Colorado Jury Awards Silicosis Victim $16.8 Million
By Emerson Schwartrzkopf
DENVER – A quartz-surface/silicosis case yielded a split result here late last week.
While Tyler Jordan won his case on engineered-stone products causing silicosis and other serious health conditions, only three companies were found liable – and the largest sharew of responsibility is with his own family’s fabrication shop.
A jury on April 30 assessed $16.8 million in damages to Jordan, but placed 63% of the responsibility on Jordan Marble & Granite LLC, the Loveland, Colo.-based show where he worked, and 2% on Jordan himself.
The jury cited surface manufacturers Cambria Company LLC and Hyundai L&C USA as being 32% and 3%, respectively, at fault.
The jury exempted three other defendants – Caesarstone USA, DuPont and Makita USA – from responsibility.
The verdict came at the end of a three-week trial in a case originally filed in April 2024 by Jordan and his spouse Caitlin.
The jury also awarded Caitlin Jordan $600,000 in non-economic damages.
It’s the first silicosis-related legal decision on quartz surfaces rendered outside California.
Jordan’s fabrication career was solely at his family’s shop, where he worked for a decade before being diagnosed with silicosis in August 2022. Since then, he received a kidney transplant in 2024 due to end-stage renal failure, and also suffers from autoimmune vasculitis.
Jordan was 29 at the time of filing of the case.
Jordan’s case alleged that a variety of industry manufacturers of engineered stone either didn’t offer any warnings, or provided inadequate information, on crystalline silica exposure. It also accused tooling and machine manufacturers of failing to warn about silica-based hazards.
Defendants questioned the adequacy of dust suppression at the Jordan shop, and argued that they supplied ample information about silica hazards and ways to decrease dangerous levels at the workplace.
The jury, in its 37-page verdict, didn’t find any design flaws in the products that would contribute to Jordan’s condition, and also failed to note any dangers if used under proper conditions and procedures.
However, the jury did find that both Cambria and Hyundai L&C did ““misrepresent a fact concerning the character or quality of the engineered stone that would be material to potential purchasers or users of the product,” and that Jordan and the shop reasonably relied on such misrepresentation.
The jury also found Hyundai L&C “negligent by failing to exercise reasonable care to prevent the engineered stone from creating an unreasonable risk of harm to the person or property of one who might be reasonably expected to use the engineered stone while it was being used in the manner the defendant might have reasonably expected.”
A May 1 article at Bloomberg Law reported that Jordan disagreed with the large allocation of fault place on his parents’ shop. The article also noted that an attorney for Cambria noted the company’s products aren’t defective and employees are protected if following Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) standards. The company also intends to appeal the verdict.
The initial lawsuit also named other companies and persons, but the jury verdict only included five companies. In her instructions to the jury, District Court Judge Sarah B. Wallace, noted that 3M, C&C North America, DITEQ, Lotte Chemical California, LX Hausys America, Moldex-Metric, M S International, Park Industries Inc., and Pental Granite and Marble came to settlements with Jordan before and during the trial. None of those companies were found to be responsible by the jury.
Other companies named in the suit, but not found to be at fault in the jury’s decision, were Arizona Tile, The Stone Collection, Alpha Professional Tools, Diamax Industries, Terminator Diamond Products and Rocket Supply.