Contractors Settle for $825,000 In Workplace Fiberglass Injury Case

Faulty installation of fiberglass ducts and batts resulted in an out-of-court settlement of $825,000 for a worker in the Barbara Sinatra Children's Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Peter Cathcart of the firm Magana, Cathcart and McCarthy in Los Angeles reports his client, Lilly Brown, was employed at the Children's Center, part of the Eisenhower Medical Center in the affluent Palm Springs suburb.  She began to experience allergy- and asthma-like symptoms which became increasingly severe.

Factors pointed to work; for instance, symptoms were similar to others in the building, and were worse at work than at home.  A breakdown of the fiberglass lining in the supply side of the ductwork was later disclosed.  The liners were cut to fit, but the edges were not sealed or taped. 

Another source of fiberglass in the work space was the return air plenum, where air blew freely across fiberglass batts handing from the ceiling.

When the fiberglass was encapsulated, the symptoms of many workers at the Children's Center disappeared, but not Lilly Brown's.  She was afflicted with permanent asthma and may well suffer from constant wheezing for the rest of her life.

Cathcart was able to rule out every possible factor other than fiberglass to win the $825,000 settlement from the architect , the mechanical engineer, the HVAC subcontractor and the general contractor.

Cathcart did not win damages from the manufacturer of the fiberglass duct lining and insulation, Manville; he said he did not want to complicate the case by having to prove the fiberglass itself was defective when poor installation was such an obvious villain.

"I was able to show a substantial amount of negligence against each of the four parties," said Cathcart.  "The way this insulation went in was atrocious."

No air sampling was ever done before the fiberglass was encapsulated, which worried Cathcart.  However, an expert witness testified that breathing fiberglass for two years, the length of Ms. Brown's exposure at work, could cause a physiological change such as chronic asthma.  Her treating pulmonologist said she did not have the asthmatic condition prior to her fiberglass exposure at the Children's Center.

Citation:  Lilly L. Brown and Gerald B. Brown vs. Urrutia Architects et al. Riverside County (CA) Superior Court, Case No Indio 58198 (1994)