Illinois Centrail Railroad Settles Asbestos Case

April 3 , 2006 - Facing approximately 200 lawsuits by former employees, the Illinois Central Railroad recently settled a case with two Marion County, Illinois employees who claimed to be wrongfully exposed to asbestos while performing their jobs with the railroad company.

While the damages awarded weren’t huge, they do represent a victory for those who insist that the railroad knew about the dangers of asbestos exposure and did little or nothing to prevent the exposure.  In a trial that ended on March 31, 2006, Joe Denk of Midlothian, Illinois was awarded $150,000 and Daniel Hogan of Manteno was presented with a settlement of $310,000.  Hogan’s settlement, however, was reduced as he is a smoker and potentially developed lung cancer because of his smoking habit. 

Lawyers for the men say that they are “very gratified, as it has been a long and hard fight for them to recover the compensation that is due to them.”  Illinois Central’s Senior Manager of U.S. Public and Governmental Affairs Jim Kvedaras says there will definitely be an appeal.  He noted that “the lawsuits were generated by an assembly line screening process performed at two Chicago area hotels, sponsored by a Houston-based law firm.”

He also believes that the process was “further tainted by doctors willing to diagnose people as suffering from asbestos-based lung diseases, based on the questionable screenings with little or no actual physical symptoms of asbestos disease.”