WEST VIRGINIA RECORD

CHARLESTON – Attorneys have filed 16 joint asbestos cases each naming 143 defendants in Kanawha Circuit Court.

Pittsburgh attorney David P. Chervenick and Charleston attorney Scott S. Segal filed the lawsuits June 27.

The only differences in the 17-count complaints are the plaintiffs listed on each.

The plaintiffs hail from West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania Indiana and Illinois. Many of the cases involve already deceased plaintiffs. According to court documents, each of the plaintiffs had or has asbestosis, and most of them also had or have lung cancer. One also has colon cancer.

Profiling a few of the plaintiffs, the late Robert E. Bowling of Grayson, Ky., was a member of Boilermakers' Local 667. The late David R. Berry of Mount Morris, Pa., was an electrician and member of IBEW 596. John L. Best of Wellsburg, W.Va., was a member of Laborer's Local 809.

Others were electricians, crane operators, painters, glassworkers, steelworkers and bricklayers. Some worked at Weirton Steel, others at Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel.

In various occupations, the plaintiffs "were exposed to and did inhale asbestos dust and other dust from products of the defendants, which caused the conditions … resulting in disability," the complaint states.

The 17-count suit also says the injuries and cause of action occurred in West Virginia as a result of the defendant corporations doing business in West Virginia.

The complaint says the plaintiffs were exposed to products made by various defendants, and the products reached the plaintiffs' job sites or plaintiffs' locales.

In the cases, the plaintiffs seek compensatory and punitive damages as well as other relief.

The cases, like all asbestos cases, have been assigned to a visiting judge.

Kanawha Circuit Court case numbers: 06-C-1227 through 06-C-1242