A jury in Dallas, Texas, last week awarded $13.5 million to the survivors of a man who contracted an asbestos-related cancer decades after being exposed to a joint-compound product manufactured by Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific Corp.
Attorneys from Dallas-based Baron & Budd told jurors that Timothy Shawn Bostic, who died of mesothelioma on Sept. 5, 2003, had been exposed to the fire-retardant mineral as a child and teen working with his father. According to Baron & Budd lawyers Charla G. Aldous and Chris Panatier, evidence at trial included documents showing that Georgia-Pacific officials knew of the health hazards caused by asbestos as early as 1966, but the company continued to manufacture asbestos-containing products until 1977.
