Reserved Decision on the Mesothelioma Death of a Garlock, Inc. Packing Superintendent (2003)

December 2003 reserved decision of the New York State Workers' Compensation Board, by Judge Michael Bluth in Buffalo, on the death claim for a Garlock, Inc. employee who died of mesothelioma in August 2001. He worked in Garlock's mechanical packing department from 1940 to 1975, rising from assistant foreman to superintendent. Garlock's former director of facility engineering testified that bales of raw asbestos were trucked through the man's building, that punctured bales spread asbestos through it, and that the asbestos textile department next door was like walking through a snowstorm of asbestos. The judge admitted the worker's deposition from his asbestos lawsuit, found that exposure to asbestos was a distinctive feature of supervising at an asbestos manufacturer, distinguished Demers v. St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center, and held Garlock liable as a self-insured employer. The names of the worker and his family, a birth date and the case number are redacted.