Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

While the Texas Supreme Court reviewed an appeal by seven asbestos manufacturers in order to determine an appropriate forum for trial, plaintiff Austin Richards died of mesothelioma. According to the report published by BusinessInsurance.com, the defendants – businesses based in Texas – said trying the case in their home state violated Texas civil code, because Richards lived in Maine. They argued trying the case in Texas would be an “inconvenient forum” for them, as it would be difficult for them to travel to Maine to depose witnesses.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Texas companies by unanimous vote, overturning a lower court ruling that would have allowed the trial to take place in the state. Richards brought suit against 21 defendants after being diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2005. All defendants manufactured or sold asbestos materials, according to the news report. Three of the defendants are based in Texas.

Richards worked as a mason, and regularly handled pipe insulation made with asbestos as part of his job.

The case was initially brought before a Texas state court in Dallas. At that point, seven of the defendants asked that the trial be moved to Maine, citing the Texas code of “inconvenient forum.” Richards and his attorneys objected to the move, as they feared it would result in the case ultimately being assigned to the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia as part of a multidistrict asbestos litigation. Mr. Richards feared he would not live long enough to see a trial in that case.

Unfortunately, Mr. Richards passed away before the case made it to oral deliberations before the Texas Supreme Court in September.

The three defendants that appealed the Texas state court decision to try the case in Texas were GE, Ingersoll and Warren Pumps. The Supreme Court decision can be found in In Re General Electric Co. et al. The case will be moved to Maine.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 10:22 am and is filed under Mesothelioma Links, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.