A federal appeals court has overturned a judge’s finding that BNSF Railway contributed to the deaths of two people in a Montana mining town where thousands have been sickened by asbestos exposure. A jury last year awarded $4 million each to the estates of the two people who died in 2020. Attorneys for the plaintiffs blamed the railroad for allowing asbestos-contaminated mining material to accumulate in a rail yard in downtown Libby, Montana. BNSF argued the railway was required under law to accept the asbestos-tainted vermiculite for shipment from a nearby mining operation and had been told by mining company W.R. Grace that it was safe. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its opinion Tuesday.
