Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
Manufacturers and distributors of toxic or dangerous products that are used for consumer, commercial, or industrial purposes can be held accountable with the assistance of a Chicago personal injury lawyer for injuries or illnesses caused by their products, especially in instances in which the dangers of the product were deliberately concealed from customers. Exposure to asbestos, a compound that was once commonly used in consumer and construction products, has been linked to several deadly diseases, including cancer, and the manufacturers and distributors of many asbestos-containing products may be liable for damages related to their use of the deadly compound. The Supreme Court of Illinois recently decided an appeal filed by a man who claimed to have gotten cancer from asbestos exposure.
The plaintiff in the recently decided case is an Illinois man who was exposed to asbestos in the 1960s and 1970s. Evidently, the plaintiff was exposed to asbestos through his work with construction equipment, as well as with brake parts that he used on his personal vehicles. When the plaintiff was later diagnosed with lung cancer, he filed suit against the defendants, claiming that their negligence caused his cancer. The plaintiff also claimed that the defendants’ willful concealment of the dangers related to asbestos exposed them to additional liability to the plaintiff.
Before the plaintiff’s case went to trial, the defendants successfully pursued a favorable judgment from the court on several of the plaintiff’s claims, citing previous Illinois appellate court opinions with similar allegations against the same defendants. The Supreme Court of Illinois had already ruled that nearly identical claims against one of the defendants in this case must fail as a matter of law, and the circuit court found it necessary to rule against the plaintiff on the same grounds. The plaintiff appealed the ruling to the Illinois Court of Appeals, which reversed the lower court’s decision on procedural grounds, resulting in the defendants’ appeal to the highest state court.