Lipsitz, Ponterio & Comerford recently obtained over $3 million in a settlement for a local union boilermaker for injuries resulting from job-related exposure to asbestos.  Our client, a resident of Elma, New York,  worked as a Local 7 Union Boilermaker between 1967 and 2002. In the fall of 2008 and at the age of sixty-one, our client developed mesothelioma. He brought suit against several companies responsible for the sale and distribution of a variety of asbestos-containing products.  Due to the confidential nature of this settlement, the plaintiff’s family is not at liberty to disclose the names of the settling parties or the amount each company contributed to the overall settlement.

Our client battled mesothelioma and died of this disease on January 25, 2010. He was married with three children and six grandchildren.  He was a third-generation boilermaker who worked at large industrial sites throughout the Western New York area, including Niagara Mohawk’s Huntley and Dunkirk steam stations, Ashland Oil, Hooker Chemical, Bethlehem Steel and DuPont in Niagara Falls.

The case settled two days after a jury was selected, and just before Lipsitz, Ponterio & Comerford lawyer Michael A. Ponterio was due to make his opening statement.  Our client’s mesothelioma was caused by exposure to equipment, including pipes, valves and boilers covered with exterior insulation.  He was present and participated in numerous shutdowns during which asbestos-containing insulation materials were removed and replaced. Dismantling and reapplying asbestos-containing insulation gives rise to a great deal of airborne asbestos contamination.

The attorneys at Lipsitz, Ponterio & Comerford were raised and educated in Western New York and live and work in the Buffalo area. They feel privileged to represent a fellow Western New Yorker grievously injured by the negligent conduct of various asbestos manufacturers and distributors.