WILLIAMSON – A Mingo County man alleges the respirators he used while he was employed as a coal miner failed to protect his lungs.
Jerry Raymond Cline Jr. and Glenda Cline filed a complaint in Mingo Circuit Court against Mine Safety Appliances Co. LLC, et al. alleging negligence.
According to the complaint, the plaintiffs allege that during plaintiff Jerry Cline Jr.'s coal mining career from approximately 1974 to 2001, he was exposed to harmful dust. As a result of using the allegedly defective respirators manufactured and sold by the defendants, he claims he developed coal worker's pneumoconiosis and/or black lung disease.
The plaintiffs holds Mine Safety Appliances Co. LLC, et al. responsible because the defendants' respirators allegedly failed to protect him from harmful dust due to the respirators' leakage of harmful dust into the breathing zone of the respirator's users.
The plaintiffs request a trial by jury and seek compensatory and punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interest, costs and attorney's fees and such other relief to which they are entitled. They are represented by Timothy P. Lupardus and Tenisha D. Cline of Lupardus Law Office in Pineville. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Miki Thompson.
Mingo Circuit Court Case number 17-C-180