A Los Angeles County jury on Wednesday found companies that manufacture or distribute artificial stone liable for the suffering caused by a 34-year-old stonemason who suffered from an incurable disease.
In a decision closely watched by silicosis experts and the stone industry, jurors deliberating at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles found largely in favor of Gustavo Reyes Gonzalez. ), who was diagnosed with silicosis and had to undergo a double lung transplant after years of cutting artificial stone tabletops.
The decision follows deliberations during a multi-week trial that lasted five days. Before the verdict, both parties in the case agreed that Reyes Gonzalez’s economic losses exceeded US$8 million.
The jury found other damages, which could include physical pain, mental anguish and emotional distress, totaling more than $44 million. However, because the jury does not find the defendant fully responsible for these damages, they will not be held liable for full damages.
The conclusion was that Caesarstone USA was 15% responsible, Cambria 10%, and Color Marble 2.5%. The court will ultimately decide how much each defendant must pay.
Reyes Gonzalez is one of dozens of countertop cutters in California who are suing companies including Caesarstone and Cambria after contracting silicosis, a disease caused by inhaling tiny particles of crystalline silica .
His case is the first to go to trial, according to his attorney. It tests whether companies that manufacture or distribute engineered slate, often sold as quartz, are responsible for the epidemic of silicosis, an ancient disease now showing up among countertop cutters just entering middle age.
Scientists have linked an outbreak of silicosis cases among stonemasons to a boom in artificial stone, which often contains much higher levels of silica, which causes lung scarring, than natural stones such as granite or marble. In California, more than a dozen countertop cutters have died from silicosis in recent years. In a recent study of new cases and deaths, researchers found the median age at death was 46.
Reyes-Gonzalez’s attorneys argued that the companies failed to provide adequate warnings about the dangers of cutting boards and that the risks far outweighed the benefits of their products. One of his lawyers, Gilbert Purcell, told the jury there were “very, very serious risks” with artificial stone that had not been properly disclosed.
“A company should never create unnecessary risk for others,” Purcell said, “and that’s what they did.”
For example, Purcell argued that Cambria failed for fifteen years to warn that silica dust could be an invisible hazard. How do workers avoid breathing dust, he thinks, “when you don’t even know you’re breathing it because it’s invisible?”
Dust hung over a countertop maker cutting engineered stone last year at a Sun Valley shop.
(Brian Vanderbrugge/Los Angeles Times)
Lawyers representing companies that manufacture or distribute engineered stone believe the operator of the Orange County shop where Reyes Gonzalez worked is to blame. Peter Strotz, an attorney representing Caesarstone America, said he would not have contracted silicosis if they had taken appropriate protective measures.
“They knew what they had to do. They didn’t do it. … Worst of all, they deceived Mr. Reyes Gonzalez. They made him believe he would be protected when in fact he was not. . He believes Caesarstone America has done its part by providing safety information and should not be blamed for “misusing” its products.
Cambria attorney Lindsay Weiss said the company has issued warnings that include labeling the boards themselves and providing free training to “manufacturers” who cut, grind and polish the material to turn it into countertops.
She showed the jury samples of the quartz surface material and told them it was safe. “The problem is that people are not following the law when handling this product,” Weiss said.
Distributor Color Marble argued there was no evidence Reyes Gonzalez cut or polished the panels his company sold. The jury found Color Marble liable for negligence – like Caesarstone USA and Cambria – but did not find it liable for other product liability claims, as it did against those companies.
The lawsuit initially targeted a long list of companies, but all but three, Caesarstone USA, Cambria and Color Marble, were dismissed or settled before the jury could reach a verdict. James Nevin, an attorney representing Reyes Gonzalez, said most “resolved the case under a confidentiality agreement.”
Strotz, who represents Caesarstone USA, declined to comment on the verdict.
Weiss said her client Cambria disagreed with the decision. “We don’t believe this is a product issue. This is a workplace safety issue,” she said. “This issue will be dealt with safely every day.”
Rafael Metzger, one of the attorneys representing Reyes Gonzalez, called the decision “a victory for public health and occupational safety.”
He became emotional as he praised the jurors for their work. “Only in America,” he said, “can Hispanic immigrants come here and get justice — like they did.”
The trial, which lasted more than a month, highlighted the dangers faced by workers like Reyes Gonzalez, who testified that he came to the United States from Veracruz, Mexico, as a teenager to escape poor. For years, he cut countertops from morning till night.
Reyes Gonzalez testified that dust was so rampant in the Orange County workshop where he worked that it sometimes looked like fog. His mask will get dirty. Even if he uses water when cutting, “a lot of the dust will come off” when the liquid dries, he said.
His wife, Wendy Torres Hernandez, said when Reyes Gonzalez got the diagnosis, he called her crying. “He was told there was no cure. There was nothing he could do,” she said.
“I told him we were going to find a way to help him because I couldn’t let him die,” she testified. He told her dejectedly that “he was going to start planning his funeral.”
Reyes Gonzalez eventually became so ill that he needed a transplant on both lungs. The surgery may only give him six more years to live before he needs another set of transplanted lungs — and if that happens, one doctor testified, he’s unlikely to receive a second one because of his age. Three transplants.
He will have to take multiple medications and carefully monitor his health until his death. Because of the medications he took, Reyes Gonzalez said he was unable to have children, which pained him because his wife loved children. Doctors may find a way for them in the future, but there’s no guarantee, he said.
Lawyers for Caesarstone and other companies have focused much of their questioning on members of the Silverio family who paid Reyes Gonzalez to work at a series of workshops in Orange County. When a co-worker named Guillermo Mora de los Santos took the stand, defense attorneys asked him if the Silverio store had ever provided workplace safety training or had any “silica controls.” plan”.
Mora de los Santos said no. “We don’t know about this disease,” he said of silicosis.
Weiss, representing Cambria, stressed to the jury that Reyes-Gonzalez described practices of sweeping away dry dust and using compressed air to clean, which would emit dust into the air, and that he did not receive adequate masks. Water was also not being used properly, she said.
In court, one of the Silverios denied seeing Caesarstone’s safety messages, which included a video about the risks of silicosis, even though he signed a form saying he had received such material.
Purcell argued in his closing argument that whatever the Silvervios did or did not do exonerates the defendants. “That chain of safety starts with them.”
In its verdict, the jury was given the opportunity to allocate a percentage of the total liability to “someone else” other than Reyes Gonzalez and the engineered stone company. The jury assigned 70 percent to “someone else” and 2.5 percent to Reyes Gonzalez himself.
The Silica Safety Coalition, an industry group that insists engineered stone can and should be cut safely, said it placed 70% of the blame on “others” for unsafe workplace practices. admit.
“We believe the California jury erred in placing the blame on the panel supplier for Mr. Reyes-Gonzalez’s injuries due to an unsafe work environment,” the coalition said in a statement, “and we anticipate that this verdict will be challenged by a or multiple party appeals.
Juror Laura Miller, who said she disagreed with the majority of jurors that the companies were responsible, said after the verdict that she believed the blame lay with the Silverio family. In order to reach a decision in a civil case, at least nine of the 12 jurors must agree on a verdict.
“The employer took no precautions,” Miller said.
Nevin, one of Reyes Gonzalez’s lawyers, said in a statement that the jury “rightly rejected” efforts to accuse “immature employers” who were not warned of the danger itself.
His firm, Brayton Purcell LLP, said in a statement that it currently represents more than 150 countertop cutters with silicosis who work in more than 350 stores. “The problem is the product, not the store.”
Much of the court case centered around the various measures needed to protect workers from artificial stone silica dust, with a range of experts testifying about the risks of cutting such boards. Among them was Dr. Kenneth Rosenman, who testified that Reyes Gonzalez developed silicosis despite using some of the water-drawing tools because they “didn’t sufficient protection.”
“They didn’t reduce the dust levels enough to prevent this serious illness,” said Rosenman, chair of the Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at MSU.
Another witness for the plaintiffs, industrial hygienist Stephen Petty, said N95 masks would be the “lowest level” protection against artificial stone dust. Even the most protective respirators, which use clean air tanks, are not a “permanent solution” because workers tend to adjust them, breaking the seal, he said.
Defense attorneys turned to other witnesses, including industrial hygienist Brian Daly, who said artificial stone could be cut and polished safely. Daley testified that Reyes Gonzalez “would not have contracted silicosis if his employer had put in place a protective plan” and followed workplace safety regulations.
Judge William F. Fahey ruled out testimony sought from Georgia Tech scientist Jeanne Holroyd by attorneys representing Reyes Gonzalez, saying her research was based on data that was not provided to the court, among other issues. Her analysis concluded that adopting the measures required to safely cut artificial stone was not economically feasible, especially for small workshops.
Holroyd wrote in a prepared list of comments that engineered stone is “a uniquely toxic product” and that “wet methods” and wearing masks cannot ensure safety for cutting and grinding.
