Court throws out judgment blaming Montana asbestos deaths on BNSF railroad

By MATTHEW BROWN

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A federal appeals court has overturned a judge’s finding that BNSF Railway contributed to the deaths of two people in a Montana mining town where thousands have been sickened by asbestos exposure.

Following a civil trial, a jury in 2024 awarded $4 million each to the estates of the two people who died in 2020. Their families blamed the railroad for allowing asbestos-contaminated mining material to accumulate in a rail yard in downtown Libby, Montana.

But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in an opinion issued Tuesday sided with BNSF, which argued it was required under law to accept the vermiculite material for shipment and had been told it was safe. BNSF is considered a “common carrier” under federal law because its services are offered to the general public, a status that shields it from some legal liabilities.

“The dangerous condition here — accumulated asbestos dust — arose solely from BNSF’s operation as a common carrier executing its federally mandated duty to transport vermiculite,” Judge Morgan Christen wrote in Tuesday’s opinion. He a...