Mesothelioma Articles

Firms Settle Asbestos Suits

Posted: April 16, 2004

Source: by Chauncey Ross, Gazette Staff Writer

A cancer survivor and the widows of two men who died of cancer reached out-of-court settlements this week ...

... of their lawsuits charging that the men became sick as a result of breathing asbestos fibers when they worked in the Fisher Scientific Co. plant along Indian Springs Road in White Township.

The amounts paid in the settlements were not disclosed.

Attorneys representing John Lee Harris and the estates of Joseph Smith and Stanley Maschak reached the agreements with defense counselors after a trial on the charges had already begun.

A panel of 12 jurors and four alternates, who were selected on Monday, listened to two full days of testimony and were told Thursday morning that their work was through.

At the outset, Indiana County Common Pleas Court Judge Gregory Olson told the jury the trial might last two weeks.

The cases were consolidated for trial because long and nearly identical lists of defendants were blamed for contributing to health problems of the three retirees:

· Joseph "Whitey" Smith of Homer City RD 3, who worked 35 years assembling hospital and laboratory equipment for Fisher Scientific and retired in 1994. Doctors in May 2000 diagnosed Smith with mesothelioma, a cancer of the tissue that surrounds the lungs. Smith and his wife filed a lawsuit in July 2000, seven months before "Whitey" Smith died at age 69.

· Stanley "Stush" Maschak of Shelocta RD 3, a popular polka musician and former Young Township police chief, who came down with mesothelioma in April 1999, about a decade after he left the Fisher Scientific assembly lines. He died in November 1999, and his wife filed suit the next year on behalf of his estate.

· John Lee Harris of Indiana, who was diagnosed in August 2000 with adenocarcinoma and had most of his right lung removed. Harris, a machinist at Fisher Scientific from 1967 to 1997, filed a lawsuit in the Indiana County Court three months after his lung-cancer surgery.

"I'm glad it's over," Concetta Smith said Thursday afternoon. "The idea for all this was that it is stopped. We don't want any more lives lost."

Joan Maschak and her attorney, Edwin Beachler, of the Pittsburgh law firm Caroselli Beachler McTiernan, said her settlement was a fair one.

"The settlements that ultimately were reached were certainly fair for the Maschaks," Beachler said. "They do widely vary, and they were fair considering the other mesothelioma cases."

"Maybe it will give me some closure now," Joan Maschak said. "It's been a long time. I feel bad that Fisher Scientific was not allowed to be dealt with, but I guess that's the law."

Beachler said Pennsylvania is one of a few states that prohibit workers from suing their employers and prevent them from filing workers compensation claims for illnesses that arise more than 5½ years after leaving the workplace.

Harris, whose cancer was said to be in remission, attended the trial. He could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.

Each of the lawsuits named about 60 companies that manufactured, distributed, supplied or installed asbestos-containing products. Attorneys said they failed to protect or warn the people who used products.

Most of the defendants settled before the case reached trial, leaving only Taylored Industries Inc. of Harmarville and Pittsburgh Gage and Supply Co. - now owned by IU North America of Willow Grove - to fight the charges in court.

Taylored Industries settled following testimony on Tuesday, and the plaintiffs accepted IU North America's offer late Wednesday.

"My sense here is that the total amounts paid to the families as well as Mr. Harris are consistent with the total amounts recovered by people in similar cases," said Matthew Wimer of Oakmont, the defense attorney for Taylored Industries.

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