In Ohio, exposure to toxic substances such as asbestos often occurred in factories when employees were unprotected while working with products containing hazardous materials during the manufacturing process. Unfortunately, this was far from the only scenario in which asbestos exposure occurred. In another state, for example, a widow claims that her late husband’s pancreatic cancer was caused by exposure to such toxic materials during his line of work.
The wife of the now-deceased Amtrak onboard service attendant filed a lawsuit alleging that her husband’s former employers exposed him to excessive amounts of asbestos and/or diesel exhaust. This failure to prevent harmful exposure violated the Federal Employers Liability Act, the complaint alleges. Even worse, the lawsuit claims, it led to the development of the man’s fatal pancreatic cancer.
The man worked for the defendant from 1973 up until 2007. It was during this time, the complaint asserts, that he was exposed to the toxic and carcinogenic materials that ultimately resulted in his fatal cancer. In failing to provide her husband with a reasonably safe place to work, the lawsuit alleges that Amtrak — the defendants — not only violated FELA but that their negligent failure to eliminate or even minimize exposure to the toxic substances directly contributed to the death of the plaintiff’s husband in Oct. 2014.
For these allegations of FELA violation and wrongful death, the lawsuit requests damages in excess of $50,000, in addition to all court costs. While a successful asbestos litigation lawsuit cannot, of course, return a lost loved one to a grieving family, it can at least offer some small comfort in knowing that justice was served. Anyone in Ohio who has lost a family member to cancer due to asbestos exposure may benefit from exploring options for pursuing a wrongful death lawsuit against the offending party with an attorney with experience in cases of a similar nature.
Source: pennrecord.com, “Service attendant’s widow claims Amtrak’s FELA violation resulted in him contracting fatal pancreatic cancer“, Nicholas Malfitano, Oct. 26, 2017
