For years employees, contractors, and visitors to Harvey Aluminum in Lewisport, KY were exposed to dangerous asbestos. Since then, many have been diagnosed with mesothelioma and other asbestos exposure related diseases. Knowing what happened and what your legal rights are is essential for these types of cases.

John Maher: Hi, I am John Maher and I’m here today with Paul Kelly. Paul is a partner with the Kentucky personal injury law firm, Satterley and Kelly, which has over 45 years of collective experience in litigating mesothelioma and asbestos clams. And today we’re talking about mesothelioma at Harvey Aluminum in Lewisport, Kentucky. Welcome Paul.

Paul Kelley: Hey, John. How are you doing today?

John: I’m doing well. How are you?

Paul: Doing very well, thank you.

What is Harvey Aluminum?

John: So Paul, tell us a little bit about Harvey Aluminum, where they’re located and what they do.

Paul: So, Harvey Aluminum is located in Lewisport, Kentucky. It’s actually not called Harvey Aluminum anymore. It’s owned by a company called Aleris, and it’s changed hands a number of times over the years, but when it was built, it was Harvey Aluminum and the plant was built in the mid-1960s, I think 1966, 1967 when it was built and when it went online.

Harvey Aluminum is a aluminum rolling mill. So they take ingots or unfinished pieces of steel, aluminum and they run them through these mills. They flatten them into a piece that then they can ship out and sell to customers and other entities to make whatever it is that they make. And that plant has substantially been in operation for almost 50 years now, pretty much doing the same thing and has unfortunately had a fair amount of mesothelioma claims that have come out of it.

How is Harvey Aluminum Related to Asbestos and Mesothelioma Claims?

John: Okay. Yeah. So tell me a little bit more about that and how Harvey Aluminum is related to asbestos and mesothelioma claims

Paul: So, Harvey Aluminum built in 1966, unfortunately, that’s the timeframe where virtually every industrial plant, manufacturing plant, powerhouse was made with asbestos containing materials.

And the things that we see at Harvey Aluminum are pretty standard for that period of time. A lot of thermal insulation, thermal insulation that was wrapped around the piping, all the steam lines that run through the plant. A lot of the equipment operates off of steam. Steam, very hot hundreds of degrees running through these pipes. And so in order to maintain the internal temperature of the pipes that are wrapped with a high temperature thermal insulation, also to protect people from burning themselves from touching the pipes, this insulation would do that as well.

The problem is that it contained asbestos and when people were exposed to dust from the installation and removal of thermal insulation it would produce dust and people would breathe that dust, it gets deposited in the lungs. And many of those people developed cancer many years down the road.

A lot of the equipment ran off of steam as well. And there were piping that was connected to the rolling mills, and they had furnaces and ovens that also were wrapped in insulation. They had valves and pumps all throughout the plant. The valves would stop and start the flow of steam and chemical processes from flowing through. And so the valves would be necessary to stop and start that when necessary.

Lots of the valves were insulated. They contain asbestos packing that was shoved into the innards of the valves. Sometimes there was insulation that was actually covered the tops of the valves. There were pumps all throughout the plant. The pumps were all stuffed with asbestos packing.

There was something there called pot lines. Pot lines were where sometimes the raw ore was made and those pot lines were insulated. And the insulation contained asbestos gaskets, lots of piping that was connected together by two gaskets. There were flanges and then gaskets went around the flanges. And those gaskets for many, many years contained asbestos.

And so, there was just a wide variety of equipment that contained thermal insulation, contained packing, contained gaskets, contained refractory materials, and all those things throughout the ’60s and ’70s, ’80s. And even today there’s probably still asbestos located in that plant that people who work there at least have a potential to be exposed to.

What Types of Employees Were Exposed to Asbestos?

John: So, you talked about the different places where asbestos was used in the plant. What types of employees might’ve been exposed to asbestos because of that?

Paul: So, we have represented a lot of people that helped build the plant. A lot of millwrights. They millwrights install and set up the equipment like the rolling mills, and they’re around when the insulators, so insulators are exposed, and the insulators are the ones that insulate the pipes and equipment all throughout the plant.

The pipe fitters who install the pipes and also install the gaskets that we’ve talked about. They were heavily exposed group. You had electricians that were there for all the various installation of electrical equipment, cable, and then they’re being exposed both to the things that they’re installing. A lot of the wire and cable contain asbestos. But they’re also exposed during the installation process and during the gasket installation, during the packing installation. So a lot of the folks participate in construction.

In addition, you’ve got a huge maintenance staff to keep a plant like that. In operation they can’t afford to have downtime and so they had a maintenance staff that would fix pipes if pipes got busted. If a pipe carrying a hot temperature chemical or a high temperature steam broke, needed to be replaced or worked on in some way, they had to take the insulation off. And so the people that worked on those, usually just the maintenance staff, and they were heavily exposed.

The operators, the operators of all the equipment that worked in the plant. This equipment isn’t just some silent piece of equipment that is harmless and doesn’t do anything. The buildings vibrate, shake, any insulation that comes off of it. The operators are exposed. Sometimes they’re around when the maintenance staff is working on things that contain asbestos. So all the operators of the various equipment.

They had numerous additions, renovations, retrofitting of the plant. And so they had various outside contractors that came in and did a lot of work with the pipes, did a lot of work with the equipment, a lot of work with gaskets and valves and packing and pumps. And so all the same trades that worked in there during the construction process, the mill rights, insulators, electricians, pipe fitters, those kinds of crafts came in later on and did work in the facility. And they were exposed. We would see people who were more professional types, engineers, plant managers, superintendents.

Mesothelioma or asbestos and then the diseases that are caused by asbestos, predominantly mesothelioma, it doesn’t care what your job title is. All it cares about is what your exposure is. And so if you show up in a shirt and tie every day because that was your job, but there’s lots of asbestos that’s being removed and installed when you’re there, you get an exposure.

And those type of people who didn’t work hands-on with the product, they were frequently exposed, and it frequently developed cancers and other asbestos diseases as a result of that exposure.

Certainly, people who may have visited the plant on more than one or two off occasions, even they’re not doing anything, they were exposed. And the differences in how plants treated asbestos back then versus how they treat it today are profound.

And so, a lot of people would come in and out of those facilities. I mean just people delivering products. I mean, a plant like that has trucks and deliveries every day. And lots of times people who were just merely delivering products we’re getting exposed to asbestos when they came into the plant.

And unfortunately, we’ve seen a number of people whose spouse or parent worked in the plant. The spouse or parent was heavily exposed. The asbestos got on their clothing, they took the clothing home unknowingly, it got into their home and their child or their spouse years later developed mesothelioma. And their only possible exposure, based on their history, was from their parent or their spouses, the asbestos that they brought home on their clothing.

So the bottom line is the people that performed any work in that plant under any appreciable period of time, and by appreciable I mean more than a day or two, they were exposed and they were at risk of developing disease. And unfortunately, we’ve seen a number of people who did in fact develop disease after either working in the plant or their loved one worked in the plant.

Did Office Workers Get Exposed to Asbestos?

John: Right? And like you said, even people who worked in the offices there at the plant, they wouldn’t just stay in the office all the time. They’d be taking trips down to the floor of the manufacturing plant where all the machines are and things like that. You wouldn’t work in a place like that and never come into contact with those places, or come into contact with some of the workers who are down there, like you said, the foreman or the supervisor or something like that. So yeah, almost anybody who worked there would’ve had at least some exposure.

Paul: I mean, virtually impossible. I mean, they probably had cleaning people who cleaned the offices and those areas. And what we’ve heard from a lot of people is, and this is just a fact, it’s impossible to remove the asbestos. And so it’s just there.

So even when they’re not working directly with asbestos products, I mean if somebody comes through and used compressed air on their workstation at the conclusion of a day, and there is asbestos in the area, they’re just swirling the asbestos about it just moves from space to space.

And so yeah, people that worked in the office, I mean if they walk through the plant 15 minutes a day for 10 years, they’re getting one massive exposure over the course of that period of time.

Do they have the same risk as the people that worked eight hours a day in it for 10 years? No, they don’t. But they had a very substantial risk. And the process, the disease process, mesothelioma, there is no safe exposure. Science has not identified any threshold level for which disease couldn’t be caused.

And so even a few hour exposure, even a day of exposure has been known to cause somebody to suffer from mesothelioma. So hundreds, if not thousands of people that worked in that plan over the last 60 years, they’re at risk. And unfortunately, we’ve seen some people who’ve suffered the consequences of that risk.

What Should Someone Exposed to Asbestos Do Next?

John: So, if somebody did work at Harvey Aluminum and now they have mesothelioma, what should they do next?

Paul: So, mesothelioma is a terminal disease. A lot of progress has been made over the years in prolonging people’s lives and increasing the quality of their life. But unfortunately, the stark reality is that most people will pass away from it within a couple of years of the diagnosis and some a lot sooner. A lot of the people that were exposed the heaviest, a lot of my clients, and they were exposed in the ’60s and ’70s, and that’s a long time ago.

And so, you’ve got two things that you have to worry about, and you have to worry about your medical care and figuring out the best path for you medically as to how you’re going to treat this cancer.

There are surgeries that are available, there’s chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy. Some people don’t choose any of those things depending on where you are in the country, particularly in Kentucky, we have a lot of fantastic doctors and specialists in Kentucky, but mesothelioma is a pretty rare disease.

And so, some people travel outside of Kentucky for different types of options. And so when you’re diagnosed with this disease, figuring out the best medical path for you and your family obviously is anybody’s biggest concern.

But right alongside that, you have to consider your legal options. And that’s where we come in. You need to speak with an attorney, speak with an attorney that does mesothelioma cases. This is a very specialized area of the law. Not a lot of lawyers do what we do. History matters.

This particular plant, like many plants in Kentucky, we’ve represented multiple people that worked in the plant over a period of time. And so it’s important to hire somebody that knows what they’re doing, both from the type of case, but also has experience with a particular location that you’re at.

Memories don’t get better. Evidence typically doesn’t get better over the passage of time. You want to do everything you can do to give yourself the best chance possible to be successful. I’ll be perfectly blunt with everybody. The best evidence I’m ever going to have as a lawyer is my client’s testimony.

And if my client can give a deposition, hopefully can be at trial. But if my client can give a deposition and tell me, the judge, the jury, defense counsel, how they were exposed to asbestos in a particular plant like Harvey Aluminum, that is going to go a long way in assisting us help you and your family.

If somebody becomes too ill or they pass away before we’re able to do that, it’s not impossible. In fact, it’s very possible that we can develop the evidence, but it is a lot harder because nobody else experienced what you experienced. You’re the only one and you’re the only one that can really give the full story. Your coworkers can give a decent account and they can certainly provide enough information that may assist in being successful. Sometimes though, that’s not possible, sometimes there are no coworkers. They’ve passed away too. They’re gone for whatever reason.

So unfortunately, while you have this unfortunate medical situation that you’re dealing with, it’s important to go ahead and figure out all of your legal options and try to hit the ground running on that so that while you’re dealing with your medical lawyers like us or whomever you feel comfortable with, can investigate, get the lawsuit filed and hopefully everything lines up so that when you have your medical plan figured out that we have the legal plan figured out, and we can then do everything in a way that makes sense for you and your family and is not invasive. It gives you the best chance possible.

Waiting almost never works. And if somebody contacts me in 11 months and we have a one-year statute of limitations, the good news is I can probably get something filed. But if you call the wrong person and that person can’t get to me until 13 months, well then the statute of limitations may be gone and you’ve lost your ability to pursue a case.

So sometimes it takes a little bit of investigation to figure it out. Not everything’s easy. So time is of the essence not wasting time. And I hate to use the word waste because once you get to that point, all time is precious.

But for what we do and for what we can do for you, the sooner that you can let us start working for you, we believe the better the outcome’s going to be for you and your family.

What is the Statute of Limitations for Mesothelioma Cases?

John: Talk a little bit more about that one-year statute of limitations and what that means and how that’s calculated, and also who is it in a mesothelioma case that you’re actually suing?

Paul: Sure. So in Kentucky where I’m at, we have a one-year statute of limitations. It’s really one year from the date that you know or should know you have an injury and what the cause of that injury is. And that’s not always a year from your diagnosis. Sometimes it could be a little bit longer than that.

However, if you file that case within one year of your diagnosis, then you’re good, there’s no chance that a court could dismiss your case.

If you file it after the year and claim, well, I really didn’t know what caused my injury or I didn’t know for sure that it was asbestos related, then you’re really at peril of your case being dismissed.

So, we will always file your case well within the year, we would try to file your case very quickly within a month or two if you come into us, if not sooner. But certainly the rule of thumb is get that lawsuit filed within a year from the diagnosis, and you have absolutely no problem.

Most of our judges would certainly like to give you the benefit of the doubt and try to maintain your lawsuit, but the law is very harsh in that regard, and they don’t have much discretion. So even if they want to maintain your case, if they think that you filed it late and that you should have known and filed it earlier, they don’t have any discretion and they’ve got to dismiss your claim.

John: Right. They can’t just start making exceptions for people and then all breaks loose and everybody starts filing their cases late.

Paul: Absolutely. And the law has established some clear delineable exceptions that the court can follow, but that’s not that. Yeah, it’s just rolling the dice at that point, hoping for the best.

But as we said, we don’t want to get anywhere close to that because we want to hit the ground running and give you the very best chance of being successful and waiting the 10, 11 months after the diagnosis occurred. That’s probably not going to be the best recipe for success.

Not that it’s not impossible, it just is harder. And then to answer your question about who could be sued, it depends on who you are. It depends on whether you were a direct employee of Harvey Aluminum or the company that owns it. Now, if you’re a direct employee, you can’t sue the employer. We have workers’ compensation protection under Kentucky Law, and that’s true for most states.

And so typically speaking, we would not be able to sue your employer. But, there’s manufacturers of products, there are distributors of products, there are contractors that installed some of the products that are all still out there. Everything’s a little unique depending on the timeframe that you work there and the individual facts of your case.

Now, if you happen to be a contractor or an employee of the contractor that worked at the plant, you very well may be able to sue the plant owner directly. And so that’s a possibility. And sometimes we’ve seen cases where the victim person with mesothelioma was the child of an employee of the company. And under those circumstances you can sue that company because the child didn’t work there. So they don’t get any sort of protections.

So everything’s kind of dependent on the particular circumstances of your facts, but there’s generally speaking, a pretty wide cast of defendants that can be pursued or in some instances a narrow set, but a very culpable set of defendants that can be held accountable for causing your disease.

And lots of times in a plant like this, we already know who to go after, but you may tell us something that increases or decreases who we can sue.

John: All right, well that’s all really great information, Paul. Thanks again for speaking with me today.

Paul: Thank you, John.

Get Legal Help for Asbestos Exposure

John: And for more information about mesothelioma or asbestos exposure, visit the law firm of Satterley and Kelly at SatterleyLaw.com or call 855-385-9532.

In this podcast, John Maher and attorney Paul Kelley discuss Anaconda Aluminum Co in Sebree, KY. Many people who worked in and around this facility were exposed to asbestos and may be suffering from mesothelioma or other related diseases as a result. Learning about potential legal rights from this situation is essential.

John Maher: Hi, I am John Maher, and I’m here today with Paul Kelley. Paul is a partner with the Kentucky personal injury law firm, Satterley & Kelley, which has over 45 years of collective experience in litigating mesothelioma and asbestos claims.

Today we’re talking about mesothelioma at Anaconda Aluminum Company in Sebree, Kentucky. Welcome, Paul.

Paul Kelley: Hey, John. How are you doing today?

John: Well, how are you?

Paul: I’m great, thank you.

About Anaconda Aluminum Company and Asbestos

John: So, Paul, tell us a little bit about Anaconda Aluminum Company, what they are, where they’re located.

Paul:  So, Anaconda Aluminum is an aluminum smelting operation that’s located in Sebree, Kentucky West or Central Kentucky. And it was built approximately in 1972, 1973. It’s changed hands a few times over the years. A lot of these aluminum companies are bought up by other companies, but the timeframe that we were most interested in it, it was Anaconda Aluminum and it made aluminum products and it was a smelting operation. And so what they did as a smelting operation is they took raw ore and they basically heated it and it produced a steel or aluminum product. And then that product was actually sent somewhere else to make another piece. And then that was sent somewhere else into the final customer for whatever it is that they did with it.

There are a lot of smelting and rolling mill operations in that area of Kentucky, and Anaconda Aluminum was one of them. And it still operates today under a different name. I think a company called Century Aluminum operates that facility in Sebree now, and it’s provided a product continuously for over 50 years now.

John: Okay. And so how was Anaconda Aluminum related to asbestos and mesothelioma cancer claims?

Paul: Well, so this again is one of those time periods where the plant was built right at the time that the Occupational Safety and Health Act was enacted. And before that time, virtually every industrial plant in the United States was constructed with asbestos. And even though this plant kind of came up right at the time that OSHA was enacted and became into operation, it was constructed with asbestos. And we know that because we have had the opportunity to help some people that worked there during the construction phase, during operations, and then that wide variety of stuff. And so they had thermal insulation was located all throughout the facility.

The plant had lots of steam piping located throughout the plant. These steam pipes carried steam that was hundreds of degrees in temperature Fahrenheit, and they were wrapped with asbestos. Lots of the piping contained chemicals that were very hot and they were wrapped with asbestos. The steel at that facility or the aluminum at that facility, they were made in something called pots. There were pot lines in the plant. And so the pot lines were just these long rows of pots. And the pots were significant size and diameter, several feet probably in diameter and several feet high. And they were where liquid was poured in to essentially make the ingot and the pots were insulated with asbestos. And there were lots of them, hundreds of pots that were in the plant. And they contain refractory material, they contain insulation, and all of those materials were contained asbestos at one point in time.

The pipes were frequently connected together, the pipes were connected to the gaskets. Gaskets contained asbestos during that period of time. There were valves all throughout the plant. The valves all were packed with asbestos packing. There were pumps that were all throughout the plant. The pumps were also stuffed with asbestos packing. There was just a wide variety of insulating products that were located throughout the plant. And probably some of those products are still there today. But certainly, when the plant was in operation in the seventies and eighties, it was all over the place and there were lots of people in various capacities that were exposed to it for many, many years.

What Types of Employees at Anaconda Aluminum May have Been Exposed to Asbestos?

John: So, who were some of the types of employees that might’ve been exposed to asbestos when working here at Anaconda Aluminum?

Paul: Sure. So of course, there are people that constructed the plant and there was a lot of different crafts that participated in building that plant. There were millwrights and the millwrights put in a lot of the equipment conveyors. They put the pot lines in. There was insulators, insulators insulated the pipes and the pot lines and other equipment in the plant. There were pipe fitters and the pipe fitters installed all the piping and they put the gaskets in. Lots of times, the pipe fitters and the millwrights both installed the gaskets and the valves, and the pumps. With the asbestos packing, there were electricians that worked in the plant. There were engineers that worked in the plant that all participated in the construction phase of it.

Then the plant came into operation and you had all the people that operated the equipment. You had maintenance staff plant of this size, and it was a many-acres facility plant that size. It’s going to have a lot of maintenance people that are participating in the day-to-day affairs of keeping the plant running. It was an aluminum smelting operation. They couldn’t afford to have large periods of inactivity. And so they made sure that they kept it running and lots of times maintenance staff would have to fix equipment and tear insulation off in order to do that or pull pipes apart to contain gaskets and have to scrape those gaskets off frequently. They would’ve overhauls of the equipment that was in the plant. So like the pot lines, for example, they had to be relined every now and again, or the pots that were in the lines had to be relined. And so somebody would come in and they’d tear all that insulation out. That was typically the mill rights. Sometimes it was insulators. And those kinds of people would be exposed when they did that.

Eventually, they might have had some people that come in to remove those things permanently. And even though they supposedly used the latest, greatest, safest, best methods, there’s still a potential for exposure for people to perform those types of activities. I mean, even people like the plant superintendent or the general foreman, the engineers, the people who worked in an office somewhere, if they walk through the plant, they were exposed.

If they spent time out there supervising their staff, they were exposed. People who delivered products to the plant when it was an operation, the custodians of the facility, people that might’ve worked in the offices cleaning, but they had to go through the plant, visitors to the plant for whatever reason. I’m not necessarily saying this happened at Anaconda, but I’ve heard numerous places that they would have parties for families right there in the plant at various points in time and people would be exposed to whatever was in the plant because once asbestos is there, it’s always there. And it can be disturbed in numerous ways if it’s not…

How Does Someone Get Exposed to Asbestos?

John: It might be in the air, or it might be on a surface, and then somebody touches that surface and it gets in the air and you can breathe it in.

Paul: Absolutely. I mean, if it’s on the floor and people are shuffling their feet, it gets disturbed. If there’s a window open and a breeze comes through, it can get disturbed. It takes highly specialized equipment to remove asbestos. And most companies didn’t do that until much, much later when they needed to get it out because of more stringent regulations and that sort of thing.

So there were a lot of people and a lot of different crafts who were regularly exposed. And then there was a lot of people who spent a little bit less time or maybe didn’t do things directly hands-on, and they were exposed too. We’ve heard Dr. Selikoff is one of the most famous scientists, physicians, researchers of mesothelioma. He kind of blew the door open on exposing the health risks associated with asbestos. And then this disease process, mesothelioma, and Dr. Selikoff is famous for saying, “Asbestos doesn’t care what job you had. Asbestos doesn’t care who you are, what your education is. All asbestos cares about is do you have lungs and did it get into your lungs?”

And if that’s what happened, then you were at substantial risk for contracting disease. Some people at a higher risk than others. But certainly, if you worked in that plant, you had a heck of a lot higher risk of contracting mesothelioma than people who worked in office like I do and don’t go to places like that. It was a tough place and it was a place where people had a lot of exposure and a lot of people had exposure over the years.

Were Office Employees Exposed to Asbestos?

John: But even if you worked in the office, say at Anaconda Aluminum, like you said, the likelihood that you would never go into the manufacturing plant and get exposure there is unlikely. They had parties there, company parties and things like that. And then, of course, you’re coming into contact with other people who probably do work down on the manufacturing floor. So there’s just no getting away from it.

Paul: Absolutely. I mean, if you worked in the office and you never went into the plant, you weren’t doing your job. And I doubt that that was a realistic scenario. And in fact, I know it’s not realistic because I’ve talked to a lot of people that had those kinds of jobs and they were exposed. It was a pervasive exposure, and it was one that you couldn’t avoid unless you were fortunate enough not to set foot in the plant. But even then, we’ve seen family members of plant workers who were diagnosed with mesothelioma, and their only known exposure was to their loved one’s clothing.

A lot of people, let’s just use as an example, the insulators that came and insulated those pots, they didn’t know. And so they got asbestos all over their clothes. They did the very best they could to blow them off of the air compressor at the end of the shift, but they didn’t know any better. So they got in their cars, they drove home, asbestos fell all throughout their car. They get to their house, they hug their kids, they sit on their couch, they shuffle in through their carpeting and unbeknownst to them, they’ve exposed the whole family to asbestos.

And they do that every day, day in and day out.

John: Sure.

Paul: And so even people who didn’t work in the plant were exposed. And to the extent that there are still people out there that are alive that were exposed in that way, I will predict that there’ll be a handful of them that will develop mesothelioma.

What Should You Do if You are Diagnosed with Mesothelioma?

John: Right. So if you have mesothelioma now, and you worked in the Anaconda Aluminum Company plant, what should you do next?

Paul: I think it’s important to determine what your legal rights are. What I think most people do when they are diagnosed with this disease is they start to research it. And you’ll probably find things from me and other lawyers and you’ll find things from medical providers. And so you’ve got a lot of decisions you have to make. One, of course, is determine what the best medical plan is for you and your family. And there’s so many different options, and you can discuss that with your team of doctors that most likely you have. But you also have to determine whether or not you have a lawsuit. And so this particular facility, the Anaconda facility, I mean, I can tell you that you’ve got a potential claim that you can pursue against a number of entities and potentially even Anaconda depending on who you are.

But unfortunately, time doesn’t stand still for you. And while you have this really important medical issues that you have to determine, you also need to figure out your legal plan as well. It’s important to hire attorneys that you’re comfortable with. It’s important that you hire that have experience with asbestos and mesothelioma cases. And I think it’s really important that you hire attorneys that have experience with the particular location that you worked.

The difference between getting your case filed in a month or two versus six or eight months could have devastating consequences. Most people, unfortunately, are going to die from this disease, mesothelioma within six to 18 months of getting the diagnosis. And some may live for a bit. They get really sick. And the best evidence I’m ever going to have, what your exposure was, how you were exposed, how long you worked there, and all the things that we have to navigate through in order to be successful, it’s going to come from you.

And so it’s important that a case gets filed while you still have the ability to participate. And the sincere hope is that you live for five years beyond diagnosis. You live for years beyond the lawsuit. But unfortunately, the stark reality is that things may not work out the way you want from a health standpoint. And in order to help you in the short run, your family in the long run, I think it’s important to go ahead and get things going.

Memories fade, evidence is lost. There’s just a variety of negative consequences that occur from delay. And by the way, when a case is filed, our adversaries have every incentive to slow things down, to stop progress. And so the last thing we want to do is give them an assist and impede our own progress. So it’s important while you’re assessing and evaluating and determining your medical plan, it’s also important for you to assess and evaluate and determine your legal plan.

What is the Statute of Limitations in Kentucky for Asbestos Cases?

John: So, is there a statute of limitations in Kentucky for filing a claim against Anaconda Aluminum, and how does that play a role in a mesothelioma claim like this?

Paul: Absolutely. In Kentucky, we have one year from the day that you know or should know that you have an injury and no one should know the cause of your injury. So it’s not necessarily the date of diagnosis. However, we always file within a year of diagnosis just to make sure there’s no problems. But more importantly, we want to get that lawsuit filed as quickly as possible. As I alluded to a moment ago, there’s just a wide variety of reasons why six months or eight months or 10 months down the road, evidence may be lost, your ability to participate, so we don’t want to do anything or either to increase the risk that you won’t be able to participate in your case.

But that having been said, there’s all kinds of different reasons as to why cases get close to the statute. It’s really important to get it filed within that year. Even if a judge would like for you to be able to pursue your case, if the judge believes that you filed it late, they don’t have much discretion. And so it’s important to get the case filed.

Because it’s important to get the case filed, it’s important to talk to lawyers early. It’s important to give the lawyers the opportunity to investigate so that we don’t run the risk ourselves of getting close and still not really knowing everything. This particular location that we’re talking about today, I know a lot about, but there could be other locations that you’ve worked at that we still have to conduct some investigation, figure out, talk to witnesses, try to find documents and that sort of thing.

So, the later we’re able to get started, the longer it takes to get the case filed, the longer it takes to get the case filed, the longer it takes to start receiving compensation from the parties that have caused your cancer. And then we, of course, know how much you need it for yourself, and we also know how much your family needs that financial assistance. So, delay, waiting, it’s almost never a good thing.

John: All right. Well, that’s really great information, Paul. Thanks again for speaking with me today.

Paul: Thank you, John. I appreciate it.

Get More Information About Mesothelioma and Asbestos Exposure

John: And for more information about mesothelioma and asbestos exposure, visit the law firm of Satterley & Kelley at satterleylaw.com or call 855-385-9532.

In this podcast, John Maher talks with Attorney Paul Kelley about Mesothelioma and other Asbestos related issues that people face. Many people who worked at or around an Alcoa facility in Newburgh, IN have been victims of these conditions and need to know about their legal options.

John Maher: Hi, I am John Maher and I’m here today with Paul Kelley. Paul is a partner with the Kentucky personal injury law firm, Satterley & Kelley, which has over 45 years of collective experience in litigating mesothelioma and asbestos claims. Today we’re talking about mesothelioma at Alcoa in Newburgh, Indiana. Welcome, Paul.

Paul Kelley: Good morning, John. How are you doing today?

John: I’m doing good, thanks. How are you?

Paul: Doing well, thank you.

What is Alcoa in Indiana?

John: So Paul, tell us a little bit about Alcoa in Indiana and what they do.

Paul: So, Alcoa is a aluminum steel producing plant. It has a smelting operation as well as a rolling mill. The smelting operation is for them to take the raw ore, heat it up, and extract it, basically into the beginning of a finished product. Metal, iron, steel, something along those lines, usually made in the form of an ingot, which is going to vary in size from small to very large.

The rolling mill operation is where they take those ingots and they essentially flatten those pieces into some sort of size so that they can produce something else with it later on, or a customer can produce something with it later on. The Alcoa facility was a massive plant. It was built in 1960. I think that has operated in some form for 60 years. Employed thousands of people over the years. Had dozens of types of crafts that worked in there. Had hundreds of contractors that worked in the facility at one point or another. It was a big plant and it produced a lot of product for a lot of years supporting the area that I’m in. Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois provided steel and aluminum all throughout the country.

How was Alcoa Related to Asbestos and Mesothelioma Cancer Cases?

John: Okay. And so how was Alcoa related to asbestos and mesothelioma cancer cases?

Paul: Well, unfortunately, given the time period that Alcoa was built, the facility went up around 1960. That is a classic period of time that plants were built with asbestos containing materials. The predominant things that we would see would be thermal insulation that was used throughout the plant. Steam was used to power equipment and machinery. We’ll talk about it at another time, but there was a powerhouse next door that provided power to the Alcoa facility. Those power was provided through steam turbines and steam boilers, and the piping that was connected between the two plants were all insulated with asbestos.

Many of the machines, the rolling mills, the smelters had piping connected to them that were insulated with asbestos. They had something in the smelting area. They had something called potlines, and the potlines were the areas where the steel and aluminum was smelted, and each potline had many, many different pots. The pots were substantial in size. Many, many inches in diameter, and the potlines were insulated with refractory material and other thermal insulation that all contain asbestos during this period of time.

There was something there called hot tops that were put over these pots and the hot tops were intended to capture metal impurities that would be produced during the smelting process and hot tops contained asbestos. The pipes were connected frequently with gaskets and the gaskets for a long period of time contained asbestos. The plant had pumps and valves all throughout. Valves that are controlling the flow of steam and water and chemicals from various pipes to various pieces of equipment. The valves frequently were stuffed with asbestos-containing packing material. It was just a fibrous material that frequently came in sheets or rolls, and it was shoved into the valves. Pumps. The pumps were there to operate a lot of the machines. Connected to pipes, connected to valves, connected to machines, and lots of the pumps that had asbestos-containing packing in them as well.

You would have asbestos-containing floor tiles, ceiling tile in offices throughout the plant. So many pieces of equipment had to be insulated. Ovens. They had lots of ovens that were there and the ovens had firebrick and refractory material. They contained asbestos, just a wide variety of things. It was pretty common for that period of time that this plant was built in an operation, but certainly there was a lot of it that was there. And a lot of people that have either worked directly for Alcoa or who worked for contractors that worked in the plant have been exposed to asbestos frequently, again, over the last 50, 60, 70 years.

When Were Alcoa Employees Exposed to Asbestos?

John: Right. So how and when were the employees at Alcoa exposed to asbestos? It sounds like it could have been almost anybody who worked at that facility given the wide range of different places where asbestos was found.

Paul: Absolutely, John. So first, you had the people that helped build the plant, and again, the facility came online in 1960, so it was going to be built in the late fifties. They had several renovations and additions, but the people that built. You had insulators that insulated the pipes and the equipment. You had electricians that worked all throughout the plant, connecting wires and equipment together. Lots of times, I forgot to mention, that a lot of electric wires and cables contained asbestos insulation, so electricians were exposed.

Millwrights. Millwrights were heavily involved in the construction of power houses. Those potlines that we talked about. Millwrights typically installed the pots into the potlines and then the insulators came along and insulated the insides of the potlines. And so millwrights were exposed. Pipe fitters were exposed, pipe fitters connected and installed all of the piping. They were the ones that dealt with the gaskets. If they weren’t the ones that insulated the pipes, they were certainly present when the pipes were insulated. So certainly anybody that was involved in the construction process.

Then, you’ve got the people who were required to maintain the facility. It’s a huge plant and they had a very substantial maintenance staff for most of their existence, and all the maintenance folks who worked on pipes and worked on equipment installed gaskets, took out gaskets, removed piping, replaced piping. They had to take insulation off, they had to reinstall insulation.

They were present for the reinstallation of insulation. And so anybody that certainly worked in the maintenance aspect. These plants have to be updated, from time to time, and so there would be various crafts that we come in. So all the same types of crafts that participate in the construction of the plant also came in at various points in time to update and renovate.

We’ve had engineers who worked in the plant who participate in designing certain features, and then they were diagnosed with asbestos diseases many years down the road. Anybody that was involved in supervisory positions, so they didn’t necessarily deal with any of the asbestos products hands-on, but they were present frequently when all of that work happened, and so they were exposed.

We would see companies who would send people in to oversee some of the installation of things like the potlines and the furnaces and ovens and things like that, and then they were exposed during those processes. So you led us off the right way. If you worked in that plant from the 1960s to 1980s, even for a brief period of time, there is a strong likelihood that you were exposed to asbestos from whatever you did. The degree of exposure is certainly going to be dependent on the type of work that you did, with people like the millwrights and electricians, pipefitters, insulators. They certainly were going to have the heaviest exposures, but if you were in that plant for any appreciable period of time, there was virtually no way to avoid being exposed to injurious levels of asbestos.

What Should You Do if You were Diagnosed with Mesothelioma?

John: Okay. So then if you were an employee of Alcoa and now you have mesothelioma or asbestosis or another asbestos related disease, what should you do?

Paul: Well, most of the people that we talk to, John, have a disease called mesothelioma. It’s uniquely associated with asbestos exposure and unfortunately, there’s no cure for it. It’s a fatal disease. Most people are going to die from that disease within 6 to 18 months from diagnosis. It’s a devastating diagnosis, and there’s a lot of things that people have to deal with when it occurs.

Obviously, the most important aspect of anybody’s life when that occurs is what medical treatment are you going to receive? What’s the best approach for you and your family? Age has an impact, overall health condition has an impact, geography has an impact, where you are. Sometimes you have different options depending on where you are in the country. So certainly, everybody who’s diagnosed with this disease needs to quickly get a firm grasp on what their medical plan’s going to be. That’s usually something that is dealt with in conjunction with your family, your treating physicians, which will be a team of folks, from surgeons to family practitioners, pulmonologists, oncologists to radiology oncologists. And so it’s an overwhelming process and procedure.

Unfortunately, while you’re doing that, time doesn’t stand still, and there are certainly legal remedies that you have for contracting this terrible disease, particularly if you worked at a place like Alcoa, where I assure you there are parties that can be held accountable for causing you this disease. In Kentucky, and Alcoa is in Indiana, but all states have a statute of limitations. And so, the problem is while you’re trying to figure out the best approach for your medical treatment, you also have to try to figure out the best approach for how you’re going to pursue or if you’re going to pursue any claim. And so my recommendation to everybody is you need to get on it as quickly as possible and consult with an attorney to determine all of your legal rights and options that you have.

Attorneys who do this, like me, don’t generally start from scratch on a case. And so, once you speak with that attorney, the attorney can, generally speaking, give you a lot of information right away, tell you what can and can’t be done, and then they worry, worry about it. You hire me, your problem becomes my problem, and I focus on the legal aspects of it, and you focus on what you need to focus on, which is your family and your health and the things that you need to do to stay as healthy as possible.

Time is of the essence. As I said, you only have so much period of time to file your lawsuit. But even more importantly, considering or determining what your health situation is, you may have even less time than what the statute of limitations provides. And so you don’t want to waste time. And I know it’s hard and there’s so many other things that people have to deal with, but it’s really important to speak with an attorney, hire an attorney that you feel comfortable with, hire an attorney that knows what they’re doing.

You can’t really afford to hire somebody that’s never handled an asbestos mesothelioma case before. You can’t really afford to hire somebody that dabbles in this kind of litigation because this litigation isn’t for somebody that dabbles. It’s for somebody that has done it over and over and over again and knows what to do. And so my advice is to speak with an attorney immediately and hire somebody that you’re comfortable with as soon as you possibly can so that you can hit the ground running.

What is the Statute of Limitations for Asbestos Related Cases?

John: Right. Now, you mentioned the statute of limitations. What is the statute of limitations in Indiana and can you file a claim as an employee against your employer in Indiana or do you have to find other parties to go after with the claim?

Paul: Typically speaking, you can’t file a claim against your employer in Indiana. You can file a workers’ compensation claim and sometimes, very rarely, there are exceptions of that rule. However, you can sue manufacturers of products, you can sue suppliers, distributors, you can sue contractors. There’s still a wealth of parties that can be held responsible. Now, if you were not a direct Alcoa employee and you worked for one of those contractors, or sometimes we have employees or sometimes we have clients who didn’t work for the company but their husband or their spouse did. And in those circumstances you can sue Alcoa. We call them a household exposure case, so that’s always possible.

But in Indiana, the statute of limitations is two years to file a claim. And two years certainly seems like a long time, but it can go by very quickly. And even more importantly, we don’t want to get anywhere close to that statute of limitations. You have so many things that can make that time go by quickly. Memories don’t get better over the course of time. Companies, just as a matter of practice, they destroy and discard documents every so often. There are some companies that destroy them once they hear about lawsuits as well. So getting something filed as quickly as possible. But you do have a couple of years to investigate and to figure out all the parties and all the responsible entities that may be held accountable for causing your disease.

John: And is that two years from when you’re diagnosed?

Paul: Typically, two years from your diagnosis. There are exceptions of those rules that could extend that period of time. But the general rule of thumb is get it filed within two years from the date of your diagnosis and you will not have any problems. Our courts have very little discretion. If you file it beyond the two years, if the court thinks that there’s no reasonable excuse for not filing it after the two-year from diagnosis, the court has zero discretion and has to dismiss your case. So don’t get close to that to that two-year date. Talk to your lawyer immediately, and hopefully the lawyer will be able to file a lawsuit very, very quickly.

John: All right, well that’s really great information, Paul. Thanks again for speaking with me today.

Paul: Thanks, John.

Get More Information About Mesothelioma and Asbestos Exposure Illnesses

John: And for more information about mesothelioma and asbestos exposure, visit the law firm of Satterley and Kelley at Satterleylaw.com or call 855-385-9532.