News
Contributors
On February 13, 2024, Womble Bond Dickinson attorneys Claire Weglarz (Los Angeles) and Thomas Remillard (Irvine) secured a defense verdict in a wrongful death mesothelioma case pending in Salt Lake City, Utah. Womble’s client, an electric utility who is the largest grid operator in the western United States, was one of two remaining defendants at trial. The other defendant was a mining, smelting, and refining company. The trial lasted a little over two weeks. Judge Randall Skanchy presided over all case proceedings.
The plaintiffs were the family of Barbara Boynton who died in 2016. Plaintiffs alleged that Barbara Boynton’s mesothelioma was caused by her exposure to asbestos through the laundering of her husband’s clothes. Her husband was an electrician who worked at various places in the 1960s-1990s, including the premises of the two remaining defendants. In closing arguments, the plaintiffs requested over $10 million in non-economic damages. This case is notable because the Utah Supreme Court decided earlier in this case that Utah law recognizes take-home exposures claims.
Experts that testified at trial for the plaintiffs were: Dr. Richard Lemen, USPHS (ret.), MSPH (retired US Assistant Surgeon-General and retired acting Director of NIOSH), Arnold Brody, Ph.D. (cell biology); Dr. Richard Kradin (pathology/pulmonology), and Steven Paskal, CIH (industrial hygiene).
Experts that testified at trial for the defendants were Kyle Dotson CIH, CSP, BCEE (industrial hygiene), Dr. Kenneth Mundt (epidemiology), and Dr. David Galbraith (occupational medicine)
The Womble team was assisted at trial by Stephen Christiansen (Christiansen Law) and included Womble trial paralegals Dana Lisenby and Melissa Kettler.
The plaintiffs were represented at trial by Rick Nemeroff and Barrett Naman of the Nemeroff Law Firm.
Larry Boynton v. Industrial Supply Company, Inc., In the Third Judicial District Court for Salt Lake County, State of Utah, Case No. 160902693.
