Congratulations to Advocate Capital, Inc.'s friend, Simon Greenstone Panatier. After nearly a decade of fighting for their client, Dennis Seay, the firm has achieved a final from the South Carolina Supreme Court affirming the 2015 verdict on behalf of the family.
Mr. Seay performed maintenance and repair work at the Celanese factory in the 1970s. Although Mr. Seay was employed by Daniel Construction Co., a Celanese contractor, the lawsuit maintains that Irving, Texas-based Celanese nevertheless controlled the safety policies at the plant and failed to provide warning of, or protection from, asbestos hazards. He died in 2014 at the age of 70, a little over a year after being diagnosed with mesothelioma.
"In that last year of his life, his lungs collapsed ten times, and they had to be drained 11 times," says Chris Panatier of Simon Greenstone Panatier PC. "He suffered immensely and ultimately died the way many mesothelioma victims do: a combination of blood constriction, wasting, and suffocation."
The Defendant maintained that they were the mesothelioma victim's statutory employer from the beginning of litigation and were only responsible for paying workers' compensation benefits. They filed a motion to have the case dismissed, and when that failed, and a jury awarded the estate compensatory damages and punitive damages, they appealed the verdict. In 2019, the appeals court confirmed the jury's decision, and the company appealed once again, this time to the South Carolina Supreme Court. In 2021 the South Carolina Supreme Court also affirmed the jury’s verdict.
On April 5, 2022, the South Carolina Supreme Court denied the Defendant's final petition for rehearing, which effectively ended the case.
We at Advocate Capital, Inc. are thankful for attorneys like our friends and clients at Simon Greenstone Panatier, who battle against those who are negligent, demanding accountability and responsibility.
