Asbestos Use in North Dakota
North Dakota’s agrarian economy spared the state and its residents from the massive amounts of asbestos exposure that occurred in the industrial states to the east. There were scattered installations where employees were at risk for asbestos exposure; those include the early power plants built as co-ops and the power plants operated by Dakota Public Service in Bismarck and other locales. The Grand Forks Air Force Base and the missile silos planted across the North Dakota countryside during the Cold War are known to be locations where construction workers and some maintenance personnel were exposed to asbestos.
Mesothelioma & Asbestos Deaths in North Dakota
Because of its agricultural economy and small population base North Dakota ranks forty sixth among the fifty states for asbestos related deaths. A survey of death certificates recorded from 1979 to 2000 shows that 32 North Dakotans died of asbestosis. An additional 66 to 115 residents died from malignant mesothelioma or asbestos lung cancer during that same period. Federal epidemiologists began tracking mesothelioma deaths nationally in 1999. A report issued by a federal agency in 2005 noted an additional 46 mesothelioma deaths over that six year period alone.
Legal Rights of Mesothelioma Victims in North Dakota
The North Dakota Department of Health Division of Air Quality enforces asbestos emission standards, abatement practices and licensing procedures for asbestos removal contractors. State and federal laws governing mesothelioma and asbestos compensation claims are complicated, which suggests that an experienced North Dakota mesothelioma lawyer is necessary to guide an asbestos victim through the legal thicket. State law allows residents two years after being diagnosed with mesothelioma or another asbestos related disease to file a personal injury lawsuit. The law allows ten years to file a products liability action. For families that have lost someone to an asbestos disease there is a two year period thereafter in which filing a wrongful death action is permissible.
North Dakota law applies a modified joint and several liability clause for apportioning financial responsibility among several defendants, spreading the cost based on percentage of fault. There are also cases where this clause does not come into play unless it can be proven that the defendants conspired among themselves to cause harm. North Dakota also follows a modified comparative negligence rule, providing that a plaintiff who is found to be more than 50% responsible for his or her injury, no damages can be collected.
