A Follow Up on Harold St. John
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
Here’s a follow up to yesterday’s post about Harold St. John, who died February 28 of mesothelioma. Mr. St. John remains unburied because process servers interrupted his funeral.
Mr. St. John had filed suit against Chrysler and other corporations he believed were responsible for the asbestos exposure that led to his cancer. Chrysler delayed the funeral in order to obtain more tissue samples from Mr. St. John’s body.
Today, lawyers for Chrysler and Mr. St. John’s family met in Superior Court in New Brunswick, NJ. Chrysler’s attorneys said the company’s request for more tissue samples was perfectly reasonable. There are more than a dozen studies showing that the asbestos that used to be in auto parts does not cause asbestos-related disease, they said. Mr. St. John was once employed to change asbestos-laden brake pads in cars.
Attorney Moshe Maimon, who represents the St. John family, produced a file of documents that linked mesothelioma to auto parts. Plus, he said, the defendants had already received tissue samples from Mr. St. John’s hospital. Mr. St. John’s widow, Diane, has since religious and moral objections to autopsies.
Later this week, the Superior Court judge will issue his findings to the appeals court that allowed the funeral to be stopped. The appeals court will decide whether Mr. St. John will be autopsied. How long it will take to make that decision is unknown.
Barbara O’Brien
March 10, 1009
Source: Tom Haydon, The Newark Star-Ledger, “A burial interrupted by fight for an autopsy”
