Mesothelioma Asbestos Exposure Lawsuit By Victims Family Nets $3.5 Million

The family of a mesothelioma victim is awarded $3.5 million in a recent asbestos lung cancer lawsuit.

Plaintiff Barbara B. contracted mesothelioma from second-hand exposure to asbestos allegedly caused by washing her husband’s work clothes. Barbara claimed she would regularly wash his clothes for his next shift at Brown’s Ferry Nuclear Plant in Limestone County.

She was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2011 and claimed that it had been directly caused by the asbestos fibers on her husband’s clothes. The plaintiff’s husband died from asbestosis in 1997, while Barbara died from mesothelioma on Sept. 7, 2013.

Before her death, Barbara filed an asbestos mesothelioma lawsuit against Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) which was then carried out by her daughters after her demise.

According to the mesothelioma lawsuit, TVA should have provided James B., the decedent’s husband, proper safety equipment and protection masks when working with the hazardous material.

Additionally, the asbestos lung cancer lawsuit claims that TVA should have warned employees of the possible health risks associated with working with the cheap material.

The presiding judge agreed with the allegations and awarded the decedent’s family $3.5 million judgment against TVA, which owns and operates Brown’s Ferry. 

One of the most prominent problems plaguing elderly citizens in America is contending with the long-term consequences of asbestos exposure. In particular, it is estimated that 4,800 people die from asbestos lung cancer per year in the United States, which represents 4 percent of all fatalities in the country related to lung cancer.

Since the late 1800s, manufacturing companies have used asbestos for construction and insulation purposes. It was cheap and easy to use and soon become a popular construction material for its fire and chemical resistant qualities. While it is harmless in a dormant state, problems start arising when the asbestos sites are disturbed, which are then released.

After experts had officially linked asbestos exposure to lung cancer in the 1940s, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proclaimed that asbestos lung cancer was a prominent risk to workers who were exposed to asbestos.  Asbestos lung cancer attacks the mucus lining of the lungs rather than the actual organs, this condition is typically diagnosed at a latent stage due to how long it takes symptoms to show. 

Asbestos lung cancer can take years for victims to experience any symptoms leaving few treatment options and short life survival expectancies for patients. Experts warn that it can take up to 50 years before any signs of asbestos cancer to show, as the fibers can sit generations in the lungs before festering.

 

Antibiotics That Are Causing Peripheral Neuropathy!

Quinolones are a key element of physicians’ antibiotic arsenal, but a growing number of lawsuits allege that drug makers downplayed a serious risk associated with these drugs: nerve damage known as peripheral neuropathy.

It was hoped that quinolone antibiotics’ artificial nature would help them avoid some of the problems seen in other antibiotics like antibiotic resistance. While quinolone antibiotics have not proven full proof against antibiotic resistance, they have proven to be a particularly effective group of drugs and have joined the ranks of important antibiotics. This includes drugs like Avelox, Cipro, and Levaquin. However, concerns have arisen that some patients may experience a particularly serious side effect from quinolone antibiotics: peripheral neuropathy.

Peripheral neuropathy is Latin for “damage to the outer nerves,” referring to the main process of the disease. In Peripheral neuropathy, nerves of extremities like hands and feet start to malfunction, and sometimes die, causing peripheral neuropathy symptoms.

Peripheral neuropathy symptoms include pain and numbness in the extremities. Often, one of the first peripheral neuropathy symptoms is a tingling in the effected area, similar to the feeling of a limb “falling asleep.”

Many patients taking quinolone antibiotics who went on to suffer from peripheral neuropathy suffer from cases classified as severe. And many cases of peripheral neuropathy may be permanent, since nerves do not regenerate as readily as some other tissues within the body.

New quinolone antibiotic lawsuits have begun to allege that drug companies bear a responsibility for peripheral neuropathy. These lawsuits allege that drug makers have been aware of this risk—or reasonably should have been aware due to their legal obligations to monitor reports of new post-market complications.

Allegedly, research dating back to 1992 has demonstrated a link between quinolone antibiotics and peripheral neuropathy. Research studies have continued to mount suggesting that peripheral neuropathy can be a side effect of quinolone antibiotics, to the point that in 2013, the FDA mandated changes to the labeling of Avelox, Cipro, Levaquin, and several other common fluoroquinolones advising patients of this possible risk.

Additionally, peripheral neuropathy lawsuits may allege that drug makers were not only aware of these risks, but that deliberately downplayed these risks, continuing to aggressively market their drugs in spite of the alleged anger of peripheral neuropathy. Peripheral neuropathy lawsuits generally seek to recoup the cost of medical care, lost wages due to hospital time or disability, legal fees, and other cost allegedly caused by quinolone antibiotics.

Bass Pro Ordered To Pay $6 Million To Settle Recorded Call Lawsuit



Bass Pro LLC, the outdoor sporting goods company, will pay more than $6 million to settle a class action accusing the retailer of illegally recording customer calls without their consent. U.S. District Judge Cynthia Bashant, sitting in California, has approved the settlement agreement. The preliminary approval of the agreement resolves a suit filed by a customer who alleged the retailer recorded a conversation between him and a Bass Pro customer service representative. It was contended that the employee divulged financial information, including the customer’s credit card information. In addition to the $6 million cash award, under the agreement the retailer will stop recording calls without customer consent.

Lead Plaintiff Geoffrey McDonald claims Bass Pro recorded at least one conversation where he told a customer service representative sensitive information, without being informed that his conversation would be recorded. The suit, which was removed to federal court in April 2013, alleged that the outdoor retailer, in the year prior to the filing of the complaint, had a regular practice of recording incoming and outgoing telephone communications with customers without notifying the customers that the communications would be recorded, in violation of California privacy laws. McDonald filed the suit on behalf of all California residents who have had a least one phone conversation with a live Bass Pro customer service representative that was recorded without notification. In the order granting preliminary approval to the settlement, Judge Bashant also granted conditional class certification.

According to the court’s order, the settlement agreement applies to California residents who had at least one Bass Pro phone call recorded between March 14, 2012, and April 3, 2013. Approximately 94,600 improperly recorded calls were found during discovery, of which 30,000 individuals could be identified, according to the order. The $6 million settlement will be broken down into $1.8 million in attorneys’ fees, $150,000 in litigation costs and $20,000 in service-payment deductions, leaving $4 million to be paid to class members.