Medicolegal aspects of asbestos-related diseases: A defendant’s attorney’s perspective

Abstract

The basis for American asbestos litigation was formed during the pivotal 10-year period from 1960 to 1970. A South African physician, Dr. J. C. Wagner, confirmed that malignant pleural mesothelioma was caused by crocidolite asbestos in 1960 [1]. The New York Academy of Sciences led by Dr. Irving Selikoff held a historic, course-changing conference on the biological effects of asbestos in 1964 that was attended by physicians, scientists, and industrial hygienists from around the world [2]. The Restatement, Torts, 2nd was published containing a new section on strict tort liability 402A [3] that significantly changed product liability law and reduced the hurdles that people suing had to overcome to obtain a monetary recovery. These events of the 1960s came together when a Texas jury awarded damages in favor of a worker against manufacturers of asbestos-containing insulation products that was affirmed as Borel v. Fiberboard [4] in 1972. These four seemingly disparate and separate events combined in a unique and almost invisible way to create the biggest and most expensive litigation that the USA has ever witnessed. The events started a process that has produced an avalanche of hundreds of thousands of lawsuits in virtually every state of the USA and in the US district courts. The sheer number of cases has threatened to clog the American judicial system and has, in fact, clogged the judicial system in some jurisdictions.