A Texas jury awarded $1.2 million this month to the wife of an engineer who died from mesothelioma cancer, allegedly caused by working with asbestos additives to drilling lubricants and cement. The suit was originally brought by Danny Puckett and his wife; he died earlier this year from the disease – for which the only known cause is asbestos exposure.
The lawsuit was filed against Montello, Inc., Union Carbide, and several other defendants. Union Carbide was a manufacturer of multiple asbestos products; Montello is a distributor of drilling equipment and products in Texas. The suit charged that asbestos in cement additives and drilling mud additives used by the Dowell Company, for whom Mr. Puckett worked between 1975 and 1985, caused the development of his malignant mesothelioma. He was 59 when he died.
Drilling mud is a mixture of dirt, chemicals and water that is poured into wells being drilled in order to help force the dirt and rock broken up by the drill bit to the surface. It is continually mixed on site while the drilling is in operation. Mr. Puckett testified that he used the additive to mix the “mud,” or slurry three or four times a week. When going through that process he said that the air was so thick from the asbestos dust that it blotted a street light. Asbestos workplace exposure in the oil fields is one of the reasons that Texas is among the top five states for deaths from asbestos cancer.
During his period of employment he worked part time with a cement crew and later as a supervisor. Asbestos was a popular additive to Portland cement because it made the cement more resilient and caused it to bond effectively. The verdict came against these two defendants because the rest had either settled in the case or been dismissed; most asbestos litigation involves multiple defendants. In the jury award the two remaining defendants were each allotted 15% of the responsibility for Mr. Puckett’s death.
