A Californian woman who has mesothelioma has won a legal battle against cosmetics manufacturer Avon, and a forklift manufacturing company after almost a year.
Ms Chapman filed suit, along with her husband, who reside in Arizona, filed suit against both companies, claiming their respective products contained asbestos. Ms Chapman’s attorneys successfully argued that Avon’s talc products resulted in her mesothelioma. Talc is a naturally occurring mineral that often appears alongside asbestos in mining processes. Ms Chapman had used Avon throughout her life, from as young as eight years old.
Her husband worked at a company which manufactured forklifts, which contained asbestos-lined brakes, clutches and gaskets, and by washing her husband’s work clothes, Ms Chapman was further exposed to asbestos.
It was heard that the forklift company knew about the dangers of its products but was not forthcoming regarding the safety concerns of the products, including destroying records after being sued in a separate case and removing asbestos warnings from brake suppliers before selling the products to the public.
Ms Chapman’s attorneys explained that both she, and her mother “relied on a belief that Avon’s products were safe to use.” In handing down their verdict, the jury placed 90% of the blame for Ms Chapman’s mesothelioma upon Avon and the other 10% on Hyster-Yale, who manufactured the forklifts.
Ms Chapman was awarded more than $40 million in non-economic damages, and punitive damages of $10.3 million, resulting in a combined verdict of $52.1 million, which is more than AUD78 million.