Washington Mesothelioma Verdicts and Settlements

Washington’s concentration of shipyard, paper mill, and industrial asbestos exposure has produced an active mesothelioma litigation record. Verdicts, default judgments, a federal bench trial, and two significant appellate rulings in 2024 and 2025 have each shifted the landscape for Washington asbestos claims.

Major Washington Mesothelioma Verdicts

Conner v. Union Carbide / Elementis Predecessors

A King County jury awarded $13.5 million to the estate and family of Robert Conner, a former electrician and yard worker at the Longview Fibre paper mill in Longview, Washington. Conner worked at the mill and was exposed to asbestos there between the 1960s and 1980. He was diagnosed with mesothelioma in December 2023 and died in March 2024.

The lawsuit named Union Carbide, which sold raw asbestos, and predecessors of Elementis Chemicals, which delivered asbestos to the mill. Longview Fibre itself was not a defendant. The total verdict of $13.5 million is confirmed by neutral local press, including TDN (The Daily News, Longview) and The Daily Chronicle. The verdict is entered and has not been affirmed on appeal. No neutral court record source confirmed a docket number for this case at the time of publication.

Kotzerke v. Asbestos Corporation Limited

Pierce County Superior Court entered a $16,219,398.25 default judgment in 2025 against Asbestos Corporation Limited, a Canadian asbestos supplier, in case No. 23-2-05287. This is a default judgment, not a jury verdict. Judge Tateasha Davis imposed roughly $68,000 in monetary sanctions before entering default after the defendant’s repeated discovery violations.

Steven “Steve” Kotzerke died in 2022 of asbestos-related lung cancer following industrial asbestos exposure between 1960 and 1978. The total judgment amount and the default nature of the award are confirmed by a BusinessWire press release carried by Yahoo Finance. Asbestos Corporation Limited has since filed for bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York (No. 25-10934), which may affect collection of any eventual judgment.

Budd v. Kaiser Gypsum Co., Inc.

In 2020, a King County jury awarded approximately $13.5 million to Raymond Budd for mesothelioma caused by asbestos-containing Kaiser Gypsum joint compound used at his family’s drywall business from 1962 to 1972.

The Washington Court of Appeals, Division One, affirmed on February 22, 2022, in No. 81918-6-I (reported at 21 Wash.App.2d 56, 505 P.3d 120), rejecting all nine of Kaiser’s appellate arguments. Those arguments included challenges to causation, medical causation, and COVID-era jury selection protocols. This is the most legally settled outcome in the current Washington record, confirmed at Justia and Washington Courts.

Perkins v. United States

On December 27, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington issued a no-liability ruling in Perkins v. United States (No. 3:22-cv-05701-RJB) in a Federal Tort Claims Act bench trial before Judge Robert J. Bryan. Harang Joseph Perkins brought the case as personal representative of Geraldine Rabb Perkins, who died June 6, 2020 of sarcomatoid malignant mesothelioma. The suit alleged take-home and environmental asbestos exposure from her husband’s work as a Navy Machinist Mate at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard from 1968 to 1974.

The court rejected causation under Washington’s substantial-factor test, excluded the plaintiff’s experts as unreliable, and found the alleged exposure immeasurably low and not above background. The ruling narrows the path for future FTCA take-home claims against the Navy in Washington state. It does not affect product-manufacturer claims by Puget Sound Naval Shipyard workers or their family members, which follow a separate legal theory.

2025 Appellate Developments

Two Washington appellate decisions in 2025 directly shape how mesothelioma cases proceed in this state.

Cockrum v. C.H. Murphy/Clark-Ullman, Inc.

On May 29, 2025, the Washington Supreme Court decided Cockrum v. C.H. Murphy/Clark-Ullman, Inc. (No. 102881-4) in a 7-2 decision. Jeffrey Cockrum developed mesothelioma after decades of asbestos exposure while working at Alcoa’s Wenatchee Works aluminum plant from 1967 to 1997. The trial court had dismissed his claim under the workers’ compensation exclusivity bar. The Court of Appeals affirmed that dismissal on February 12, 2024. The Supreme Court then reversed the Court of Appeals and remanded.

The court established a “virtual certainty” standard for the deliberate injury exception under RCW 51.24.020: employers lose workers’ compensation immunity for latent occupational diseases if they had actual knowledge that disease was “virtually certain” to occur to their employees. The opinion explicitly overruled Walston v. Boeing Co. (2014), calling that prior decision “demonstrably incorrect and harmful.” Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis authored the majority; Justice Barbara Madsen dissented. The decision opens a narrow but meaningful path for mesothelioma plaintiffs whose employers knowingly exposed them to asbestos.

Little v. Hardie-Tynes Co., Inc.

On August 25, 2025, the Washington Court of Appeals, Division One, issued a published opinion in No. 86318-5-I reversing a $5,500,892 judgment for Clifton “Cliff” Little, a former Navy worker who developed mesothelioma after asbestos exposure at sea and at a naval shipyard. The defendant, referred to in court filings as Hardie-Tynes Co. Inc. (or Hardie-Tyres Co., Inc. in some secondary sources), had acquired the assets of an earlier predecessor entity in 1997.

The court held that under Washington’s product-line successor liability doctrine, a successor must actually manufacture or sell the same defective product line to inherit predecessor tort liability. Because the successor entity did not sell asbestos-containing products, it did not qualify for product-line liability. A Petition for Review (No. 105018-6) is pending before the Washington Supreme Court. If granted, the Supreme Court’s disposition could restore or further narrow product-line successor liability in Washington asbestos cases.

Punitive Damages in Washington

Washington does not allow punitive damages at common law unless expressly authorized by statute. No Washington statute authorizes punitive damages in asbestos personal injury or wrongful death cases. Every Washington asbestos verdict and judgment is compensatory, covering economic damages, non-economic damages, and loss of consortium. This is a meaningful distinction when comparing Washington verdict figures against states where punitive damages are available and can multiply a compensatory award several times over.

Washington’s Filing Deadline

Washington has a three-year statute of limitations for personal injury claims under RCW 4.16.080(2). Courts apply the discovery rule, starting that three-year clock at the date of mesothelioma diagnosis. Wrongful death claims also carry a three-year period, running from the date of death under the same statute.

Washington’s product liability statute (RCW 7.72.060) sets a separate 12-year rebuttable presumption tied to a product’s “useful safe life”: if harm occurred more than 12 years after the product was delivered, there is a presumption that its useful safe life had expired. That 12-year provision is a rebuttable defense, not a hard limit on when claims can be filed, and it does not shorten the three-year personal injury limitations period. Both statutes are confirmed at the Washington State Legislature’s official site.

Settlements and Trust-Fund Claims

Most Washington mesothelioma claims resolve before trial through negotiated settlements or asbestos bankruptcy trust fund claims. Many companies that manufactured or distributed asbestos-containing products have filed for bankruptcy and established trust funds to compensate injured workers and their families. Washington workers with exposure at paper mills, shipyards, aluminum plants, and construction sites may have claims against multiple trusts. Settlement and trust fund outcomes are generally confidential and not reported in neutral press, so public records of Washington mesothelioma outcomes skew toward verdicts and appellate decisions.