A University of Maryland nursing professor was awarded $20 million in a case involving second-hand exposure to asbestos. Jocelyn Farrar is the 57 year old teaching professional who has developed mesothelioma cancer, a disease for which the only known cause is asbestos. Ms. Farr has undergone a partial pneumonectomy, or lung removal, in an attempt to curb the lethal and fast-moving malignancy.
As a teenager, she was exposed to the asbestos fibers contained in dust carried home by her grandfather on his clothing. The grandfather, John Hentgen, worked at the Forrestal Building in Washington. During the course of his work he handled the asbestos insulation in the building, provided by Georgia Pacific Corp. Asbestos products can give off asbestos fibers, which when inhaled can cause pleural mesothelioma and other types of asbestos cancer.
Ms. Farrar washed her grandfather’s clothes on a regular basis. Asbestos exposure can occur with both those who directly worked with the fibers, or from second hand-exposure by family members or friends who inhale the fibers carried home on clothes and in hair.
Now, forty years later, the granddaughter has developed a form of cancer for which the survival rate after diagnosis is rarely more than eighteen months. On October 30, a Baltimore City Circuit Court jury awarded Farrar $20,272,000, finding that Georgia Pacific was liable for her mesothelioma cancer. The latency period for this disease is often forty to fifty years after the asbestos exposure has occurred.
The judgment includes $18.5 million for non-economic damages, $1.6 million for lost wages and earning capacity, $97,000 for past medical expenses, and $75,000 for future medical costs.
