Weitz & Luxenberg P.C. Wins $510,813 Mesothelioma Settlement for Rockefeller Center Carpenter
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| New York Mesothelioma Law Firm |
for a retired carpenter suffering from mesothelioma cancer and his family.
The TV series “30 Rock” may be an Emmy Award winner, but Rockefeller Center, a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres between 48th and 51st streets in New York City, won no prizes for worker safety 50 years ago because the presence of asbestos led to the development of mesothelioma cancer for a carpenter who had worked there.
Between 1950 and 1980, before New York City asbestos regulations were enacted, he worked as a general contractor in Rockefeller Center, where he served as carpentry foreman to a 16-member crew. His assignments took him everywhere within the Art Deco landmark, from the boiler room at the Associated Press building to the sky-high ballroom of the famed Rainbow Room.
For more than 30 years he worked with asbestos products. He hung asbestos-made drywall, cut fireproof ceiling and floor tiles, built cabinets, worked with plumbers in boiler rooms, and customized asbestos-caulked fire doors, some weighing up to 50 pounds each. “All doors in Rockefeller Center are fire doors,” he said. What about a kitchen or a closet? “Fire door.” There’s a broom closet? “Fire door. That was the law.”
Nearly every construction activity at Rockefeller Center exposed him to asbestos materials – either directly, as he cut into hundreds of fire doors to customize their fittings to hang over floor carpets; or indirectly, in boiler rooms working alongside plumbers removing and applying asbestos insulations to steam pipes.
The retired carpenter's regular on-the-job exposure to asbestos led to him being diagnosed with mesothelioma cancer on March 18, 2009. Weitz & Luxenberg mesothelioma attorneys pursued legal action on his behalf by suing the manufacturers of the asbestos products that he had worked with.
Presently, the retired carpenter is struggling with the loss of stamina brought about by mesothelioma cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation. “I used to enjoy helping my boys repair things. I haven’t been able to do that for more than a year” he said. Further, he no longer maintains his life-long 190-pound stature. "I am constantly losing weight. My doctor told me I have to gain weight. I eat everything, but I’m holding at 160. I don’t know why” he said.
What is mesothelioma cancer?
Mesothelioma is an insidious disease known the world over as the signature asbestos-related cancer. It is primarily a job-related disease, contracted through the inhalation of microscopic asbestos fibers dislodged into the air during construction work activities. It kills 90,000 people around the world every year, and 3,000 in the U.S., alone.
Mesothelioma has a long latency period. It is often diagnosed 20 or more years after exposure to asbestos because it takes that long for asbestos fibers to fester into malignant lung tumors. The prognosis is dire. There is no cure for mesothelioma.
This press release was prepared by the law firm of Weitz & Luxenberg. Weitz & Luxenberg is a New York law firm that represents New Yorkers and others who have been diagnosed with asbestos cancers such as lung cancer, pleural mesothelioma, and peritoneal mesothelioma. Carpenters and their loved ones can get more information about the risk of on-the-job asbestos exposure at www.mesotheliomajobs.com/carpenter.html.
For general information on the work of Weitz & Luxenberg asbestos lawyers, visit www.weitzlux.com/asbestos-lawyer_1054.html.
For a free case review from Weitz & Luxenberg mesothelioma lawyers, visit www.weitzlux.com/mesothelioma-lawyer_1055.html.
Weitz & Luxenberg
700 Broadway 3rd floor
New York, NY 10003
Media contact:
Jason Wentworth
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1-800-438-9786 ext. 5645