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 back to a refinery, chemical plant, tire facility, or shipyard. The cases share a common pattern. Workers in petrochemical, chemical, 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 that can be traced to named parties and reported court proceedings. Many additional Texas cases settle confidentially, so the true total of compensation paid to Texas families is higher than what public records show.

Reported Texas Asbestos Verdicts and Resolutions

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

These cases reflect the pattern of manufacturer and employer liability in Texas. Juries have found that companies produced, sold, or used asbestos-containing products while knowing the material caused cancer. The failure to warn workers, whether in refineries, chemical plants, or tire and rubber facilities, has been central to every major verdict.

Rogers v. Goodyear: What “$18.6 Million” Actually Means

The headline number in Rogers v. Goodyear is $18.6 million; the recoverable amount, after Texas statutory caps and appellate remittitur, is $2.89 million. The 2014 Dallas County jury 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 OSHA asbestos standards.

After the trial court applied the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act exemplary-damages cap, the Fifth Court of Appeals affirmed the gross-negligence and causation findings while ordering remittitur on the exemplary award (Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. Rogers, 538 S.W.3d 637, Tex. App. Dallas 2017). The final judgment was $2,890,000 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.

Plaintiffs were represented by Christopher J. Panatier and Darren McDowell of Simon Greenstone Panatier. The case sits in the public record as a Tyler tire builder’s wrongful-death claim that produced a jury verdict of $18.6 million but a recoverable amount of $2.89 million.

Cimino v. Raymark: A Mass Tort, Not a Standing Jury Verdict

The $178.5 million Cimino figure is a 2018 trust arbitration result, not a standing 1990 jury verdict. Cimino is sometimes summarized as a $1.3 billion or $178.5 million Texas asbestos verdict. Neither shorthand is accurate.

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 originally involved an extrapolation methodology covering 2,288 refinery and chemical workers along the Beaumont-Port Arthur asbestos corridor.

The Fifth Circuit reversed that mass-trial plan in 1998 (Cimino v. Raymark Industries, 151 F.3d 297, 5th Cir.), holding that the extrapolation approach violated Texas substantive law and federal due process. The litigation was remanded and reshaped by Pittsburgh Corning’s bankruptcy.

The final resolution came in 2018, when a three-judge PCC Asbestos Trust arbitration panel awarded $140 million on top of a prior $38 million settlement, for a total of $178.5 million distributed across the 2,288-worker class. The Cimino number on this page reflects that 2018 trust arbitration result, not a standing 1990 jury verdict.

Share X Facebook LinkedIn Embed

How Texas Verdicts Compare

Texas mesothelioma jury verdicts have reached tens of millions of dollars, though other states have produced higher single-case awards, particularly in talc-related litigation. Individual Texas mesothelioma verdicts have reached tens of millions of dollars at the jury stage, and mass-tort proceedings have delivered nine-figure aggregate resolutions. The Johnson & Johnson Texas Two-Step bankruptcy maneuver is a recent example of how out-of-state defendants have used Texas venue to reshape national talc litigation.

Texas verdicts are driven by the strength of the evidence in each case. Named plaintiffs had identifiable products from specific manufacturers at documented worksites. Employment records, product invoices, and co-worker testimony create a clear chain from exposure to disease.

Statutory caps, particularly the Chapter 41 exemplary-damages cap and the separate Texas Workers’ Compensation Act exemplary cap, can reduce the recoverable amount well below the headline jury number, as Rogers v. Goodyear illustrates.

The Two-Year Clock

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, both asbestos personal-injury claims and wrongful-death claims run two years.

The personal-injury clock starts when the plaintiff knew or reasonably should have known of the disease and its asbestos cause, under the discovery rule recognized in Childs v. Haussecker, 974 S.W.2d 31 (Tex. 1998). The wrongful-death clock starts on the date of death. See the Texas statute-of-limitations rules for additional context.

Mesothelioma is typically diagnosed at an advanced stage, so families are often balancing legal decisions with treatment planning at the same time.

Texas Damage Caps: What Chapter 41 Actually Caps

Chapter 41 caps exemplary damages, not compensatory damages, and the cap that reduced Rogers v. Goodyear was a separate workers’ compensation provision entirely. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 41, § 41.008(b), caps exemplary (punitive) damages, not non-economic compensatory damages, in ordinary personal-injury cases. The cap is the greater of (1) $200,000, or (2) two times economic damages plus an amount equal to non-economic damages up to $750,000.

In ordinary Texas personal-injury cases, non-economic compensatory damages are not statutorily capped under Chapter 41. Medical-liability cases are governed by separate statutes outside Chapter 41 and follow different rules. In Rogers v. Goodyear, the $15 million exemplary award was reduced under the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act exemplary cap (a provision separate from Chapter 41), bringing the final judgment to $2.89 million.

Chapter 90: The Pre-Trial Medical Criteria

Texas requires every asbestos plaintiff to file a board-certified pre-trial medical report before the case can move forward. 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.

The report must come from a physician in pulmonary, internal, or occupational medicine, diagnosing mesothelioma or an asbestos-related cancer to a reasonable medical probability. Mesothelioma claimants generally satisfy the criteria with a qualifying report.

Trust Fund Claims for Texas Workers

More than 60 asbestos bankruptcy trusts hold over $30 billion in assets, 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 are faster and do not require a trial.

According to industry analysis, more than 60 asbestos bankruptcy trusts hold over $30 billion in assets. These trusts were established under Section 524(g) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code by asbestos manufacturers, distributors, and contractors that filed for bankruptcy protection due to the volume of claims against them.

Gulf Coast workers are often eligible for claims through multiple trusts because their exposure spanned products from several different manufacturers. A pipefitter who worked at three different refineries over 20 years might have been exposed to asbestos insulation from Johns Manville at one site, Owens Corning at another, and W.R. Grace at a third. Each manufacturer’s trust would process a separate claim.

For information on trust fund eligibility, see Which Asbestos Trust Funds Apply to Texas Workers?. Families weighing legal options can also review the process of choosing a Texas asbestos law firm.

What Determines the Size of a Verdict

Duration of exposure, severity of disease, and manufacturer conduct are the three levers that move a Texas asbestos verdict, in that order. Texas mesothelioma verdicts are influenced by several factors that juries weigh when determining damages. Duration of exposure matters most. Workers exposed over decades typically receive larger awards than those with shorter exposure histories.

Cases involving products from multiple manufacturers can also produce larger verdicts because liability is spread across several defendants, each contributing to the total.

Age and earning capacity factor heavily into economic damages, with younger workers receiving higher awards for lost future income. Severity of disease drives non-economic damages, so advanced-stage mesothelioma with significant suffering and short survival times results in higher pain-and-suffering awards.

Manufacturer conduct can trigger exemplary damages, but those are subject to Chapter 41’s cap and, in workers’ compensation contexts, to the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act exemplary cap. The gap between a jury’s headline figure and the recoverable amount can be substantial, as Rogers v. Goodyear shows.

Where the Cases Originate

Texas asbestos cases cluster in the Gulf Coast refinery belt and the East Texas manufacturing corridor, tracking the state’s industrial exposure map almost one-for-one. The geographic distribution of Texas asbestos cases closely mirrors the map of industrial exposure, from the Houston Ship Channel exposure sites to the Galveston-Texas City shipyard belt.

For detailed exposure data by city, see 524 Asbestos Deaths in Houston and 451 Deaths Along America’s Asbestos Corridor.