Man names 79 companies in asbestos case

CHARLESTON -- A man is suing 79 companies after he claims they are responsible for his father's lung cancer and death.

On July 24, 2009, Charles W. Davis was diagnosed with lung cancer, of which he died of four days later, according to a complaint filed July 13 in Kanawha Circuit Court.

Charles W. Davis Jr. claims the 79 defendants exposed his father to asbestos and asbestos-containing products and caused his lung cancer.

Charles W. Davis previously smoked cigarettes from 1944 until 1989, but then quit, according to the suit.

His son claims while working at Allied Chemical as an operator and foreman from 1945 until 1979, his father was exposed to the harmful asbestos fibers.

The defendants are being sued upon theories of negligence, contaminated buildings, breach of expressed/implied warranty, strict liability, intentional tort, misrepresentation and post-sale duty to warn, according to the suit.

Charles W. Davis Jr. is seeking a jury trial to resolve all issued involved. He is being represented by Victoria L. Antion, Scott A. McGee and Bronwyn I. Rinehart.

The case has been assigned to a visiting judge.

The 79 defendants named in the suit are 3M Company; A.O. Smith Corporation; A.W. Chesterton Company; Ajax Magnethermic Corporation; Allied Chemical Corporation; AmChem Products; Armstrong International; Ashland, Inc.; Aurora Pump Company; BW IP, Inc.; Catalytic Construction Company; Certainteed Corporation; Cleaver-Brooks Company, Inc.; Copes-Vulcan, Inc.; Crane Co.; Dravo Corporation; Eaton Electrical, Inc.; Flowserve Corporation; Flowserve US, Inc.; FMC Corporation; Foster Wheeler Energy Corporation; Gardner Denver, Inc.; General Electric Company; General Refractories Company; Gordon Gasket & Packing Co.; Goulds Pumps, Inc.; Greene Tweed & Company; Grinnell, LLC; Hercules, Inc.; Honeywell International f/k/a Allied Signal, Inc.; Honeywell International, Inc.; Honeywell International, Inc. as successor-in-interest to Semet Solvay; Howden North America, Inc.; IMO Industries, Inc.; Industrial Holdings Corporation; Ingersoll Rand Company; Insul Company, Inc.; Invensys Systems, Inc.; ITT Corporation; J.H. France Refractories; McJunkin Corporation; Metropolitan Life Insurance Company; Nagle Pumps; National Service Industries Venture, Inc.; Nitro Industrial Coverings, Inc.; Ohio Valley Insulating Company; Owens-Illinois, Inc.; Pneumo Abex Corporation; Premier Refractories, Inc.; Rapid American Corporation; Rhone-Poulenc, Inc.; Riley Power, Inc.; Rockwell Automations, Inc.; Roper Pump Company; Rust Constructors, Inc.; Rust Engineering & Construction, Inc.; Rust International, Inc.; Schneider Electric USA, Inc.; Spirax Sarco, Inc.; State Electric Supply Company; Sterling Fluid Systems, LLC; Sundyne Corporation; SVI Corporation; Swindell Dressier International Company; Tasco Insulations, Inc.; The William Powell Company; Tyco Flow Controls Inc.; Union Boiler Company; Union Carbide Chemical and Plastics Company, Inc.; Uniroyal, Inc.; United Engineers & Constructors and Washington Group International; Viacom, Inc.; Viking Pump, Inc.; Vimasco Corporation; Warren Pump; West Virginia Electric Supply Company; Yarway Corporation; Zenith Pumps; and Zurn Industries, LLC.

Kanawha Circuit Court case number: 11-C-1162