HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A federal jury on Monday said BNSF Railway contributed to the deaths of two people who were exposed to asbestos decades ago when tainted mining material was shipped through a Montana town where thousands have been sickened.
The jury awarded $4 million each in compensatory damages to the estates of the two plaintiffs, who died in 2020. Jurors said asbestos that spilled in the rail yard in the town of Libby, Montana was a substantial factor in the plaintiffs’ illnesses and death.
The jury did not find that BNSF acted intentionally or with indifference so there will be no punitive damages awarded. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. acquired BNSF in 2010, two decades after the vermiculite mine in Libby shut down and stopped shipping its contaminated product by rail.
The pollution in Libby has been cleaned up, largely at public expense. Yet the long timeframe over which asbestos-related diseases develop means people previously exposed are likely to continue getting sick for years to come, health officials say.
Xinjiang aquatic products ascend to world's dinner table
China receives over 18 mln reports on illegal online content in March
Shanghai holds int'l poetry festival
Lawyer, 50, who paid off her tax bill with client's £132,000 divorce settlement avoids jail
In pics: 40th FIG Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships
China's porcelain capital attracts migratory foreign designers
Exhibition on Caravaggio works receives 80,000 visitors in Shanghai
4 Germans caught marking Hitler's birthday outside Nazi dictator's birthplace in Austria
New bibliography catalogs about 8,600 antique Traditional Chinese Medicine books
Taylor Swift's Fortnight music video reunites Dead Poets Society stars Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles
Main Media Center of Hangzhou Asian Games starts trial operation