A couple has filed a complaint in Washington state accusing Valeo, Inc. of manufacturing automotive parts with “asbestos-containing products.”

The couple, plaintiffs Randy G. and Susan G., filed the complaint in a U.S. District Court located in Tacoma, Washington after Randy received a mesothelioma diagnosis.

Valeo, Inc., is a worldwide automotive supplier headquartered in France. It offers a wide array of automotive products to different automobile manufacturers and after-markets.

As of 2017, it employees roughly 91,800 people at production sites, research centers, development centers, and distribution platforms across 33 countries.

Per the plaintiff’s complaint, Randy claims that he had worked for the automotive supplier on the production line between 1997 and 1999. There, he was responsible for manufacturing clutches and vehicle parts.

More so, Randy states he was not hired directly by the defendant but was employed through a temporary agency to which he was assigned.

In addition to the manufacturing of clutches and vehicle parts, however, Randy states that he was also responsible for grinding “pressure plates with asbestos-containing components, an activity which produced copious amounts of asbestos dust which [he] breached.”

Consequently, the asbestos lawsuit alleges that Randy was diagnosed with a cancer due to asbestos exposure, mesothelioma.

“The liability-creating conduct of defendants consisted, inter alia, of negligent and unsafe design; failure to inspect, test, warn, instruct, monitor and/or recall…, [and] installing products not reasonably safe for lack of adequate warning and marketing or installing products with misrepresentations of product safety,” the asbestos lawsuit states.

As a result of the mesothelioma diagnosis, Randy seeks damages to cover sustained pain, disability, and suffering. He contends that he has sustained additional medical expenses and, “will continue to incur medical expenses and economic losses in an amount to be proven at trial,” the asbestos lawsuit states.

Susan, Randy’s wife, includes a claim alleging the “sustained loss of spousal relationship” due to her husband’s mesothelioma diagnosis.

A mesothelioma diagnosis pertains to a tumor of the tissue that aligns the heart, lungs, stomach, and other body organs. The mesothelioma diagnosis is widely known to be an aggressive cancer. And the diagnosis can be mostly found in older individuals who were exposed to asbestos products in an industrial setting, like the automotive industry.

Three types of mesothelioma diagnoses exist which include, pleural mesothelioma, occurring in roughly 80% of patients, lining the lungs, peritoneal mesothelioma, in roughly 20%, and pericardial mesothelioma, which makes up 1% of all mesothelioma cases.

According to reports, the detection of a mesothelioma diagnosis is poor, but quick and early findings of the cancer can allow many patients a strong likelihood for survival.

Currently, there are about 3,000 new cases every year and symptoms of the mesothelioma diagnosis typically appear between 10-50 years after exposure.

Conventional treatments include radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery. Contemporary and developing treatments include cryotherapy, gene therapy, and immunotherapy.

Existing and recent average life expectancy once diagnosed is roughly 6-12 months, and 33% of patients with a mesothelioma diagnosis live longer than one year.

The Asbestos Mesothelioma Lawsuit is Case No. 3:17-cv-05300, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, Tacoma Division.