An $8 Million Verdict Against a Respirator Maker in the First Coal-Dust Mask Case to Reach Trial

James Couch worked underground in Eastern Kentucky coal mines from 1973 to 2010, wearing disposable dust masks made by Mine Safety Appliances Co. (MSA) for roughly 15 of those years. In 2006 he was diagnosed with coal workers' pneumoconiosis, commonly known as black lung disease, caused by years of breathing in coal dust.

Couch sued MSA in Knott Circuit Court, arguing that the masks he wore were never adequate to filter the fine coal dust found underground, and that MSA knew it. His attorneys pointed to warnings raised as far back as the 1970s, when regulators and researchers had called for the kind of disposable dust masks MSA sold to be pulled from use in coal mines because they could not seal well enough against a miner's face to block the dust that causes black lung. MSA kept selling them.

MSA's defense turned on regulatory compliance: the masks met the standards set by the federal agencies that approve mining safety equipment, and the company argued it could not be held liable for a product that satisfied those government standards. The jury did not accept that defense as a complete answer. In a case reported to be the first of its kind against a dust-mask manufacturer to actually reach a jury, rather than settle beforehand, the jury returned a verdict in February 2016 of $8 million: $4 million in compensatory damages and $4 million in punitive damages, the latter reflecting the jury's judgment that MSA's conduct went beyond ordinary negligence.

Couch was represented by Rick Friedman of Friedman Rubin as lead trial counsel, with Adam Collins serving as Kentucky local counsel. MSA said after the verdict that it intended to seek review in the Kentucky courts, maintaining that its masks were safe and effective when used as directed.