$117 Million Verdict Sets New York Record for Single-Plaintiff Asbestos Case

A New York jury awarded $117 million to a sheet metal worker who developed mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos at the original World Trade Center in the 1970s. The verdict is the largest single-plaintiff asbestos award in New York state history.

Brittany Russell, a 2013 Fordham Law graduate and associate attorney at Weitz & Luxenberg, tried the case. Her client was hired to install air ducts at the World Trade Center shortly after New York City’s Environmental Protection Agency enacted regulations requiring extensive safety precautions for spraying asbestos.

Contractor Cited for Violations

During the first five days those regulations were in effect, the contractor Mario & Di Bono received five criminal court summonses for spraying asbestos-containing fireproofing materials at the World Trade Center without the required protections.

Russell argued that her client’s exposure during that period was substantial and direct.

“There’s no safe level of exposure to asbestos, and this exposure is probably the biggest exposure my client had in his life,” Russell said. “There’s no other cause of mesothelioma. It’s a man-made cancer.”

World Trade Center Construction and Asbestos

Asbestos-containing fireproofing materials were used extensively in large construction projects during the 1960s and 1970s, including during early construction phases of the original World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. Workers across multiple trades, including sheet metal workers, electricians, and ironworkers, were present on job sites where asbestos was sprayed or disturbed.

New York City moved to regulate asbestos spraying in the early 1970s, but enforcement was inconsistent in the earliest days of those rules, as the summonses issued to Mario & Di Bono illustrate.

Record-Setting Award

The $117 million verdict surpasses prior single-plaintiff asbestos awards in New York state courts. Russell has represented people with mesothelioma since graduating from Fordham Law in 2013. She practices at Weitz & Luxenberg, a firm with extensive experience in asbestos and toxic tort litigation.