Carborundum Rejected Lanier's $10,000 Offer

In 1998, American trial attorney Mark Lanier offered to settle an asbestos lawsuit against the Carborundum Company for $10,000, but the company refused and went to trial. Lanier represented 21 U.S. Steel workers from Birmingham, Alabama, who alleged that asbestos in Carborundum grinding wheels had damaged their lungs. On February 19, a jury in Brazoria County, Texas, awarded the workers $15.6 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages. The documented verdict totaled $115.6 million, although Lanier and later accounts have cited the award as $118 million, and it became the first verdict linking a grinding wheel to asbestos exposure.

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