86-year-old mesothelioma victim files asbestos mass tort claim in state court

An 86-year-old Philadelphia woman who was diagnosed with mesothelioma in late

August has filed a mass tort complaint against companies that deal in the manufacture and distribution of asbestos-containing products.

Mary Newton, of South 18^th Street in Philadelphia, claims her disease was a direct result of the asbestos she was exposed to both during her working years and through contact with her former husband’s clothing.

Newtown worked as a sheet metal worker at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in the early 1940s, as an elevator operator in a downtown Philadelphia office building in the mid 1940s and as a waitress at Quartermasters from 1959 to 1984, an employment history contained within her lawsuit shows.

The plaintiff’s husband had worked as an electrician at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard from 1945 to 1973.

The lawsuit, which was filed as a short-form complaint in the master asbestos litigation docketed at the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, says Jack Newton, the plaintiff’s husband from 1944 to 1984, carried asbestos fibers home with him on his clothing and body following each day’s work at the shipyard.

Mary Newtown was also exposed to asbestos as a result of home remodeling work she had been around, the suit states.

Discovery and investigation is continuing as to whether the plaintiff was exposed to asbestos in any other manner during her lifetime.

The lawsuit, which was filed Sept. 24 by Philadelphia attorney Edward M. Nass, names close to 40 defendants.

They include, but are not limited to, DAP Inc., Foster Wheeler Corp., General Electric Co., Georgia Pacific, John Crane Inc., Rockwell Automation Inc., Union Carbide Corp., and Owens-Illinois Inc.

The plaintiff demands judgment as set forth in the master asbestos litigation.

 

The case ID number is 120902759.