Four Companies Settle Second-Hand Asbestos Lawsuits

October 17, 2006 - A woman from Mississippi has successfully sued four large corporations for her asbestos-caused lung cancer that she blames on second-hand exposure.

According to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Patsy Jean Bodkin, age 60, has reached an out-of-court settlement with 4 companies, including 3 based in Georgia.  The woman, who now relies on oxygen and morphine to keep her comfortable due to the aggressiveness of her mesothelioma, alleges that she was exposed to airborne asbestos fibers from the time she was a child. 

Both her father and brother, who ran a small home-building business in Corinth, Mississippi, would come home with their overalls covered in asbestos dust from roofing, siding, joint compounds and insulation products they used on-the-job.  It was Patsy Jean’s job to shake them out and launder them.

Attorneys for the companies in question – including Georgia-Pacific, Kelly-Moore Paint Company, Bondex International, and Certainteed Corporation (based in Pennsylvania) – said it was unusual for them to be faced with a second-hand exposure suit, but records show that these suits are becoming more commonplace. 

After being diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2003, Bodkin finally filed suit against the companies last year.  Doctors believe she has only weeks to live and Bodkin is currently confined to her bed at a nursing home in Mississippi.

The suit alleged that none of the companies warned consumers about the dangers of exposure to asbestos despite the industry's awareness of the potential harm as early as the 1960s, her attorney said.

Because of the sympathies often shown to mesothelioma patients by juries, all four companies opted not to allow the case to reach the courts.

"We recognize there is a big sympathy factor. She had a form of cancer that's painful and debilitating," said David Marshall, attorney for Certainteed Corporation. "There is an uncertainty with juries."

Bodkin had planned to travel from her nursing home to court if the case had progressed to that point.