A Washington jury has awarded a woman’s estate $3.5 million in a case of “take-home” asbestos exposure. Plaintiff Barbara B. alleged she was exposed to asbestos by washing the clothes her now-late husband Raymond wore while working.

Raymond had been an employee of the ARCO Cherry Point refinery in Ferndale, Wash., where his duties included maintenance of thermal asbestos pipe insulation. Barbara’s daughter recalls that the refinery provided only four showers for over 200 workers and did not provide laundry service. The wait for a shower was so long that Raymond typically skipped showering at the end of the day and went home covered in the dust from his work. Barbara’s daughter recalls seeing Barbara shaking the dust from Raymond’s dirty work clothes onto the laundry room floor. Raymond was diagnosed with asbestosis in 2009 and died in early 2015.

After years of laundering her husband’s work clothes, Barbara developed malignant pleural mesothelioma. She filed her mesothelioma lawsuit in 2014 against Brand Insulations Inc., who provided insulation installed at the ARCO plant in 1971 and 1972, and also against six other defendants who eventually settled without going to trial. Barbara’s lawsuit alleged, among other things, that Brand failed to warn workers about the risks of asbestos exposure. It also raised claims for negligence, conspiracy, and products liability.

Barbara attended the court proceedings when she could, despite being wheelchair-bound by her asbestos mesothelioma. She died earlier in April 2015, on the day before closing arguments. Since then, her asbestos lawsuit has continued in the name of her estate.

The jury unanimously found Brand’s actions were negligent and proximately caused Barbara’s injury. They awarded Barbara’s estate $3.5 million in non-economic damages.

Brand’s attorney has requested a review of the award by a judge. He plans to appeal if the judge does not grant Brand relief from the award.

Take-Home Asbestos Exposure

Barbara’s award is the largest ever given by a Washington jury for a case of so-called “take-home” asbestos exposure, in which asbestos-exposed workers inadvertently expose members of their household by bringing home asbestos dust on their clothes. When take-home exposure is chronic over a long period of time, it can lead to a number of serious respiratory conditions including asbestosis, lung cancer, or as in Barbara’s case, mesothelioma (a cancer of the membrane that surrounds the lungs and lines the inside of the chest). These conditions sometimes do not develop until several decades after exposure.

Take-home exposure is a relatively new theory of exposure that makes compensation possible for a whole new set of asbestos plaintiffs. Courts in other states have yielded varying results in such cases. In November 2014, a California court declined to hold Shell Oil Co. responsible for exposing a plaintiff to asbestos by way of dust on her husband’s clothes, reasoning that doing so would expose employers to practically limitless liability.

The Asbestos Exposure Lawsuit is Case No. 14-2-21662-SEA, in King County Superior Court, Washington State.