HELENA, Mont. — BNSF Railway lawyers are anticipated to argue before jurors Friday that the railway must not be held accountable for the lung cancer deaths of 2 previous homeowners of an asbestos-contaminated Montana town, one of the mostdangerous websites in the federal Superfund contamination program.
Attorneys for the Warren Buffett-owned business state the railway’s business predecessors didn’t understand the vermiculite it carried over years from a neighboring mine was filled with harmful tiny asbestos fibers.
The case in federal civil court over the 2 deaths is the veryfirst of many claims versus the Texas-based railway corporation to reach trial over its past operations in Libby, Montana. Current and previous homeowners of the little town near the U.S.-Canada border desire BNSF held liable for its declared function in asbestos directexposure that health authorities state hasactually eliminated numerous hundred individuals and sickened thousands.
Looming over the procedures is W.R. Grace & Co., a chemical business that run a mountaintop vermiculite mine 7 miles (11 kilometers) outdoors of Libby till it was closed1990 The Maryland-based business played a main function in Libby’s catastrophe and hasactually paid considerable settlements to victims.
U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris hasactually referred to the mining business as “the elephant in the space” in the BNSF trial. He advised jurors numerous times that the case was about the railway’s perform, not W.R. Grace’s different liability.
Federal districtattorneys in 2005 prosecuted W. R. Grace and executives from the business on criminal charges over the contamination in Libby. A jury acquitted them following a 2009 trial.
How much W.R. Grace exposed about the asbestos