Michael Schafle, Esq.Mesothelioma Lawsuit Filing
- A lawsuit is brought against the companies that made and sold the asbestos products — not against the employer in most cases, and not against the government
- Most cases name several defendants, because most work histories involve several manufacturers' products
- Pennsylvania courts can expedite a case where a living mesothelioma plaintiff is involved, which materially changes the timeline
- Filing does not commit you to a trial. Most asbestos cases resolve before one
- Deadlines apply and generally run from diagnosis, not exposure. Call (724) 241-4258 rather than assuming the date has passed
Beaver Falls never had one mill the way Aliquippa did. It had a row of plants along the Beaver River that finished things. Babcock & Wilcox, the boiler company, bought the Pittsburgh Seamless Tube Company here in 1904 and during the Second World War expanded it into the Main Tube Plant, the East Works and a steel plant at Wallace Run in West Mayfield. Alongside it ran Union Drawn Steel’s cold-drawn bar works, the Ingram-Richardson enamel plant and the Mayer China pottery.
Filing is the step people picture when they imagine a case, and it is usually the shortest part of the story. Everything that determines whether a lawsuit is worth filing happens beforehand: establishing the diagnosis, reconstructing the work history, and identifying whose products were on the job. By the time a complaint is drafted, the substantive questions have largely been answered.
The defendants are manufacturers and suppliers — the companies that made the insulation, block, cement, gaskets, packing, and friction products that a person worked around. It is not usually a case against the employer, and where the work was done at a federal installation or aboard ship it is not a case against the government. Most complaints name a group of companies, because most careers put someone near more than one manufacturer's material. Around Beaver Falls, a history at the B&W tube works, the cold-drawn bar plant, the enamel and china works, or the Koppel steel plant typically implicates a recognisable set of suppliers that sold into those industries from the 1940s into the late 1980s.
Timing is the part worth understanding properly. Pennsylvania sets limits on when a claim can be brought, and for asbestos disease those limits generally run from diagnosis rather than from the exposure decades earlier — but exactly when the clock started can itself be contested, and the rule is not the same for a living claimant as for a family bringing a claim after a death. That is a question to put to someone early rather than to settle from a web page.
Against that, courts here can move quickly where the plaintiff is living and ill. Pennsylvania practice allows an asbestos case involving a living mesothelioma plaintiff to be expedited, which is one of the few places where the system genuinely accommodates the medicine. It is also a reason not to wait: the procedural advantages available to a living claimant are not available afterward.
Filing is not a commitment to trial. The large majority of asbestos cases resolve before one, through settlement with some defendants and trust claims against others, often in combination. What filing does is preserve the claim and start a clock that the defendants must answer to. Beaver Falls is in Beaver County, whose courthouse is in Beaver. Venue follows the defendants rather than the family’s address, though, and Philadelphia’s dedicated asbestos program is frequently available for the same case. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
What those plants shared was heat. Tube mills, electric furnaces, annealing lines, enamel furnaces and pottery kilns all depended on insulation, refractory linings, gaskets and packing, and asbestos was routinely part of those materials for much of the century. A lawsuit is brought against the companies that made them, not against B&W, Republic or the china company. The first question is which plant, which department and which years.
Call (724) 241-4258Mesothelioma Lawsuit Filing — fees and costs in Beaver Falls
| Consultation and initial case review, at home or at the hospital | $0 |
| Mesothelioma or asbestos claim, handled on contingency | No fee unless there is a recovery — the percentage is agreed in writing before representation begins |
| Requesting employment, union, and military records on your behalf | Included in the case review |
No fee unless there is a recovery. Any fee is a percentage agreed in writing before representation begins.
Mesothelioma Lawsuit Filing — questions, answered
My father worked at B&W in Beaver Falls, and B&W built boilers. Who would the lawsuit be against?
The companies that made the asbestos-containing products used in that work: insulation, refractory, gaskets, packing and protective gear. The case is built around products and their manufacturers, and which ones appear depends on his department and years.
He worked at the cold-drawn bar plant, not the big tube works. Is that a different case?
It is a different history, not a weaker one. A cold-finishing plant ran its own annealing furnaces, boilers and steam lines, and its maintenance and furnace crews worked around materials from their own set of suppliers.
She worked at the china plant. Do pottery jobs ever come up?
They can. Pottery and enamel plants fired ware in kilns and furnaces that relied on high-heat linings, insulation and protective materials, many of which contained asbestos for much of the century. Her job and years are the place to start.
Who is actually sued in a Beaver Falls mesothelioma lawsuit?
The manufacturers and suppliers of the asbestos products someone worked around — not, in most cases, the employer, and not the government where the work was military or at a federal installation.
Is there a deadline to file?
Yes. Pennsylvania time limits generally run from diagnosis rather than from the exposure, and they differ for a living claimant and for a family filing after a death. When the clock started can be disputed, so it is worth checking rather than assuming.