The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Railroad found liable for deaths of 2 exposed decades ago
BNSF Railway used to carry contaminated product until 1990.
HELENA, MONT. — A federal jury on Monday said BNSF Railway contributed to the deaths of two people who were exposed to asbestos decades ago when tainted mining material was shipped through a Montana town where thousands have been sickened.
The jury awarded $4 million each in compensatory damages to the estates of the two plaintiffs, who died in 2020. Jurors said asbestos that spilled in the rail yard in the town of Libby, Montana, was a substantial factor in the plaintiffs’ illnesses and death.
The jury did not find that BNSF acted intentionally or with indifference, so there will be no punitive damages awarded. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. acquired BNSF in 2010, two decades after a vermiculite mine in Libby shut down and stopped shipping its contaminated product by rail. Although not all vermiculite contains asbestos, some products were made with vermiculite that contained asbestos until the early 1990s.
The pollution in Libby has been cleaned up, largely at public expense. Yet the long timeframe over which asbestos-related diseases develop means people previously exposed are likely to continue getting sick for years to come, health officials say.
Attorneys for the estates of the two victims — Joyce Walder and Thomas Wells — had argued that the railroad knew the asbestos-tainted vermiculite was dangerous but failed to act.
BNSF said its employees didn’t know the vermiculite was filled with hazardous microscopic asbestos fibers.
The case over the two deaths was the first of numerous lawsuits against the Texas-based railroad corporation regarding its past operations in Libby to reach trial. Current and former residents of the small town near the U.S.-Canada border want BNSF held accountable, accusing it of playing a role in asbestos exposure that health officials say has killed several hundred and sickened thousands.