JACKSON, Miss. — The Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled an asbestos exposure lawsuit filed by the family of a Tennessee man can go to trial in Marshall County, a wire service reports.
The family of Clifton Davis Travis Jr. sued Illinois Central Railroad Co. in October 1998, about three months after he died from lung cancer. Travis, diagnosed with asbestosis in February 1998, worked for the railroad from 1949 to 1990.
In the lawsuit, which was filed in Marshall County under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, Travis’ family alleged injuries and death due to exposure to asbestos. The lawsuit was later amended to include 27 additional plaintiffs.
Travis was a resident of Tennessee. His wife is still a resident of Tennessee. He worked for the Illinois Central in Kentucky and Tennessee. Travis’ family claimed there is a possibility that he did some work in Mississippi. The railroad said that he never worked in Mississippi.
Circuit Judge R. Kenneth Coleman refused in May 2000 to dismiss the lawsuit. The railroad appealed, claiming the lawsuit should not have been filed in Mississippi. The railroad said the only appropriate places for the lawsuit to be heard are where the action accrued, where the defendant has its principal place of business, or where the plaintiff resided.
Travis’ family contended that some of the plaintiffs who joined the lawsuit live in Marshall County and there is no reason to dismiss the case. Presiding Justice Jim Smith, writing Thursday’s decision for the Supreme Court, said the high court had ruled in the past that lawsuits can be filed against out-of-state corporations wherever that company can be found in Mississippi.