Ex-Worker Wins $36.5 Million From Company That Hid Asbestos Damage
The New York Times
The verdict was the first of hundreds of cases pending against the company hired to oversee medical care and safety for workers at a mine and mill in Libby, Mont.
HELENA, Mont. — For years, workers employed by W.R. Grace & Company in the mountain town of Libby, Mont., worked in a dust-choked vermiculite mine and mill, not knowing that the raw material for insulation they were mining also contained deadly asbestos fibers.
The company, however, did know. Senior managers made the decision to keep the workers in the dark, according to evidence presented in court over the past several weeks, even as the workers gradually lost their ability to breathe.
The plan, documents and witnesses suggested, kept employees from knowing about early signs of lung scarring that would lead to asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma — until they retired and could no longer make costly workers’ compensation claims.
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