The Fourth District Appellate Court upended a $4.6 million verdict awarded to a plaintiff who claimed to develop mesothelioma (lung cancer) from inhaling asbestos while working with the welding rod maker Hobart Brothers Company in the 1960s. The appeals court said the company was unaware of their rods releasing the carcinogenic substance. The company was cleared of inadequate warning accusations from the plaintiff. The plaintiff, 74, worked at the Bloomington firm ever since he was 19 years of age and filed a lawsuit against the company for failing to warn about the health hazards of the asbestos in the flux of its welding stick electrodes.
Asbestos exposure has allegedly caused mesothelioma, a deadly form of a tumor affecting the heart, lung, and stomach among many individuals working at manufacturing companies, and also through exposure to asbestos-laden talc found in talcum powder.
