Perry Browder
Nicholas Angelides
John Barnerd
A Missouri widow filed an asbestos suit in Madison County Circuit Court against 187 defendant corporations claiming during the course of her husband's employment he inhaled large amounts of asbestos.
Madison County will make more than $19,000 in filing fees from this asbestos suit alone.
Kathleen Gundlach claims her husband Gregory died from mesothelioma on Feb. 4, 2004. He was diagnosed with the fatal disease on Dec. 12, 2004.
Represented by Nicholas Angelides, John Barnerd and Perry Browder of SimmonsCooper in East Alton, Gundlach is seeking compensatory damages in excess of $400,000, plus punitive damages in an amount to punish the defendants for their alleged misconduct.
The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Daniel J. Stack.
According to the suit filed Dec. 12, Gregory was employed from 1963 to 2003 as a laborer and electrician at various locations in Missouri and Illinois.
Some of the defendants include Anheuser Busch, AutoZone, Bondex, Chevron, DaimlerChrysler, Dow Chemical, Exxon, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, Goodyear, Honeywell, John Crane, Mallinckrodt, The Pep Boys, Proctor and Gamble, Sears, Western Auto and 3M.
"The decedent's exposure to and inhalation, ingestion or absorption of the asbestos fibers was completely foreseeable and could or should have been anticipated by the defendants," the complaint states.
Gundlach claims the defendants failed to exercise ordinary care and caution for Greg's safety by including asbestos in their products even though it was completely foreseeable that people working with and around asbestos would inhale, ingest or otherwise absorb great amounts of asbestos.
She also claims the defendants included asbestos in their products when they knew asbestos fibers would have a highly deleterious effect on the health of people absorbing them, included asbestos in their products when adequate substitutes were available, failed to provide any warnings to people working with or around asbestos and failed to conduct tests on asbestos-containing products in order to determine the hazards to workers.
Gundlach also claims her husband has been obligated to spend money on medical expenses and had experienced great physical pain and mental anguish which prevented him from pursuing his normal course of employment.