The dying words of an Oregon man who had an asbestos-linked cancer are being replayed in a federal courtroom for a jury hearing a wrongful death case against Warren Buffett’s BNSF Railway
FILE - The town of Libby, Mont., is seen Feb. 17, 2010. Thousands of people have been sickened and hundreds killed by asbestos contamination in the Libby area. Victims of asbestos exposure are suing BNSF Railway alleging the railroad polluted the town by storing asbestos contaminated vermiculite at a downtown rail yard. The railroad denies the allegations. Thomas Wells ran a half-marathon at age 60 and played recreational volleyball until he was 63.
The estates of Wells and a second mesothelioma victim accuse the railroad and its corporate predecessors in a lawsuit of polluting Libby, Montana, with asbestos-contaminated vermiculite from a nearby mine that was transported through the remote town’s rail yard in boxcars for much of last century. Wells said in the 2020 deposition that he believed he was sickened while working for the U.S. Forest Service in the Libby area for about six months each in 1976-78 and again in 1981. He never went to the vermiculite mine, he said, but described wind kicking up dust along the railroad tracks at the rail yard.
Mine operator W.R. Grace repeatedly told the railroad’s corporate predecessors that the product it was shipping through Libby was safe, according to BNSF attorney Chad Knight. Local officials also believed the vermiculite was safe, and the railroad couldn’t legally reject the loads, he said. The plaintiffs’ attorneys showed jurors several insurance claims for tons of asbestos that leaked out of rail cars in the 1970s and did not make it to its destination, and an example of a placard that was put on a rail car in the late 1970s saying it contained asbestos fibers and to avoid creating dust.
Thomas Wells' son Sean Wells described his father during Friday testimony as a “wonderful teacher” and “just the best dad,” who he could talk to about anything and coached their sports teams.
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Asbestos victim's dying words aired in wrongful death case against Buffet's railroadThe dying words of an Oregon man who had an asbestos-linked cancer are being replayed in a federal courtroom for a jury hearing a wrongful death case against Warren Buffett’s BNSF Railway.
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Asbestos victim's dying words aired in wrongful death case against Buffet's railroadThe dying words of an Oregon man who had an asbestos-linked cancer are being replayed in a federal courtroom for a jury hearing a wrongful death case against Warren Buffett’s BNSF Railway.
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