A Texas woman suffering from mesothelioma is blaming her father's employers for her exposure to asbestos.

Cynthia Leigh Chason named at least three defendants she believed caused her father to work among asbestos. Cynthia suspects that he was exposed to asbestos consistently for about 20 years, and during this time brought fibers home on his clothing. He worked for Marathon Petroleum Company and as a contractor at BASF Corporation and shipyards.

The claim states Chason "was exposed to large quantities of asbestos from the products and/or machinery manufactured, sold, designed, supplied, distributed, mined, milled relabeled, resold, processed, applied, or installed by the above-named Defendants."

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.