$6.8 Million Verdict for Widow of Boston Insulator Who Died of Mesothelioma

Timothy Ross was not a career construction worker. Starting in middle school and continuing through high school and into his early adult years, he worked part-time for a local insulation contractor, repairing and replacing insulation on boilers, hot water tanks, and pipes in the Boston area. That work brought him into regular contact with asbestos-containing products supplied by New England Insulation Company, a Canton, Massachusetts distributor that sold and installed Kaylo-brand asbestos insulation from roughly the late 1960s through the mid-1970s.

Decades passed before the consequences became clear. In late 2012, Timothy Ross received a mesothelioma diagnosis. He was 60 years old. He died nine months later, on August 19, 2013. In December of that year, his widow Amy Ross filed suit in Middlesex County Superior Court, alleging that New England Insulation had exposed her husband to asbestos fibers without adequate warning and that the exposure caused his fatal cancer.

Thornton Law Firm served as co-counsel alongside Waters Kraus, LLP, with Peter Kraus of Waters Kraus leading the trial team. Andrew Wainwright and Andrea Landry of Thornton Law Firm were part of the plaintiffs' team throughout the case. The trial ran seven days before Judge Heidi E. Brieger. The core argument was that New England Insulation knew the dangers of asbestos-containing insulation products and continued distributing and installing them without warning the workers who handled them.

The jury deliberated for seven hours before returning a verdict on September 29, 2017. The total award of $6.8 million broke down across several categories: $1.05 million for Timothy Ross's medical expenses, $3.5 million for his pain and suffering, $500,000 for lost earning capacity, $1.25 million to Amy Ross for loss of companionship, and $250,000 each to the couple's two daughters. No punitive damages were sought or awarded.

The verdict came roughly two weeks after the same defendant, New England Insulation, had been hit with a separate $7.55 million verdict in the Sylvestre case involving a power plant worker with mesothelioma. The Ross verdict added to a pattern of jury findings that the Canton distributor had systematically concealed or disregarded the known hazards of the asbestos products it handled for nearly a decade.