SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- The law firm of Baron & Budd, P.C., is announcing a $3.6 million settlement in an asbestos exposure lawsuit filed on behalf of an 81-year-old man who worked in the San Francisco area. The settlement was reached a day before the jury would have determined the fate of the defendants, all asbestos joint compound companies.
Attorneys John Langdoc and Eric Brown from Baron & Budd represented Martin Lujan. The final settlement was reached after two weeks of trial in Judge Thomas Mellon's courtroom in San Francisco.
The defendants in this trial were: Bondex, Kaiser-Gypsum, Hamilton Materials, and Kelly Moore.
"Eric, John and our entire trial team worked incredibly hard to find and interview witnesses; obtain access to internal corporate files which showed these companies knew their products could cause cancer and chose to keep selling them; and trace Mr. Lujan's career working in the construction of over 100 buildings around these products. In the end the investigation uncovered that Mr. Lujan had been exposed to asbestos, a known carcinogen, in the form of joint compound, for over 15 years while working in the construction industry," says Russell W. Budd, managing partner of Baron & Budd.
In addition to uncovering that Mr. Lujan had been exposed to asbestos from these companies' joint compounds, the Baron & Budd trial team also presented evidence that the companies were told by the U.S. government that working for only four days around joint compounds would result in an unreasonable risk of cancer to workers, and that it has been known for decades that there is no safe level of exposure to asbestos.
Just months before he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, his doctors
noted that Mr. Lujan was in excellent health. When his doctors informed him
that his mesothelioma was caused by asbestos, he initially had no idea that
his work as a carpenter and construction worker had exposed him to
dangerous material
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