntarily assumes responsibility for protecting others from asbestos exposure, it has created a legal duty that it must fulfill.
For example, if a manufacturing company produced insulation materials containing asbestos, they owed a duty of care to the workers who installed the insulation, to the building occupants who could be exposed to asbestos fibers in the insulation, and even to neighbors who might encounter asbestos dust from the facility or family members of the installers who might carry the asbestos dust home on their clothing.
2. Breach of Duty of Care
The second element requires proving that the defendant breached their duty of care to the plaintiff. This breach can occur through action or inaction that falls below the standard of reasonable care.[2]
There are many ways to determine what reasonable care is and whether it has been breached. Some courts use the Hand Formula, which was created by Judge Learned Hand. It says that if the burden of taking precautions is less than the probability of injury multiplied by the severity of the resulting injury, then the defendant breached their duty of care. When applying the Hand Formula to a mesothelioma case, the jury would determine whether the amount of effort or expense a company would have had to go through to provide protection from asbestos was less or greater than the risk of causing the individual mesothelioma and the cost, pain, and suffering that the disease caused the victim.
In asbestos cases, breaches commonly include:
- Failure to Warn: Not informing workers, consumers, or others about the presence of asbestos in products or the health risks associated with exposure.
- Inadequate Safety Measures: Failing to implement proper ventilation, to provide effective protective equipment, or to apply containment procedures when working with asbestos-containing materials.
- Continued Use Despite Known Risks: Continuing to manufacture, sell, or use asbestos-containing products after having become aware of the health dangers.
- Improper Handling and Disposal: Failing to follow safe procedures for handling, storing, or disposing of asbestos-containing materials.
3. Harm to the Plaintiff
The third element requires proving that the plaintiff suffered actual harm as a result of the defendant’s breach. In mesothelioma cases, this typically involves demonstrating that the plaintiff developed an asbestos-related disease.
Acceptable forms of harm in negligence cases include:
- Bodily Harm: Physical injuries or illnesses, including mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer, and other asbestos-related diseases.
- Emotional Distress: In some states, purely emotional harm may be compensable, though this is less common than physical injuries.
- Property Damage: Harm to personal or real property caused by asbestos contamination.
The harm must be actual and not merely potential or speculative. The person filing the lawsuit must have a diagnosis that provides clear evidence of bodily harm resulting from asbestos exposure rather than simply fearing the disease as a potential outcome of exposure.
4. Proximate Cause
Proximate cause requires proving that the defendant’s breach of duty was the actual cause of the plaintiff’s harm and that the harm was a foreseeable result of the defendant’s conduct.
In asbestos cases, establishing proximate cause involves demonstrating:
- Foreseeability: A reasonable person in the defendant’s position would have foreseen that their conduct could lead to asbestos exposure and resulting health problems.
- Direct Connection: The defendant’s breach directly led to the plaintiff’s asbestos exposure and subsequent illness.
- No Intervening Causes: While other factors may have contributed to the harm, the defendant’s conduct remains a substantial factor in causing the plaintiff’s illness.
For example, if a company fails to warn workers about asbestos in their products, and those workers develop mesothelioma, the company’s failure to warn is a proximate cause of the illness because asbestos-related diseases were a foreseeable result of the exposure.
5. Cause-in-Fact
The final element, cause-in-fact, is often the easiest to prove but is still crucial to establishing negligence. This element requires demonstrating that the plaintiff’s harm would not have occurred “but for” the defendant’s conduct.
In mesothelioma cases, cause-in-fact is typically established by showing that:
- Exposure Occurred: The plaintiff was exposed to asbestos from the defendant’s product, facility, or conduct.
- Medical Causation: Medical evidence demonstrates that asbestos exposure is the known cause of mesothelioma, creating a strong causal link between exposure and disease.
- Timeline Consistency: The plaintiff’s exposure history and disease development timeline are consistent with medical understanding of asbestos-related diseases.
Proving Causation: The Biggest Challenge
Of all the negligence elements, causation often presents the greatest challenge in asbestos cases. Defense attorneys frequently attempt to shut down the issue of causation by questioning whether it was asbestos exposure that caused the plaintiff’s illness or whether other factors were responsible.
Several things make causation hard to prove:
- Long Latency Period: Mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases typically take as long as 20-50 years after exposure, making it difficult to pinpoint specific sources of exposure.
- Multiple Exposures: Many mesothelioma victims have a family, work, or service history that included exposure to asbestos from multiple sources throughout their lives. This allows defendants to argue that other parties were responsible.
- Alternative Causes: Defendants may argue that other toxic substances or factors caused the plaintiff’s illness.
To overcome these challenges, experienced mesothelioma attorneys rely on:
- Medical Expert Testimony: Doctors and researchers can explain how asbestos causes mesothelioma and why the plaintiff’s exposure history is consistent with their diagnosis.
- Scientific Evidence: A substantial body of scientific research demonstrates that asbestos exposure is the only known cause of mesothelioma, strengthening causation arguments.
- Occupational and Environmental History: Detailed documentation of the plaintiff’s exposure history helps establish when and where exposure occurred.
- Product Identification: Evidence showing that the plaintiff was exposed to the defendant’s specific asbestos-containing products.
Damages in Negligence Cases
When negligence is successfully proven and a jury finds a defendant guilty, victims may recover various types of damages to compensate for their losses. In mesothelioma cases, damages typically fall into two main categories:[1]
Economic Damages
Economic damages compensate for measurable financial losses, including:
- Medical Expenses: Past, present, and future costs of treatment, including surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, medications, and supportive care.
- Lost Wages and Income: Compensation for income lost due to illness, including future earning capacity that has been diminished or eliminated by the disease.
- Treatment-Related Costs: Expenses for travel to medical facilities, home modifications to accommodate disability, and other costs directly related to the illness.
- Business Losses: Lost business opportunities or decreased business value for self-employed individuals.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages compensate for intangible losses that can’t be easily quantified. They include:
- Pain and Suffering: Physical pain and discomfort caused by the disease and its treatment.
- Emotional Distress: Anxiety, depression, and other emotional impacts of dealing with a terminal illness.
- Loss of Enjoyment of Life: Inability to participate in activities and experiences that previously brought joy and fulfillment.
- Shortened Lifespan: Compensation for the years of life lost due to the disease.
- Disability and Disfigurement: Physical limitations and changes to appearance caused by the illness and treatment.
- Loss of Companionship: For family members, compensation for the loss of the plaintiff’s society, guidance, and support.
An Example of Negligence in a Mesothelioma Lawsuit
This example illustrates how negligence applies in a mesothelioma lawsuit:
A construction worker spent 30 years installing insulation materials that contained asbestos. The manufacturer of these materials knew as early as the 1940s that asbestos caused serious lung diseases, but continued selling the products without warnings until the 1980s. The worker developed mesothelioma and filed a negligence lawsuit against the manufacturer.
- Duty: The manufacturer had a duty to warn users of their asbestos-containing products about their dangers and to design reasonably safe products.
- Breach: The manufacturer breached this duty by continuing to sell dangerous products without adequate warnings for decades, even after learning of the health risks.
- Harm: The construction worker suffered severe bodily harm in the form of mesothelioma, which significantly shortened his life expectancy and caused tremendous suffering.
- Proximate Cause: The manufacturer should have foreseen that continued sale of asbestos-containing insulation without warnings would lead to worker exposure and disease.
- Cause-in-Fact: But for the manufacturer’s decision to continue selling asbestos insulation without warnings, the worker would have been protected from exposure and would not have developed mesothelioma.
Convincing the jury of the manufacturer’s negligence resulted in an award of $5 million to the victim. This demonstrates how proving negligence can hold companies accountable for asbestos exposure, even when that exposure occurred decades ago.
Why Negligence Matters for Mesothelioma Victims
Negligence claims provide crucial benefits for mesothelioma victims and their families:
- Compensation: Successful negligence claims can provide significant financial compensation to help cover medical expenses, lost income, and other damages.
- Accountability: Negligence lawsuits hold responsible parties accountable for their actions and encourage other companies to prioritize safety.
- Justice: Legal action provides a sense of justice for victims who have suffered due to corporate negligence and cover-ups.
Additionally, publicizing negligence cases and the damages that companies are required to pay to victims helps raise awareness about asbestos dangers and may prevent future exposures.
The Importance of Experienced Legal Representation
Proving negligence in a mesothelioma case requires significant experience and understanding of complicated issues and challenges. Given the complexity, it’s essential that mesothelioma victims work with an experienced asbestos attorney. These knowledgeable professionals have extensive resources that help them:
- Investigate exposure history and identify responsible parties
- Gather medical evidence and expert testimony to prove causation
- Navigate complex legal procedures and deadlines
- Negotiate with defendants and their insurance companies
- Present compelling cases to juries when necessary
The right attorney can make all the difference between a claim that provides meaningful compensation and a failed lawsuit that leaves victims disappointed and with nothing to show for their time.
If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with mesothelioma or another asbestos-related disease, understanding negligence and how it applies to your situation is the first step toward getting the justice you deserve. With the right legal representation, negligence claims can provide both financial support during this difficult and emotional time and the satisfaction of holding responsible parties accountable for their actions.
