The mesothelioma claims raised by the families of six former Weyerhaeuser plant workers, now all deceased as a result of mesothelioma, are barred by Wisconsin’s Workers Compensation Act, the company told the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Weyerhaeuser claims that the deceased workers’ mesothelioma claims were not to work-related.

Weyerhaeuser is a company that was responsible for manufacturing fireproof doors. All six workers were employed at a plant located in Marshfield, Wisconsin during the mid-1950s until the late 1970s.

The families who brought forth the claims on their deceased loved ones’ behalf have asked the appellate court to review the mesothelioma claims.

Weyerhaeuser has maintained that the company does not disagree with the diagnoses of the deceased former plant workers.

“There’s no question that these plaintiffs decades exposure to asbestos during their employment,” David Mulholland of Forman Watkins and Krutz LLP, counsel for Weyerhaeuser, told the three-judge appellate panel. “Frankly, the complete answer to this entire case is simply that it’s barred by the worker compensation immunity.”

U.S. District Judge William M. Conley had previously dismissed the mesothelioma claims of the six plant workers in Wisconsin federal court for a variety of reasons including that the mesothelioma claims were barred under the state’s workers’ compensation law.

Additionally, Judge Conley raised concerns about expert evidence presented regarding asbestos exposure outside of the workplace.

An attorney for the plaintiffs states that some of the plaintiffs who were named in the mesothelioma claims had been exposed to asbestos during their childhood when they had older relatives who worked at the plant and brought the asbestos contamination into the home.

Two plaintiffs were allegedly exposed to asbestos as infants and died at younger ages, according to the attorney.

“That’s not a coincidence,” McCoy stated. “That’s why the jury needs to consider whether these employment exposures are significant.”

The patent owner of fireproof doors, a company called Owens-Illinois, was also a named defendant in the mesothelioma claims.

Counsel for Owens-Illinois told the appellate panel that no courts in the country had ever held a patent holder liable, and a potential ruling doing so would ultimately discourage patent holders from future innovation by being under threat of tort liability.

The Mesothelioma Claims Lawsuit is Pecher v. Owens-­Illinois Inc., Case No. 16­1799, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.