Asbestos

Asbestos Litigation

Asbestos Lawsuits

Borel v. Fibreboard Corporation

In 1969, Clarence Borel asked Ward Stephenson, an attorney in Orange, Texas, to bring suit against eleven asbestos manufacturers. Borel v. Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation was filed in the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas and was influential in that it changed significantly the way litigation would progress into the future. Borel was the first case in the nation that recognized the manufacturer's duty to warn of asbestos dangers. It became a case that provided a basis for future development in asbestos litigation.

Judge John Minor Wisdom issued the opinion of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Borel v. Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation on September 10, 1973. The opinion extended the doctrine of strict product liability to asbestos-related disease caused by the use of insulation materials. As a result, a wave of person injury litigation flooded the American court system. Less than 10 years later, over 16 thousand asbestos-related personal injury cases had been filed in the U.S. and had become the largest area of product liability litigation.