Indiana Needs to Change Mesothelioma Law
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
Recently mesothelioma victims testified to a committee of the Indiana state legislature that Indiana law is unfair to them. Let’s hope the testimony opened some eyes.
Indiana law gives people exposed to asbestos only ten years to sue for damages if they are stricken with mesothelioma, a deadly respiratory cancer. Mesothelioma is nearly always caused by asbestos exposure. However, it takes at least 20 years, and sometimes as long as 60 years, for symptoms of mesothelioma to develop.
Dorothy Kuykendall testified to the committee that she believes her mesothelioma was caused by asbestos to which she was exposed decades ago, as factory worker. She worries that her medical bills will impoverish her elderly husband.
“My husband is 13 years older than I am, and I was sure I would be able to take care of him until he died, but that’s not going to happen,” Kuykendall said. “He’s caring for me, and with all my medical bills, I’m afraid he won’t have enough income to live in our home.”
Kuykendall and others say that Indiana is the only state that does not provide a statute of limitations exception for mesothelioma. They want the law changed so that people have two years from the time of diagnosis to file lawsuits against those who knowingly exposed them to asbestos.
Sharon Wilson’s husband died of mesothelioma in April 2008. He was exposed to asbestos on construction jobs, she said. But because of Indiana law, she has been unable to seek damages. “Jim was a husband, a father and a grandfather,” Wilson told the legislators. “I am angry with my state, that the state sees no value in my husband’s life and death or the economic hardships our family now suffers.”
According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control, every year 50 to 70 people in Indiana die from mesothelioma.
Mike Smith reports for the Chicago Tribune that no one testified in favor of keeping the ten-year limit. However, the Indiana legislature debated the mesothelioma proposal last year, and no action was taken. The proposal probably will be taken up again in the next legislative session, which begins in January.
— Barbara O’Brien
