Turning aside claims for millions of dollars in damages sought by a man who said he was sickened by asbestos brought home on the clothing of his father, a Louisville, Ky., jury voted 9-3 for the defense after a six-day trial against Union Carbide, the only remaining defendant in a case that began with nearly 30 co-defendants.
According to court filings and a Georgia attorney involved in the case, Eddie McCauley, 45, was diagnosed in 2008 with pleural mesothelioma, a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos fibers that attacks the lining of the lungs and other internal organs. The following year, McCauley filed suit on behalf of himself and his two teenage children, claiming that his father, Jerry, had brought the fibers into their home from work on his clothes in the 1960s and ’70s.
