Volkswagen Held Liable for Mechanic's Fatal Mesothelioma

Thomas 'Tony' Sorrentino worked as a mechanic at United Volkswagen in Spokane from 1972 to 1975, mostly servicing brakes and clutches on Volkswagen vehicles. He performed hundreds of brake jobs over those years, using compressed air to clear brake dust, a step that threw clouds of dust into the shop air. Nearly every brake and clutch part he installed, almost all of them genuine Volkswagen replacement parts, contained asbestos.

In 2020 a doctor diagnosed Sorrentino with mesothelioma. He died in February 2021, shortly after giving deposition testimony in the lawsuit he had filed against Volkswagen Group of America and its German parent, Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, along with several other manufacturers of automotive friction products. His son, Jonathan, carried the case forward as personal representative of his father's estate.

At trial, Volkswagen did not dispute that its brakes and clutches contained asbestos through 1975, or that the company had understood since the 1940s that asbestos exposure could cause cancer. It also did not dispute that its brake boxes, instructional binders, and service bulletins carried no asbestos warning, and that Sorrentino received no training on asbestos hazards at the dealership.

The case went to a King County jury, which on December 19, 2022 found Volkswagen's brakes were not reasonably safe and were a substantial factor in causing Sorrentino's mesothelioma. The jury cleared Volkswagen of a separate negligence claim but awarded $5.75 million in damages. The trial court later reduced that award to $4.7 million.

Volkswagen appealed, arguing the trial court should have ruled in its favor as a matter of law, should have given three additional jury instructions on causation and industry custom, and lacked personal jurisdiction over the German parent company. The Washington Court of Appeals, Division One, rejected each argument and affirmed on September 16, 2024. On jurisdiction, the court pointed to the importer agreement between the German parent and its American subsidiary, which required the subsidiary to market Volkswagen vehicles in Washington specifically and to train dealership mechanics using materials the parent company wrote and printed in Germany.

Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft alone petitioned the Washington Supreme Court for further review of the jurisdiction question. Volkswagen Group of America did not join that petition and told the court the judgment against it would stand no matter the outcome, while Sorrentino's estate moved to enforce the judgment against the American subsidiary in the meantime. Chandler Udo, Brendan Little, and Erica Bergmann of the Seattle firm then known as Bergman Oslund Udo Little, now Oslund Udo Little, represented Sorrentino's estate through trial and appeal.