Asbestos suit claims respirator makers should have prevented cancer

NEW ORLEANS – A New Orleans woman is suing companies that designed and sold respirator devices she claims should have prevented her husband from contracting asbestosis and lung cancer due to asbestos exposure.

Cora Lee Williams Songy filed suit on in the Orleans Parish Civil District Court against American Optical Corporation, 3M Company, Eagle Inc. and Bert Leaveau Sevices.

Songy alleges her deceased husband used respiratory protective equipment provided by or designed and sold by the defendants and that those devices did not prevent him from developing asbestosis.

The plaintiff claims respirators designed and manufactured by American Optical Corporation and 3M Company were improperly designed, defective, misrepresented the safety of the equipment and that the respirators were inherently dangerous. The plaintiff asserts the other defendants in the case should be liable for allowing Songy's husband to work in a hazardous environment where asbestos fibers and dust were present without effective protection equipment or warning of the hazards.

An unspecified amount for a survival claim is sought for wrongful death, loss of enjoyment of life, physical and mental pain suffered by the deceased, medical expenses, burial expenses, loss of consortium, loss of love and affection, loss of support and services and emotional anguish.

Songy is being represented by Marcia Finkelstein of New Orleans-based Gertler Law Firm.

The case has been assigned to Division I Judge Piper D. Griffin.

Case number 2012-00967