Nashua, NH Mesothelioma Lawsuit: Exposure, Deadlines, Payouts

If you or a relative developed mesothelioma after asbestos exposure in Nashua, New Hampshire, you can file a mesothelioma lawsuit against the companies that manufactured or sold the asbestos-containing products involved. New Hampshire gives you three years from diagnosis, or from the date of death in a wrongful death case, to file.¹² Reported recoveries for New Hampshire patients have run from roughly $1.4 million to $4.68 million, and bankruptcy trust funds can add further compensation on top of a lawsuit.³

Who You Sue, and Why Not Your Employer

Mesothelioma suits in New Hampshire are brought against the manufacturers and distributors of asbestos-containing products, not the Nashua factory, mill, or job site where the exposure happened. State workers’ compensation law under RSA 281-A:8 bars employees from suing their own employers over on-the-job exposure and routes those claims into the workers’ comp system instead.⁴

The product companies named in these cases are typically the industrial names that supplied insulation, gaskets, boilers, pumps, and similar materials. The list includes Johns-Manville, Owens-Corning, W.R. Grace, General Electric, Ingersoll-Rand, A.W. Chesterton Company, Ford Motor Company, and Crane Company, among others.⁵ Some are still operating and can be sued directly. Others went through bankruptcy and now pay through trust funds, which are a separate track covered below.

The Three-Year Deadline

New Hampshire’s personal injury statute of limitations is three years under RSA 508. For asbestos disease, the clock does not start when you were exposed. It starts when you discover, or reasonably should have discovered, the injury and its cause.¹ That discovery rule matters because mesothelioma typically surfaces decades after exposure, often from work done in the 1960s or 1970s.

Wrongful death claims run on the same three-year window, measured from the date of death.² If a family member has already died from mesothelioma, that date is the deadline to pay attention to, not the earlier date of diagnosis.

Where Nashua Exposure Happened

Nashua’s industrial history produced a long roster of exposure sites. The Nashua Manufacturing Company, a cotton textile mill, and the Nashua Corporation paper mill on Franklin Street are two of the biggest. Other documented sites include Sprague Electric, Ingersoll Rand, Nashua Paper Corp., Demers Truck Center, Hampshire Chemical Corporation, Nashua Light Heat and Power Company, ABCO Welding and Industrial Supplies, and New England Wood Preserving Co. Public and commercial buildings also appear on exposure lists, including Nashua Memorial Hospital, the Boston Air Route Traffic Control Center, the Nashua Municipal Airport, the Sheraton Tara Hotel, and offices of the Nashua Housing Authority and New England Telephone and Telegraph Company.⁶

Exposure in Nashua was not limited to workplaces. For much of the twentieth century, an asbestos manufacturer distributed waste as free fill to property owners in Nashua and Hudson, a practice that continued until 1981. That fill ended up on residential and commercial properties, under roads and railroad beds, and along riverbanks, and the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services still tracks these inactive disposal sites.⁷ In 2007, the EPA removed about 95 tons of asbestos-contaminated soil from a half-acre area between the Nashua public library parking lot and the Nashua River on Court Street.⁸ Residential exposure through fill is one reason a case may be viable even if the person never worked in a mill.

What a Nashua Lawsuit Can Be Worth

New Hampshire caps non-economic damages at $875,000 in personal injury cases and at $300,000 for a spouse’s non-economic damages in a wrongful death case. The state does not allow punitive damages in mesothelioma claims.⁴ Economic damages such as medical bills and lost income are not subject to those caps.

Reported outcomes for New Hampshire patients give a working range. One firm disclosed individual recoveries of $4.68 million for a Milton man, $2.55 million for a Berlin patient, $2.5 million for a Hampstead paper mill machine operator, $2.46 million for a Meredith man, $1.55 million for a New Hampshire firefighter, $1.49 million for a Rochester auto mechanic diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma, and $1.45 million for a boiler technician. The same source reports that over 99 percent of its mesothelioma cases settle before trial, and that national settlement averages fall between $1 million and $1.4 million.³

New Hampshire also follows modified comparative negligence with a 51 percent bar under RSA 507:7-d. A plaintiff whose share of fault exceeds the defendant’s cannot recover, and any award is reduced by the plaintiff’s share of fault.⁹ In mesothelioma cases, comparative fault rarely drives the outcome, because the exposure came from products workers were handed to use.

Asbestos Trust Funds as a Second Source

Many of the companies most responsible for asbestos products are bankrupt. Federal law under Section 524(g) lets them set up trusts to pay current and future claimants. More than 60 trusts are active, holding over $30 billion combined, and they have paid out over $17 billion since Johns-Manville created the first one in 1988.¹⁰

Individual trusts pay anywhere from $7,000 to $1.2 million per claim, but most pay only a fraction of a claim’s scheduled value because the funds are finite. The Johns-Manville trust currently pays at 5.1 percent of scheduled value, while NARCO pays at 100 percent. Because most patients were exposed to products from many companies, attorneys typically file against 20 or more trusts at once, with combined trust recoveries averaging $300,000 to $400,000.¹⁰ Trust claims and lawsuits against solvent companies can be pursued in parallel, though some states require disclosure of trust payments during litigation.¹¹

Veterans and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard

Veterans cannot sue the U.S. government or the military over asbestos exposure. Claims instead go against the private companies that supplied the asbestos-containing products.⁵ Veterans may also be eligible for VA disability benefits tied to hazardous materials exposure, and they can file claims with the asbestos trust funds.¹²

The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, is a major exposure site for New Hampshire veterans. Nearly 400 structures at the 278-acre facility contained asbestos, and pipefitters, welders, electricians, and sheet metal mechanics faced the heaviest exposure.¹³¹⁴¹⁵ Since 1979, more than 300 New Hampshire residents have died from asbestos-related illnesses, and the state ranks 14th nationally for asbestosis deaths.¹²

How a Case Moves From Filing to Payment

A case starts with a consultation. The attorney reviews medical records, work history, and the exposure timeline to identify which companies’ products were involved. From there, the attorney picks the most favorable jurisdiction for filing, which may be New Hampshire or another state depending on where the defendants are headquartered or where the exposure took place.⁴

After the complaint is filed, defendants generally have 30 days to respond. Discovery follows, with document exchanges and depositions. Most cases settle rather than going to trial. Personal injury cases typically resolve within six to 18 months, and some plaintiffs begin receiving funds within 90 days.¹⁶ If the patient has died, a family member or estate representative can bring a wrongful death claim, which in New Hampshire can cover medical bills, lost income, funeral expenses, pain and suffering, and loss of companionship.¹⁷

1
New Hampshire Judicial Branch. Statutes of Limitation and the Discovery Rule
2
Mesothelioma.com. New Hampshire Mesothelioma Legal Information
3
Sokolove Law. New Hampshire Mesothelioma Lawsuits
4
Asbestos.com. New Hampshire Mesothelioma Lawyers
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Mesothelioma.com. Asbestos Companies
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Mesothelioma.com. Asbestos Exposure in Nashua, New Hampshire
7
NH Department of Environmental Services. Inactive Asbestos Disposal Sites
8
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA Cleanup of Asbestos Contamination in Nashua
9
Justia. Comparative and Contributory Negligence Laws, 50-State Survey
10
Asbestos.com. Asbestos Trust Funds
11
Motley Rice LLC. Asbestos Bankruptcy Trust Claims
12
Concord Monitor. Asbestos Exposure May Affect New Hampshire Veterans Even Today
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Mesothelioma Hub. New Hampshire Mesothelioma
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EPA. Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Cleanup Profile
15
Seacoast Online. EPA Proposes Removing Portsmouth Naval Shipyard From Superfund List
16
Mesothelioma Hope. Mesothelioma Lawsuit
17
Early Lucarelli Sweeney & Meisenkothen. New Hampshire Mesothelioma Lawsuits