The Chrysler company sent a process server to the funeral of Harold St. John of New Jersey last week, demanding that Mr. St. John’s body undergo further testing to prove that he did in fact die as a result of mesothelioma cancer.

A lawsuit filed by Mr. St. John, a retired airline worker, named Chrysler and Honeywell as responsible for his asbestos exposure, and a trial was scheduled to begin today. Mr. St. John alleged that he was exposed to asbestos while installing automobile brakes in his father’s automobile shop in the late fifties and sixties. A number of cases of asbestos cancer as a result of exposure to asbestos-laden automobile brakes have been reported, as asbestos usage was not regulated until the late seventies. Asbestos was widely used in brake linings and brake pads due to its ability to withstand high temperatures.

Following his death on February 28th, the trial was postponed.

Chrysler secured a court order on the day of Mr. St. John’s funeral, which mandated that his body be accessible for further tissue testing, and a process server was sent to the funeral home where the funeral director was served with court documents. Mr. St. John’s body was not buried.

A statement released from Detroit, Michigan-based Chrysler said that “Chrysler’s sympathies are with the St. John family…this process is routine in such matters in order to preserve tissues needed to establish the cause of asbestos-related disease.”

The St. John family plans to fight Chrysler’s demands, as Mr. St. John underwent a biopsy of the pleural lining of his lungs while he was still alive. This tissue sample, according to his family, proved that he died of an asbestos-related illness.

The body of Harold St. John, who was only 67 years old when he passed away, remains in a New Jersey funeral home.

Source:

WCBSTV.com
Michigan Messenger

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