Clarence Borel: The Case That Changed Everything
"There was always a question. You just never known how dangerous it was. I never did know really. If I had a-known, I'd a-got out of it." — Clarence Borel, deposition testimony, April 30, 1970
Clarence Borel was a small-framed, soft-spoken Cajun man who never smoked, never drank, and never believed in suing anyone. He spent 33 years as an insulator along the Gulf Coast, cutting and fitting asbestos materials in shipyards, refineries, and chemical plants. By the time he was diagnosed with asbestosis in 1969 and mesothelioma in 1970, the damage was irreversible. He would die at 57, weighing less than a hundred pounds, barely able to sit up for ten minutes at a time.
But before he died, Clarence Borel did something that changed the lives of millions of people he would never meet. He sued.
His case, Borel v. Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation, became the first successful lawsuit to hold asbestos manufacturers liable for failing to warn workers about the dangers of their products. The 1973 appellate ruling established legal principles that opened the courthouse doors to hundreds of thousands of asbestos victims. It triggered what legal scholar Paul Brodeur called "the greatest avalanche of toxic-tort litigation in the history of American jurisprudence." And it eventually forced more than 60 asbestos companies into bankruptcy — bankruptcies that created the trust funds still paying claims to families like yours today.
This page tells Clarence Borel's story: who he was, what he endured, and why his case still matters more than 50 years later. It also shows what his case would look like if he walked into our office today — because the legal tools he helped create are the same ones we use to help families now.
A Working Life
Clarence Borel was born on August 14, 1912, in Jeanerette, Louisiana, right along the Bayou Teche, in the heart of Cajun country. He was the seventh of nine children and a direct descendant of the original Acadians who settled Louisiana. When Clarence was five, his family joined the wave of Cajuns migrating to southeast Texas for the oil boom. His mother died when he was eight. He left school after the eighth grade to work.
By 18, he was a can maker at an oil refinery. On May 11, 1935, he started his first job as an insulator. Eleven days later, his first child was born.
For the next 33 years, insulation work was all Clarence did. He worked shutdowns at refineries and chemical plants across Texas and Louisiana including the Texaco refinery in Port Arthur, Mobil Chemical in Beaumont, Jefferson Chemical in Port Neches, and Consolidated Steel in Orange. Sometimes work took him to Casper, Wyoming, or Lake Charles, Louisiana. He joined the Heat and Frost Insulators union in 1944. His son Bracy eventually joined him in the trade.
The work was brutal. Every day, Clarence cut, sawed, and fit asbestos insulation onto pipes, boilers, and vessels. In his own words from his 1970 deposition:
"It's just like building a house. You have to make every piece fit. You got hangers and you got pipes coming out of pipes. And you have a awful lot of sawing. There's very few sections of pipe covering you apply that you won't have to do something to it: saw it or beat it, you will have to beat it with your mallet in order to make it come together. And that creates a lot of dust."
The dust was everywhere. It coated his clothes so thick he could barely pick them up without shaking them. It filled the air every time he opened a box of insulation or poured cement from a 50-pound bag. At the end of each day, he blew asbestos dust out of his nostrils "in handfuls." He tried putting Mentholatum in his nose to keep the passages open. He tied wet bandanas around his face. He tried every respirator available, but none of them worked because you couldn't breathe through them, and if you didn't work fast enough, you lost your job.
No one ever told him the dust was dangerous.
"At no time has there ever anyone tell me that this materials was dangerous to your health — no foreman, no safety man." — Clarence Borel, 1970 deposition
The Man Behind the Work
Away from the job sites, Clarence was gentle and soft-spoken. His family called him "T" or "T-boy," which was a common Cajun nickname. He met Thelma Pierce in Port Arthur, a Louisiana girl like himself, and they married in 1934. Together they raised six children (one son and five daughters) in a modest two-bedroom house in Groves, Texas. They eventually had 19 grandchildren. Clarence always wanted to field a baseball team with his grandsons. He succeeded and then some, with two extras on the bench.
His granddaughter Bridget Bersin, who shared his story publicly for the first time in 2016, remembers a man of deep kindness:
"Grandpa had a sweet, sensitive nature. One of his daughters said that Grandpa was so kind that while he packed for trips, he would go through the house and collect old clothing from his children and pack them in his car trunk. During his search for work, he would stop at different houses of poor families and distribute the clothing."
On cold mornings, he would turn on the oven to heat the little kitchen, then carry each child out one by one, wrap them in a blanket, set them around the oven to get warm, and serve them coffee milk (warm milk with a bit of dark coffee and sugar.) It's a Cajun tradition his family still keeps.
Clarence was a man of deep faith. Though not raised particularly religious, he eventually gave his life to Christ and became a licensed minister with the Assemblies of God church. He was shy and quiet, and was the last person you'd expect to take up public speaking. But his family says that when the Holy Spirit filled him, he became a bold preacher. He mounted a loudspeaker on his car and drove through town announcing church services. His two youngest daughters would sit beside him and sing "Jesus Loves Me" over the speakers. Then he'd park downtown and preach on the street corner.
This deep trust in God, Bridget wrote, "would be vital for getting him through the remainder of his life."
Getting Sick
The chest congestion started years before anyone understood what it meant. Clarence would wake up after dusty jobs feeling bad all over, pains across his chest, unable to get started until he'd coughed and spit up the dust he'd inhaled the day before. He called it pleurisy. Doctors took X-rays. They said his lungs looked "cloudy" and asked what kind of work he did. When he told them, they said that explained it.
In 1964, while getting a chest X-ray for a life insurance policy, a doctor told him his lungs were cloudy because of his work around asbestos. The doctor told him to avoid it. But there was no avoiding it. At least not if he wanted to keep working and keep supporting his family. And no one told him the cloudiness meant he was dying.
In January 1969, Clarence had a lung biopsy. The diagnosis was asbestosis, a chronic, irreversible scarring of the lungs from asbestos fibers. There was no cure then and there is still no cure today.
His health declined rapidly. He grew weaker and spent most of his time on the couch, struggling to breathe. He took a trip to Nebraska to see his daughter and her family. He spent the drive lying in the back seat, too sick to sit up. By Thanksgiving 1969, the whole family gathered in the backyard one last time. Looking back at photos from that day, Bridget says, "Grandpa's pain is very evident."
In February 1970, surgeons removed his right lung. The pathology came back: mesothelioma.
The Decision to Sue
Throughout his decline, Clarence's workers' compensation attorney, Ward Stephenson, repeatedly asked him to consider suing the manufacturers of the asbestos products he'd worked with for decades. Clarence refused. He didn't believe in suing — not just in this case, but as a general principle.
Then something changed his mind. In Bridget's words:
"He did so because of his co-workers. He realized that they were going to go through the same struggles as he did, and there were little, if any, reparations for the harm they suffered. For this reason, Grandpa decided to move forward with a law suit."
On October 20, 1969, Ward Stephenson filed Borel v. Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Clarence Borel was suing twelve asbestos manufacturers.
He would not live to see the trial.
The Case
The Deposition
By April 1970, Clarence was dying. He had one lung. He weighed less than a hundred pounds. He couldn't stand without blacking out. He couldn't sit up for more than five or ten minutes before the room started spinning. He survived on cream of wheat, jello, and beef bouillon because he couldn't swallow solid food. His wife Thelma gave him morphine shots for the pain.
The defense attorneys wanted to take his deposition so it could be used at trial. Clarence was too sick to travel to a courthouse, so the deposition would take place in his living room.
On April 23, 1970, a procession of Lincolns and Cadillacs lined the oak-shaded street outside of his home in Groves, Texas. At least seven defense attorneys representing the asbestos manufacturers crowded into Clarence's tiny living room, along with his attorney Ward Stephenson and a court reporter. Clarence lay on the couch.
Stephenson tried to set ground rules. "He just got out of the hospital here about two weeks ago," he told the defense lawyers. "He don't have enough strength to go very long... We don't mind coming back a dozen times if you all want to, to interrogate him. But he runs out of strength and they have to give him pain medication."
One defense attorney asked if they should wait two or three months until Borel was in better shape.
"There isn't any need, Ben," Stephenson replied. "Just don't go into that."
Everyone understood what he meant. Clarence Borel wasn't going to get better.
The questioning began. A man near death, lying on his couch, being cross-examined by attorneys whose clients had made the products that were killing him. They asked the same questions over and over, probing for inconsistencies, looking for ways to shift blame. They pressed him about smoking — maybe that explained his cancer?
But Clarence had never smoked. Not a cigarette, not a drop of liquor in his life. The asbestos industry's standard defense of blaming the worker's lifestyle collapsed against this quiet, godly man.
Through it all, Thelma politely served the attorneys coffee.
The deposition stretched across multiple days in one-hour increments because that's all that Clarence could endure. He testified about the products he'd used: Kaylo, Thermobestos, and Unibestos. He testified about the dust that filled the air every time he opened a box or poured cement from a bag. He testified about blowing asbestos dust out of his nostrils in handfuls. He testified that no one had ever warned him that the dust could kill him.
"There was always a question. You just never known how dangerous it was. I never did know really. If I had a-known, I'd a-got out of it."
June 3, 1970
After the ordeal of his deposition, Clarence could no longer get up or eat. He was hospitalized briefly but decided he wanted to go home to die. His son Bracy sat by his side. His two youngest daughters sang hymns to comfort him, which is a tradition his sisters continue whenever they gather today.
On June 3, 1970, Clarence Borel died. He was 57 years old.
His case did not die with him.
Under Texas law, Thelma Borel was substituted as plaintiff. Ward Stephenson continued the fight.
The Trial and the Ruling
The case went to trial in September 1971 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Clarence's deposition testimony — the words he'd given while lying on his couch, barely able to breathe — was read to the jury.
Stephenson argued that the asbestos manufacturers were liable under a legal theory called "strict liability for failure to warn." The theory was straightforward: companies that sell dangerous products have a duty to warn users of the risks. The asbestos manufacturers had known for decades that their products could cause fatal diseases. They had chosen not to warn workers like Clarence Borel. That failure made them liable for the harm their products caused.
The jury agreed. They returned a verdict for Thelma Borel against eleven of the twelve defendants.
The asbestos industry appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In 1973, the appellate court affirmed the verdict in a landmark ruling that established several crucial legal principles:
Strict Liability for Failure to Warn. Manufacturers can be held liable for harm caused by their products if they fail to provide adequate warnings about known dangers, even if they didn't intend to cause injury and even if they manufactured the product carefully. The product is considered "defective" because it lacks a warning.
The Duty to Warn. Companies have a legal obligation to inform workers and consumers of health risks that aren't obvious. Asbestos looked harmless. It didn't smell. It didn't cause immediate pain. But the manufacturers knew it was deadly, and their silence was a breach of their legal duty.
Joint and Several Liability. The court recognized that asbestos diseases develop through cumulative exposure to many different products over many years. Victims don't have to prove exactly which product caused their disease. If a company's product contributed to the overall exposure, that's enough to hold them liable. This meant workers like Clarence (who had used products from dozens of manufacturers over a 33-year career) could seek compensation from all of them.
The defendants appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1974. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case, letting the Fifth Circuit's ruling stand.
A Cajun man with an eighth-grade education, who never believed in suing anyone, had brought down the asbestos industry's legal defenses. For the first time, workers and their families could hold manufacturers accountable for the diseases caused by asbestos exposure.
The Floodgates
The Borel decision, as legal scholar Paul Brodeur wrote in Outrageous Misconduct: The Asbestos Industry on Trial, "triggered the greatest avalanche of toxic-tort litigation in the history of American jurisprudence. Some twenty-five thousand lawsuits were brought over the next decade as word spread that asbestos manufacturers could be held strictly liable under the law."
But the lawsuits did more than compensate victims. The discovery process (where plaintiffs' attorneys could demand internal company documents) exposed what the asbestos industry had known and hidden for decades. Memos surfaced showing that companies had conducted medical studies on their own workers, found horrifying rates of lung disease, and buried the results. Clarence's lawsuit finally began to reveal a decades-long conspiracy to suppress evidence, fund misleading research, and delay regulation.
The wave of litigation eventually drove more than 60 asbestos companies into bankruptcy. But those bankruptcies came with a requirement: the companies had to establish trust funds to compensate current and future victims. The trusts created through these bankruptcies were funded by the assets of the bankrupt companies and their insurers and are still paying claims today.
Every trust claim filed by a family with mesothelioma or asbestosis traces its origins back to Clarence Borel's living room.
The Legacy
A Voice That Still Speaks
More than fifty years after Clarence Borel died on his couch in Groves, Texas, his voice is still heard in courtrooms across America.
His deposition testimony given in one-hour increments while he struggled to breathe has become part of the permanent record of asbestos litigation. Attorneys still use it today to prove what products were present at specific job sites, what conditions workers faced, and what the industry knew and concealed.
We've seen this firsthand. A few years ago, we began representing a man who had lived just down the street from Clarence Borel in Groves. He had worked at many of the same Gulf Coast refineries, but he started after Clarence passed away. When we needed to prove that asbestos insulation products had been used at those facilities, we turned to Clarence Borel's own testimony. His deposition established that the same products his crew installed in the 1950s and 1960s were still present when our client worked there a decade later.
Clarence Borel's choice to take a stand is still protecting people more than fifty years after he died.
The Family He Left Behind
Clarence didn't just leave behind a legal legacy. He left behind a family still living with the consequences of asbestos exposure.
His wife Thelma, who served coffee to the defense attorneys and continued the lawsuit after his death, passed away in 2001. His son Bracy, who had joined his father in the insulation trade, and who had sat by his bedside as he died, was later diagnosed with asbestosis himself.
So were three of Bracy's siblings.
The exposure didn't stay at the job site. Clarence's daughters remember shaking the white asbestos dust from his work clothes in the garage before putting them in the washing machine. "It was like snow," they recalled, as the dust filled the air. At Christmas, Clarence would bring home loose asbestos fiber to decorate the family tree. He thought it was beautiful "flocking" that his children even took to school to decorate classroom trees.
The asbestos followed him home. And decades later, it made his children sick.
In 2016, Clarence's son Bracy, daughter-in-law Mary Lynne, and granddaughter Bridget Bersin traveled to Washington, D.C., to share his story publicly for the first time at the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization's annual conference. Bracy, then in his seventies and living with asbestosis, connected with the global asbestos advocacy community after renowned photojournalist Earl Dotter reached out while researching his exhibit "BADGES: A Memorial Tribute to Asbestos Workers."
In his first messages to the organization, Bracy wrote that his father Clarence "was his hero."
He's not the only one who feels that way.
What Clarence Borel Made Possible
Clarence Borel didn't set out to change the law. He was a shy, quiet man who didn't believe in suing anyone. But when he realized that his coworkers would suffer the same fate he had, he made a different choice. He decided to file a lawsuit against the companies that made the products that killed him.
That choice created the legal framework that protects asbestos victims today:
The right to sue manufacturers. Before Borel, asbestos companies had successfully avoided liability for decades. Workers who got sick had no legal recourse against the companies whose products had poisoned them. Borel established that manufacturers have a duty to warn and that failing to warn makes them liable for the consequences.
The principle of joint liability. Asbestos diseases develop through cumulative exposure over years or decades. Workers rarely know exactly which product caused their illness. Borel established that every company whose products contributed to the exposure can be held responsible. This is why we can file claims against every manufacturer whose products our clients encountered — and not just one.
The foundation for trust funds. The wave of litigation that followed Borel eventually forced more than 60 asbestos companies to create the trust funds that still pay billions of dollars to victims and their families. Every trust claim filed today exists because Clarence Borel proved that manufacturers could be held accountable.
A permanent record of corporate misconduct. The discovery process in asbestos litigation (which Borel made possible) exposed internal documents showing that companies had known about asbestos dangers for decades and deliberately concealed them. This evidence has been used in thousands of subsequent cases and helped drive regulatory changes that have saved countless lives.
The Reluctant Hero
Some people hesitate to take legal action — not because they don't have a case, but because they were raised to believe that suing is wrong. Clarence Borel felt that way too. His granddaughter Bridget put it plainly: "Grandpa was against suing; he did not believe in suing. Not just in this case, but in general." But Clarence understood something important. If he didn't speak up, others would keep getting hurt. The companies that had poisoned him would keep poisoning his coworkers, and those workers would have no way to fight back.
When Clarence finally agreed to file his lawsuit, it wasn't for himself. It was for the workers who would come after him.
"Clarence's story embodies another important truth about asbestos: though often thought of as a thing of the past in the United States, its effects still haunt us to this day. Every year we fail to end this man-made asbestos disaster, we are ensuring that the American public will suffer decades of continued health repercussions from asbestos exposure. Despite Clarence's landmark victory nearly 50 years ago, asbestos continues to wreak havoc on his family, and could for generations to come."
— Linda Reinstein and Bridget Bersin, New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy (2016)
That's the power of taking a stand. One voice can help thousands.
What Borel's Case Would Look Like Today
Clarence Borel's 1969 lawsuit was groundbreaking, but the legal landscape has changed dramatically since then. The very success of his case (and the thousands that followed) created new avenues for compensation that didn't exist when he was alive.
Imagine Clarence Borel walks into our office today with a mesothelioma diagnosis. Same work history: 33 years as an insulator at Gulf Coast refineries and chemical plants. Same products: Kaylo, Thermobestos, Unibestos, 85% Magnesia. Same employers: Fuller-Austin Insulation, Armstrong, Fluor Corporation, and others.
What legal options would he have now?
Trust Claims
The eleven companies Clarence sued in 1969 and won against have all since filed for bankruptcy and established asbestos trust funds. Johns-Manville, Pittsburgh Corning, Owens Corning, Fibreboard, and the others are no longer defendants you can sue in court. Instead, they've become trusts you can file claims against.
For someone with Clarence's work history, trust claims would likely be the foundation of his compensation. He worked with identifiable products from identifiable manufacturers for more than three decades. Our job would be to document every product he encountered and file claims with every trust whose products contributed to his exposure.
With a mesothelioma diagnosis and his extensive exposure history, Clarence's trust claims alone could exceed $1 million.
Learn more about how trust claims work.
Premises Liability Lawsuit
Clarence worked as a contractor at refineries owned by companies like Texaco (now Chevron). He wasn't a Texaco employee — he worked for insulation contractors like Fuller-Austin who sent crews to these facilities. That distinction determines who Clarence could sue.
Because Clarence wasn't a direct employee of the refinery owners, he wouldn't be limited to workers' compensation claims against them. He could sue them directly for premises liability, arguing that they knew asbestos was present on their property, knew it was dangerous, and failed to warn or protect the contract workers they brought onto their sites.
Premises liability lawsuits can recover damages that workers' compensation cannot: compensation for pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and the full measure of harm caused by the property owner's negligence.
Learn more about premises liability lawsuits.
Product Liability Lawsuits
The manufacturers Clarence originally sued have established trusts, so we'd file trust claims rather than lawsuits against them. But that wouldn't be the end of the product liability analysis.
We would investigate what other asbestos-containing products Clarence encountered during his career. Pumps, valves, gaskets, electrical components, welding materials and other products Clarence worked with utilized asbestos extensively. That's because asbestos was in thousands of products, and many of those manufacturers are still in business and can still be sued.
We would also look at equipment manufacturers. Companies that made boilers, turbines, or industrial machinery often specified asbestos-containing components or shipped their equipment with asbestos gaskets and insulation already installed. Some of these manufacturers never filed bankruptcy and remain viable defendants today.
Learn more about product liability lawsuits.
Workers' Compensation
Clarence did file a workers' compensation claim prior to filing his lawsuit. His direct employer was Fuller-Austin Insulation Company, a contractor that sent crews to refineries and chemical plants across the Gulf Coast. On June 4, 1969, Clarence reached a settlement with Fuller-Austin's workers' compensation carrier, National Surety Corporation. He received $8,000 plus $5,081.10 for medical and hospital expenses for a total of $13,081.10.
That was the extent of what workers' compensation could provide. No compensation for pain and suffering. No accountability for the decades of exposure that were killing him. Just $13,000 for a man who would be dead within a year.
But because Clarence worked for a contractor rather than the refineries themselves, he had legal options that direct refinery employees would not have had.
Texas law (like most states) requires employees to pursue workers' compensation claims against their direct employer rather than suing them. This is called the "exclusive remedy" rule. If Clarence had been a Texaco employee, he could have filed a workers' compensation claim against Texaco, but he couldn't have sued them.
Because Clarence worked for Fuller-Austin instead, the legal picture was different:
Against Fuller-Austin (his employer): He was limited to workers' compensation. He couldn't sue them directly.
Against the refineries (the property owners): He could sue them for premises liability. They weren't his employer, so the exclusive remedy rule didn't apply.
Against the product manufacturers: He could sue them regardless of his employment status. They made the products that poisoned him.
This employer-versus-property-owner distinction is why Clarence's lawsuit targeted the asbestos manufacturers and why premises liability claims against refinery owners remain viable today for contract workers.
There's one more twist to this story. Fuller-Austin Insulation eventually filed for bankruptcy and established its own asbestos trust. Why? Because as a contractor, Fuller-Austin sent workers into hazardous environments across hundreds of job sites. The company exposed not just its own employees like Clarence, but workers employed by the refineries and plants where Fuller-Austin crews worked. Those refinery employees (who couldn't sue their own employers) could sue Fuller-Austin for exposing them to asbestos. The resulting litigation eventually drove Fuller-Austin into bankruptcy.
If Clarence were diagnosed today, we would file a claim with the Fuller-Austin trust in addition to claims against Johns-Manville, Pittsburgh Corning, Owens Corning, and every other trust whose products he encountered. The company that employed him and limited his legal options during his lifetime now provides another source of compensation for workers with similar exposure histories.
Learn more about workers' compensation claims.
VA Disability Benefits
Clarence Borel didn't serve in the military, but many of the workers we represent did — particularly those who worked in shipyards or served in the Navy, where asbestos exposure was pervasive.
If Clarence had military service, especially aboard ships or at naval shipyards, he could apply for VA disability compensation. Mesothelioma caused by service-connected asbestos exposure qualifies for the VA's highest disability rating. These benefits are monthly, tax-free, and completely separate from trust claims, lawsuits, or workers' compensation.
Learn more about VA disability benefits for mesothelioma.
Social Security Disability
Because mesothelioma is an aggressive, terminal cancer, Clarence would qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance under the Compassionate Allowances program. This program expedites disability benefits for people with conditions so severe that they obviously meet Social Security's disability standards.
SSDI provides monthly income while other claims are being processed. It's not dependent on proving anyone's fault. Simply having a qualifying diagnosis and sufficient work history to be insured under Social Security is enough for a claim to be approved.
Learn more about SSDI for mesothelioma.
Claims for Family Members
Clarence's asbestos exposure didn't stay at the refinery. His daughters shook the dust from his work clothes. His children decorated Christmas trees with loose asbestos fiber he brought home. Decades later, four of his six children developed asbestosis. And although we cannot disclose their relationship for privacy reasons, we are proud to represent more than one of Clarence's relatives after they developed asbestosis.
If Clarence walked into our office today, we wouldn't just evaluate his claims. We would offer free asbestos health screening to every family member who lived with him during his working years. Anyone who developed an asbestos-related condition from secondary exposure would have their own claims, against the same trusts, and potentially the same defendants, whose products Clarence carried home on his clothes.
Learn more about secondary exposure claims.
The Coordinated Strategy
The key to maximizing compensation isn't just knowing these options exist. It's knowing how to coordinate them.
Each type of claim has its own rules, its own deadlines, and its own strategic considerations. Some claims are fast but limited in value. Others take longer but offer larger potential recoveries. Some can be pursued simultaneously; others need to be sequenced carefully to avoid offsetting each other.
For someone with Clarence Borel's profile, here's how we would approach the case:
File trust claims early. Trust claims can often be processed in months, providing meaningful compensation while longer legal processes develop. With mesothelioma, we'd pursue expedited review for faster payment, while evaluating whether individual review might yield significantly higher recoveries from specific trusts.
Investigate premises and product liability defendants. While trust claims are processing, we'd research which solvent companies — property owners, equipment manufacturers, component suppliers — may be liable for Clarence's exposure. These lawsuits take longer but can produce substantial additional compensation.
Coordinate with workers' compensation. In some states, workers' compensation benefits can offset or reduce other recoveries. We'd structure the timing and settlement of claims to minimize these offsets and maximize what the family keeps.
Apply for SSDI immediately. Disability benefits provide monthly income while everything else is pending. For a mesothelioma diagnosis, approval is typically fast.
Screen family members. Secondary exposure claims are often overlooked. Identifying family members with asbestos-related conditions can significantly increase the total recovery — and ensure everyone affected gets the help they deserve.
This is what comprehensive representation looks like. Not just filing one type of claim, but building a coordinated strategy that pursues every available path to compensation.
Borel's Purpose, Continued
Clarence Borel didn't sue for money. By the time he filed his lawsuit, he knew he was dying. No verdict could save him. No settlement could give him back the years the asbestos had stolen. He sued because he understood something that the companies counting on his silence had failed to anticipate: one person's fight could protect everyone who came after.
His granddaughter Bridget put it simply: "He realized that they were going to go through the same struggles as he did, and there were little, if any, reparations for the harm they suffered." Clarence wanted there to be reparations. He wanted there to be a way to fight back.
Now there is.
Every mesothelioma lawsuit we file uses legal principles established in Borel v. Fibreboard. Every trust claim we submit exists because Clarence's case proved manufacturers could be held accountable, and because the resulting litigation created those trusts. Every family we help is walking through a door that was shut until Clarence Borel opened it.
We didn't know Clarence personally. But we know his case. We've read his deposition. We've used his testimony to help clients who worked the same refineries he did. And we carry forward the work he started: holding companies accountable for the harm they caused and making sure families get the compensation they deserve.
If You've Been Diagnosed
If you or someone in your family has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis, or another asbestos-related disease, you have legal options that didn't exist before Clarence Borel took a stand.
Trust claims. Premises liability lawsuits. Product liability lawsuits. Workers' compensation. VA benefits. SSDI. The specific combination depends on your work history, your diagnosis, and where your exposure occurred — but the framework Clarence helped build makes all of it possible.
You don't have to figure out which claims apply to your situation. That's our job. When you call us, we'll review your work history and exposure, explain which trusts and defendants may be liable, and help you understand all of your options. If you decide to move forward, we'll handle everything so you can focus on your health and your family.
The consultation is free. There's no obligation. And you pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you.
The asbestos story in America is still being written. Clarence Borel wrote the chapter on accountability. Every family who came after added to the story he started. If your family has been affected by asbestos, you're part of the asbestos story now, too. The asbestos companies didn't warn you either, did they?
Let us help you write a chapter as meaningful as Clarence's, and one that gets your family the compensation you deserve and continues the work he began more than fifty years ago.
Call us at 833-4-ASBESTOS (833-427-2378) or schedule your free consultation online.
References
Reinstein, Linda, and Bridget Bersin. "Clarence Borel: The Man Behind the Court Case." New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy 26, no. 4 (2017): 622–629. DOI: 10.1177/1048291116679964.
Brodeur, Paul. Outrageous Misconduct: The Asbestos Industry on Trial. New York: Pantheon Books, 1985.
Deposition of Clarence Borel. Borel v. Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation, Civil Action No. 6449, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Beaumont Division. April 23, April 30, and May 1, 1970.
Borel v. Fibreboard Paper Products Corporation, 493 F.2d 1076 (5th Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 869 (1974).