Texas Asbestos Verdicts and Settlements: What the Record Shows

Texas asbestos verdicts traceable to named plaintiffs cluster around the Gulf Coast industrial corridor, and every major recovery in the public record traces to a refinery, chemical plant, tire facility, or shipyard. Workers in petrochemical and rubber facilities were exposed to asbestos for years or decades, developed mesothelioma long after their exposure ended, and sued the manufacturers or employers responsible.

The data below covers verdicts and settlements traceable to named parties and reported court proceedings. Many additional Texas cases settle confidentially, so the total compensation paid to Texas families is higher than what public records show. Every case status, reversed, reduced, or entered, is stated plainly here.

Major Texas Mesothelioma Verdicts and Resolutions

Five named Texas cases anchor the public record on asbestos liability, spanning Gulf Coast refinery mass torts, tire-plant individual claims, and chemical-facility contract-worker exposures.

Rogers v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

The jury awarded $18.6 million; the family’s final recovery was $1.15 million after statutory caps and appellate remittitur. Carl Rogers worked as a tire builder at Goodyear’s Kelly-Springfield plant in Tyler, Texas for approximately 30 years. He developed mesothelioma from asbestos exposure at that facility and died before trial concluded.

The Dallas County jury (verdict September 5, 2014) awarded $900,000 in economic damages, $2.7 million in non-economic damages, and $15 million in exemplary damages after finding Goodyear grossly negligent for failing to follow applicable asbestos standards. The trial court applied the Chapter 41 exemplary-damages cap formula, two times economic damages plus non-economic damages up to $750,000, and entered a judgment of $2,890,000.

Goodyear appealed. The Texas Fifth Court of Appeals (538 S.W.3d 637, Aug. 31, 2017) affirmed the gross-negligence and causation findings but ordered remittitur of $1,740,000 on the exemplary award. The court conditioned its affirmance on the appellees accepting a final judgment of $1,150,000 in exemplary damages. The total final judgment was accordingly reduced to $1,150,000 plus post-judgment interest and costs.

The Texas Supreme Court denied Goodyear’s petition for review (No. 18-0056) on May 31, 2019, leaving the modified judgment in place.

The cap applied was the Chapter 41 formula, not a separate Texas Workers’ Compensation Act provision. The Rogers appellate opinion applies Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 41.008(b)‘s two-times-economic-plus-non-economic formula directly.

Cimino v. Raymark Industries

The $178.5 million Cimino figure is a 2018 trust arbitration result, not a standing 1990 jury verdict. The case was filed in 1990 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Beaumont Division, before Judge Robert M. Parker. It covered refinery and chemical workers along the Southeast Texas corridor diagnosed with asbestos-related disease between 1985 and 1987.

Judge Parker’s original mass-trial plan used an extrapolation methodology to determine damages across the class rather than trying individual claims. The Fifth Circuit reversed that plan in 1998 (151 F.3d 297), holding that Texas substantive law requires causation and damages to be determined as to individuals, not groups, and that the extrapolation approach also violated the Seventh Amendment.

After Pittsburgh Corning’s bankruptcy, the litigation was resolved through a three-judge PCC Asbestos Trust arbitration. The arbitration panel awarded $140 million on December 5, 2018, in addition to a previously agreed $38 million settlement, for a total of $178.5 million. Press releases and contemporaneous trade coverage cite approximately 2,288 workers and families as beneficiaries; the Fifth Circuit opinion references 2,298 cases in the class at that appellate stage.

The $178.5 million on this page reflects the 2018 trust arbitration result, not a standing 1990 jury verdict.

Henderson v. Dow Chemical Co. (Abutahoun v. Dow Chemical Co.)

This verdict was reversed in full by the Texas Supreme Court. Judgment was rendered for Dow, and the family recovered nothing from this claim. Robert Henderson (also identified as Robert Wayne Henderson) worked as a contract insulation worker for Win-Way Industries. He was exposed to asbestos at Dow Chemical’s Freeport, Texas facility from approximately 1967 to 1968 and later died of mesothelioma.

A Dallas County jury returned a $9 million gross verdict for his family on March 17, 2011. The jury apportioned 30% of the fault to Dow, producing a $2.64 million judgment. The trial court entered a second amended final judgment of $2.64 million on August 16, 2011.

On appeal, the case was styled Abutahoun v. Dow Chemical Co. The Texas Supreme Court held (463 S.W.3d 42, 2015) that Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 95, which limits property-owner liability to independent contractors, applied to the claim. The court commanded the trial court to render judgment for Dow. The $2.64 million verdict was vacated and judgment was entered for the defendant.

This verdict belongs in the record as a cautionary data point: a $9 million jury award that produced zero recovery for the plaintiff family.

Gensler v. Hercules Inc.

A Dallas County jury awarded $8.4 million gross on January 10, 2012; Hercules was assigned 20% fault, making its share approximately $1.68 million. John Gensler worked as a pipefitter and was exposed to asbestos-containing pipe products at a Dow Chemical refinery. He died of mesothelioma. His family brought a wrongful-death claim against multiple defendants.

The 68th Judicial District, Dallas County jury assigned Hercules Inc. (an Ashland subsidiary) 20% liability, Dow Chemical 35%, and Crane Co. 5%. Dow and Crane settled pre-trial. The $8.4 million is the gross award; Hercules’s 20% share was approximately $1.68 million. Bloomberg Law confirmed the verdict, the court, and the fault apportionment. No cause number was retrieved from a neutral source.

Walker v. Union Carbide

This verdict is confirmed only by the plaintiff firm’s own press release and has not been independently verified against a neutral court record. Vernon Walker, a union painter, and his wife Patsy Walker reportedly received a verdict of approximately $10,855,000. Walker alleged mesothelioma from working with asbestos-containing paint and joint-compound products. The jury reportedly apportioned 40% liability to Union Carbide, with the remaining liability split among Kelly-Moore, Georgia-Pacific, Bondex, and others.

The amount and basic facts come from a Baron & Budd PR Newswire press release. No neutral court record, docket number, or independent contemporaneous news report was located. Readers should treat this as firm-reported until a neutral primary source is confirmed.

Texas Filing Deadlines

Texas gives mesothelioma families two years from discovery, one of the tighter windows in the country for a disease that often goes undiagnosed for decades.

Under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a), both asbestos personal-injury claims and wrongful-death claims run two years.

For personal-injury claims, the discovery rule under Childs v. Haussecker, 974 S.W.2d 31 (Tex. 1998), defers accrual until the plaintiff knew or reasonably should have known of the injury and that it was likely work-related. Mesothelioma is a latent disease and often is not diagnosed until decades after exposure, so the Childs discovery rule is central to when the two-year clock starts.

For claims filed after September 1, 2005, Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.0031 also applies. That section, enacted by the same S.B. 15 that created Chapter 90, specifies that the cause of action accrues for purposes of § 16.003 at the earlier of the date the claimant serves a qualifying Chapter 90 medical report or other triggering dates. For post-2005 claims, § 16.0031 supplements and in some cases partially displaces the Childs discovery-rule accrual framework. Families with questions about their specific accrual date should consult a qualified Texas attorney promptly.

Texas Damage Caps: What Chapter 41 Actually Caps

Chapter 41 caps exemplary damages, not compensatory damages. Non-economic compensatory damages are not capped under Chapter 41 in ordinary personal-injury cases.

Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 41.008(b) limits exemplary (punitive) damages to the greater of $200,000 or two times economic damages plus an amount equal to non-economic damages up to $750,000. This cap applies to ordinary personal-injury and wrongful-death claims. Medical-liability cases are governed by separate statutes and follow different rules.

In Rogers v. Goodyear, the trial court applied the Chapter 41 cap to reduce the $15 million exemplary award. The Texas Fifth Court of Appeals then applied the same Chapter 41 formula and ordered further remittitur, bringing the final exemplary judgment to $1,150,000. The cap is a formula, not a fixed ceiling, and it tracks the economic-damages figure in the specific case.

Texas Chapter 90: The Pre-Trial Medical Criteria

Texas requires every asbestos plaintiff to file a board-certified medical report before the case can proceed, a step that does not exist in most other states.

Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Chapter 90, enacted by Acts 2005, 79th Leg., Ch. 97 (S.B. 15), effective September 1, 2005, requires asbestos plaintiffs to file a pre-trial medical report from a board-certified physician in pulmonary medicine, internal medicine, or occupational medicine. The report must diagnose mesothelioma or an asbestos-related cancer to a reasonable medical probability before the case can move forward.

Mesothelioma claimants generally satisfy the Chapter 90 criteria with a qualifying pathology report and physician certification. The requirement was part of a broader 2005 legislative package that also enacted § 16.0031 to align accrual mechanics with the new reporting requirement.

Trust Funds and Settlements Beyond a Verdict

More than 60 asbestos bankruptcy trusts hold assets for worker claims, and Gulf Coast workers are often eligible for claims against several at once.

Asbestos lawsuits are one path to compensation. Trust fund claims are another, and for many Texas families they resolve faster without requiring a trial. Industry and legal sources widely report that more than 60 asbestos bankruptcy trusts hold substantial assets established under Section 524(g) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. A primary GAO or RAND source confirming the specific “$30 billion” figure is noted as pending; the 60+ trusts figure is consistent across multiple 2024-2026 legal industry reports.

Cimino v. Raymark is itself an example of this path: the litigation that the Fifth Circuit reversed in 1998 was ultimately resolved through the PCC Asbestos Trust arbitration in 2018, delivering $178.5 million to approximately 2,288 workers and families without a standing jury verdict.

Gulf Coast workers frequently qualify for claims through multiple trusts because their exposure spanned products from several manufacturers across different worksites. A pipefitter who worked at multiple refineries over 20 years may have been exposed to insulation, pipe products, and joint compound from different manufacturers, each covered by a separate trust.