Anderson v. Marathon Petroleum Company

801 F.2d 936 (7th Cir. 1986)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P was an employee of Tri-Kote, Inc., which had a contract with D to clean the inside of Marathon's oil storage tanks by sandblasting. Sandblasting in a confined space creates clouds of silicon dust, which if breathed in over a long period of time cause silicosis, a serious lung disease from which, in fact, P died. P began working for Tri-Kote in 1970 as a sandblaster, mostly on D contract and quit in 1983 when he was diagnosed as suffering from silicosis. D averaged three or four days a week sandblasting D storage tanks. Until 1980 the only form of mask that Tri-Kote supplied P to protect him from silicon dust was a so-called 'desert hood.' It had no fresh-air hose but only a wire mesh in front of the nose and mouth, and the dust could get in through the mesh. D's people often saw P coming out of a storage tank with dust on his face after sandblasting and they knew that Tri-Kote had supplied him with just the patently inadequate 'desert hood.' D did nothing to try to get Tri-Kote to protect its workers better. The two employees of Tri-Kote who sandblasted D's storage tanks before Anderson came on the scene also died of silicosis.