For purposes of this post, the mesothelioma victim in this case will be referred to as G.L.
In a recent case, the Wisconsin Supreme Court handed down a decision that could have major implications for asbestos litigation. The court sided with the family of a union steamfitter who developed mesothelioma after working around asbestos at a brewery. The big takeaway in this case is that property owners can still have a legal responsibility to keep independent contractors safe, even if those workers are not direct employees.
If you spent years working around asbestos as an independent contractor or tradesperson, a diagnosis like G.L.’s can leave you with hard questions about your rights. Our nationwide mesothelioma lawyers help workers and families in exactly that position. Throneberry Law Group was built by attorney Michael Throneberry, who began focusing on asbestos cases after his own father-in-law died of mesothelioma, and that personal history is why we treat every client as a person rather than a file number.
Back in the 1970s, G.L. worked as a steamfitter at a Pabst Brewing Company facility. The lawsuit says he was regularly exposed to pipes covered with asbestos insulation. Decades later, long after the work was done, he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer linked to asbestos.
Mesothelioma doesn’t show up right away. It can take years, even decades, for symptoms to appear. That means many workers who were around asbestos at factories, breweries, shipyards, or other old buildings might not realize the danger they faced until much later. Many of those places relied heavily on asbestos for insulation. The CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry notes that asbestos still remains in many older buildings and products long after its use was scaled back.
After his diagnosis in 2017, G.L. sued the brewery. He argued that Pabst did not do enough to keep workers safe, pointing to Wisconsin’s “safe place law,” which holds employers and property owners to a higher standard when it comes to safety. This law requires owners to take reasonable steps to protect everyone who has a right to be on the premises, not just their own employees, from dangerous conditions.
A jury agreed with G.L. and found several defendants responsible, awarding him and his family significant damages. That amount got reduced later because of state damage caps and liability allocations, and the fight continued when Pabst pushed back, taking the case to the state’s highest court. Pabst argued that G.L. wasn’t their employee, and they did not oversee what he did day to day. They claimed his asbestos exposure was tied to his own work methods, not anything Pabst did or did not do.
However, the Supreme Court rejected those arguments. The court concluded that the brewery still owed a duty of care to anyone working on its property, including independent contractors and their employees. There was clear evidence that Pabst knew asbestos was present throughout the building and understood its dangers.
This decision is important because it clarifies that workers exposed to hazards on someone else’s property do not have to qualify as direct employees to be protected. Many asbestos exposure cases involve contractors, subcontractors, maintenance workers, and tradespeople who spent years working in industrial environments owned by other companies. Because occupational asbestos exposure often spans many employers and job sites, we look closely at every part of a client’s work history.
Because of this decision, those people now have stronger legal protection if they get sick. As courts around the country keep tackling mesothelioma cases, decisions like this one could influence how similar lawsuits are handled elsewhere. A mesothelioma lawsuit can hold a property owner accountable when its negligence led to a worker’s illness.
This case also serves as a reminder of how serious asbestos exposure is. For years, workers were not warned about the long-term risks of handling these materials. That is why so many families are still seeking justice and financial compensation today. Families in this situation may be able to pursue financial compensation for mesothelioma from the companies responsible.
Nationwide Mesothelioma Lawyers at Throneberry Law Group
Rulings like this one show that property owners can be held responsible for asbestos exposure, even when the worker was an independent contractor. If you were diagnosed with mesothelioma, or you lost a family member to it, the team at Throneberry Law Group can review where the exposure happened and which companies may owe you compensation.
We help clients nationwide, we can work with Spanish-speaking families, and we keep our caseload personal instead of running it like a settlement mill. From our offices in Phoenix, Kansas City, and Chicago, we are ready to look into your case and explain your options at no cost to you. To tell us what happened and start that conversation, reach our team through our contact form.
