Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the proceedings.)
B. Universal Exposed Tina Gomez to Asbestos
Decedent Tina Gomez met David Plaza during the summer of 1981. They soon began an 18-month relationship with Mr. Plaza living in Ms. Gomez’s home and working as a mechanic at the West Facility.
Universal admits it owned and operated the West Facility until March 1, 1982. As Universal’s counsel and its person most knowledgeable ( PMK ) candidly admit, if Universal owned and operated a tire and automotive center, such as the West Facility, Universal thus controlled the operative details of the work, conduct, and safety of its employees. After March 1, 1982, Universal subleased the West Facility to Unity. The West Facility had a retail space, store room area and a mechanical space with six repair bays. Mr. Plaza worked five days a week, eight hours a day, at the West Facility during the entire time he lived with Ms. Gomez. Mr. Plaza lived with Ms. Gomez at least five or six months before Universal subleased the West Facility in March 1982.
Universal manufactures and distributes various automotive products. Universal stores removed and installed asbestos-containing automobile brake linings as part of its brake service. The primary brands Universal purchased through suppliers included Wagner, Raybestos, and Bendix. Tina Gomez visited David Plaza at the West Facility at least twice a week. She saw him work on brakes and saw brake boxes on the floor of the West Facility near Mr. Plaza.
When they lived together, Tina Gomez saw David Plaza wear his work clothes every day. He had five uniforms, one for each work day, consisting of a pair of pants and a light-blue shirt that bore the Universal logo. After he came home from work, Mr. Plaza piled his filthy and dusty work clothes either in the bedroom or garage where they remained until Ms. Gomez washed them on Saturday. Ms. Gomez laundered Mr. Plaza’s work clothes every week using the washer and dryer in her home. The washer and dryer were located within two feet of the bedroom. She always washed Mr. Plaza’s work clothes as a separate load because they were really bad and grungy. The dust on the worn work clothes was dark and blackish. She shook the dust off of the work clothes in the garage.
On occasion, Tina Gomez and David Plaza rode in the same car together while he was wearing his dirty work clothes. Mr. Plaza also did activities with Ms. Gomez and her children while he wore his dirty work clothes.
Sometime before Christmas 1982, David Plaza and Tina Gomez ended their relationship. Mr. Plaza was still a mechanic at the West Facility in 1983. Nowhere in its separate statement, nor anywhere else in its moving papers, does Universal show any lack of proof that, assuming it exposed Tina Gomez to asbestos for any duration, such exposure in reasonable medical probability was a substantial factor in increasing the aggregate dose of asbestos that she inhaled and, hence, her risk of developing the mesothelioma that killed her. (See Part 5 of 14.)
For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.