The railroad — now owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. — hauled asbestos-tainted vermiculite from a nearby mine by means of Libby, Montana, above many years. How considerably BNSF knew about the wellbeing hazard from all those shipments is it at the centre of a weekslong civil demo that commenced Monday.

Lawyers for the railroad claimed it was explained to continuously that the product it was transport as a result of Libby was protected.

The U.S. Environmental Defense Company in 2009 declared the first-at any time public wellness emergency all through a Superfund cleanup in Libby. It’s a person of the deadliest websites under the federal pollution plan.

The W.R. Grace & Co. mine that operated most of past century on a mountaintop outdoors Libby developed contaminated vermiculite that well being officials say has sickened extra than 3,000 people today and led to a number of hundred deaths.

The air pollution has been largely cleaned up. Nevertheless the extended latency period of asbestos disorders has intended folks have continued acquiring ill with lung troubles.

The estates of Thomas Wells of LaConner, Oregon, and Joyce Walder of Westminster, California, submitted a wrongful death lawsuit towards BNSF in 2021. They argue the railroad and its corporate predecessors saved asbestos-laden vermiculite in a large rail yard in Libby — right before transport it to plants throughout the U.S. in which it was heated to grow for use as insulation in tens of millions of residences and businesses.

Plaintiffs’ legal professional Mark Lanier mentioned the hazards of asbestos have been effectively regarded by the market but BNSF never ever took techniques to warn the people of Libby. He additional that W.R. Grace, the mining organization, begun putting warning indications on its vermiculite rail autos as early as 1977.

The demo, Lanier mentioned, was about “did (the railroad) expose Libby citizens to wind-born asbestos contamination.”

BNSF legal professional Chad Knight claimed the railroad was needed under law to take the vermiculite for shipment and had been informed by W.R. Grace that it was harmless. The onus was on the shipper to tell the railroad if it was dangerous, Knight explained.

Various other lawsuits alleging BNSF uncovered Libby residents to asbestos are pending, courtroom documents clearly show.

The Walder and Wells lawsuit is the initial so-identified as local community exposure case against BNSF to go to demo, just about 25 several years immediately after federal authorities arrived in Libby pursuing information studies about prevalent fatalities and sicknesses.

Men and women who lived and labored in Libby breathed in the microscopic needle-shaped asbestos fibers that can lead to lung scarring and the lung cancer mesothelioma, the lawsuit argues.

Wells, 65, died in March 2020, a working day right after giving a 1/2-hour recorded deposition for the lawsuit. He talked about his publicity during seasonal operate for the U.S. Forest Provider in the Libby spot in late 1970s and early 1980s.

Wells reported he was diagnosed with mesothelioma in late 2019 immediately after sensation an ache in his back and acquiring a major cough. He reported the discomfort was intolerable and that he experienced to sell his residence to assistance cover health care costs.

Walder 66, died in October 2020. She lived in Libby for at the very least 20 yrs and could have been exposed to asbestos even though fishing and floating on a river that flowed previous a location exactly where vermiculite was loaded onto prepare autos, according to court docket documents. Her exposure could have also occur from taking part in around a baseball subject around the rail yard or walking together the railroad tracks and sometimes heating up pieces of vermiculite to observe it puff up, the information said.

The trial, presided in excess of by U.S. District Court Decide Brian Morris, is predicted to previous 3 weeks.

BNSF said in court docket paperwork submitted in progress of the demo that when reduced amounts of asbestos have been observed in the Libby rail garden all through screening in 2001, the railroad cleaned up the web site to defend its workforce.

But an skilled for the plaintiffs reported BNSF and its predecessors sponsored geologic studies in the location and realized as early as the 1920s that the vermiculite mined in close proximity to Libby had asbestos. By the 1930s the railroad would have identified asbestos exposure could be hazardous, dependent on research disseminated at the time through the Affiliation of American Railroads, explained plaintiffs’ specialist Julie Hart, who chairs the Office of Basic safety, Wellness and Industrial Hygiene at Montana Technological College.

Late Sunday night, the railroad requested a past-minute delay in the demo and a transform of location to a unique condition, citing a weekend story by The Related Push about the demo and asbestos contamination in Libby. Attorneys for the railroad stated prospective jurors would be prejudiced by the short article, which quoted a 61-yr-outdated Libby resident who has an asbestos-related condition as expressing he employed to play in and all-around the rail property.

Morris as an alternative authorized the trial to move forward just after telling attorneys not to converse to the news media though it is ongoing.

Yet another circumstance against BNSF Railway alleging community — somewhat than operate-connected — publicity to asbestos is scheduled to go to trial following thirty day period in U.S. District Court in Missoula. It was brought by the estate of Mary Diana Moe, 79, who died of mesothelioma in December 2022.