Asbestos victim's last words aired in BNSF Railway wrongful death suit
Newsy
He was part of a federal case against Warren Buffett's BNSF Railway accusing it of polluting Libby, Montana, with asbestos-contaminated vermiculite.
Thomas Wells ran a half-marathon at age 60 and played recreational volleyball until he was 63. At 65 years old, doctors diagnosed him with mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive lung cancer linked to asbestos exposure.
"I'm in great pain and alls I see is this getting worse," the retired middle school teacher from Oregon said in a video deposition recorded in March 2020, four months after his cancer diagnosis. He died a day later.
Portions of Wells' deposition were replayed Monday in a federal courtroom for a jury hearing a wrongful death case against Warren Buffett's BNSF Railway.
The estates of Wells and a second mesothelioma victim accuse the railroad and its corporate predecessors in a lawsuit of polluting Libby, Montana, with asbestos-contaminated vermiculite from a nearby mine that was transported through the remote town's rail yard in boxcars for much of last century.
BNSF attorneys have denied the claims and are scheduled to lay out their defense beginning Tuesday. They've said that railroad officials were unaware the shipments were hazardous.
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