Libby Asbestos Worker Wins $36.5 Million Verdict Against Mill's Insurer
After trial: Maryland Casualty appealed the judgment to the Montana Supreme Court (DA 23-0151). The parties reached a confidential settlement in mediation, and the appeal was dismissed with prejudice by stipulation on July 17, 2024, so no appellate court ever ruled on the verdict or the punitive award. What Maryland Casualty actually paid under that settlement was never made public.
Won by Edwards & Culver.
Ralph Hutt worked 18 months at W.R. Grace's asbestos-contaminated vermiculite mill in Libby, Montana in the late 1960s and developed asbestosis decades later. A Cascade County jury found the mill's workers' compensation insurer, Maryland Casualty Company, breached an independent duty to warn him about hazards it tracked through undisclosed chest X-rays, and awarded $36.5 million in February 2022. The trial judge completed Montana's mandatory review of the punitive portion in January 2023 and declined to reduce it, calling the insurer's conduct reprehensible. Maryland Casualty appealed, but the appeal ended in a confidential settlement in 2024, so the verdict itself, not any later court reduction, is what stood.
What happened
Ralph Hutt spent about 18 months in the late 1960s working at W.R. Grace's vermiculite mine and mill in Libby, Montana. Workers were handed paper masks that clogged with dust almost immediately. Hutt asked for a respirator and was turned down.
Maryland Casualty Company, the mill's workers' compensation insurer, ran its occupational health program. The company X-rayed workers but never disclosed the results to the men or their doctors, and it had a documented plan to move workers who already showed early lung damage into areas with lower concentrations of asbestos dust rather than tell them what the films showed. Its own 37 page safety plan never used the word asbestos, describing the hazard instead as a dust problem. Air testing showed that as much as 80 percent of the dust inside the mill was asbestos. Hutt's own X-rays already showed asbestos damage while he was still working there. No one told him.
Decades later he developed respiratory disease. He is now homebound with asbestosis and depends on supplemental oxygen. He sued Maryland Casualty in Montana's Asbestos Claims Court, arguing the insurer owed him and his coworkers a duty to warn separate from the mine owner's own liability, because it controlled the medical surveillance program and knew what the X-rays showed.
The case went to a nine-day trial in Great Falls before Cascade County District Court Judge John W. Parker. On February 17, 2022, the jury found Maryland Casualty breached that duty. It awarded $6.5 million in compensatory damages for Hutt's care and $30 million in punitive damages, a total of $36.5 million.
Montana law requires a trial judge to independently review any punitive award before it becomes final. Judge Parker completed that review in January 2023 and left the verdict untouched, writing that the trial evidence 'overwhelmingly proved' Maryland Casualty 'deliberately and systematically acted to prevent workers from learning about the empirically proven health risks they faced from mining vermiculite,' and that the 'reprehensible conduct by MCC might very well justify a far greater award.'
Hutt was represented by A. Clifford Edwards and Chris Edwards of Edwards & Culver in Billings, working alongside Allan McGarvey, Jinnifer Mariman and Dustin Leftridge of McGarvey Law in Kalispell. Edwards handled the courtroom side of the trial.
Maryland Casualty appealed to the Montana Supreme Court. The parties reached a confidential settlement during mediation, and the appeal was dismissed with prejudice by stipulation on July 17, 2024. No appellate court ever disturbed the jury's verdict or the judge's refusal to reduce it.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Daily Montanan, 2022-02-18: verdict amount, trial date, Hutt's exposure and injuries, and that Clifford Edwards of Billings managed the courtroom aspects of the trial
- 2.Daily Montanan, 2023-01-09: Judge Parker's punitive-damages review, the $6.5M/$30M breakdown, his quotes, and naming Allan McGarvey, Clifford Edwards, Dustin Leftridge and Jinnifer Mariman as Hutt's attorneys
- 3.Montana Supreme Court docket, DA 23-0151 (from Asbestos Claims Court cause DV 18-0175): official party and counsel record listing A. Clifford Edwards and Chris Edwards as counsel of record for Appellee Ralph V. Hutt, and the 2024-07-17 stipulated dismissal with prejudice
- 4.Flathead Beacon, 2022-02-22: nine-day trial, the paper masks and refused respirator, the 37 page safety plan that never said asbestos, air testing showing as much as 80 percent of the dust was asbestos, the plan to move affected workers to lower-dust areas, and Clifford Edwards of Billings managing the trial
- 5.The Western News, 2023-01-17: Judge John W. Parker presided over the trial and upheld the award, his 'far greater award' quote, Hutt's homebound condition, and naming McGarvey, Clifford Edwards, Leftridge and Mariman as his attorneys
Related workplace injury verdicts
After nearly 30 years of litigation, Markovits Stock and DeMarco secured a $742 million-plus-interest settlement for approximately 23,000 Navistar retirees whose healthcare and life insurance benefits had been repeatedly reduced.
Paul Napoli served as court-appointed co-liaison counsel for nearly 10,000 firefighters, police officers, and construction workers who developed respiratory diseases after working at Ground Zero, securing a settlement worth up to $712.5 million against the city and its contractors.
Sullivan Papain served as court-appointed co-liaison counsel in the World Trade Center Disaster Site Litigation, helping secure a settlement of more than $712 million for roughly 10,000 police officers, firefighters, and construction workers who developed serious respiratory and other illnesses after working in the toxic ruins of the World Trade Center.
Jose Valdivia, 25, was building scaffolding at the Phillips 66 refinery in Lake Charles when a co-worker above him lost his grip on a steel scaffold bar. It struck him on the head and spine through a hard hat and full protective equipment. He is in a wheelchair with limited speech. Brock never reported the accident to OSHA.