Earnest L. Edwards of Texas spent his life working as a pipe-fitter and consistently came in contact with asbestos. When he was diagnosed with asbestos-related disease, he filed a lawsuit and received compensation. Now deceased, Earnest's family is suing for a "different malignant asbestos-related injury," which they claim ended his life.

The suit names 35 defendants who, according to the claim, knowingly put Earnest and other employees at risk by failing to warn them of the risks associated with asbestos and insisting on using the material even when safer substitutes were available.

Though Earnest sued while he was alive, a 2000 precedent in Texas determined that an individual may sue again if he/she develops cancer after the original claim. The opinion overruled a long history of Texas cases holding that a person may only bring one lawsuit for an asbestos-related injury, even if he develops a second, catastrophic asbestos-related cancer at a much later date.