Reading workers diagnosed with mesothelioma have more than one legal route, and which one applies depends on where you worked: a specialty steel plant, the railroad shops, or an auto parts factory each points a claim in a different direction. Michael C. Schafle, Esq., a Philadelphia trial lawyer and counsel in the Philadelphia asbestos docket (In re: Asbestos Litigation, No. 1986-00001), sorts that out for families across Pennsylvania, Berks County included.
Steel, rail, and auto parts: Reading’s exposure map
Three employers dominate Reading asbestos work histories. Carpenter Steel’s specialty steel operation ran hot processes wrapped in asbestos insulation for decades, and Carpenter’s continued operation in Reading helps claims practically: operating employers keep records, and long-tenured co-workers can still be found. The Reading Railroad’s shops maintained locomotives and rolling stock, work that meant boiler lagging, pipe insulation, brake shoes, and gaskets. Shop crews did the dirtiest version of railroad work: boiler jackets opened, lagging stripped, brake dust blown out of assemblies with compressed air. Dana’s plant put workers around friction products and industrial machinery. Different plants, same fiber. The statewide context for sites like these is on our Pennsylvania asbestos exposure sites index.
Railroad workers follow a different law
If your exposure came from the Reading Railroad or its successors, your claim may run under FELA, the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (45 U.S.C. § 51), which governs railroad worker injury claims instead of workers’ compensation. FELA claims are fault-based, and they can reach the railroad itself rather than only the product manufacturers. FELA claims have their own rules and their own advantages, and they can coexist with product claims against asbestos manufacturers. Our page on railroad workers and asbestos explains how these cases are framed.
What evidence a Berks County case runs on
Employment records first: Social Security earnings statements, union books, pension files. Then product identification, which decades of Pennsylvania asbestos litigation have made far easier than families expect; which insulation, gaskets, and friction products were used at Carpenter, at the rail shops, and at Dana has been established witness by witness over the years. For Dana workers, friction products are the center of the story, and the supplier history of those products is thoroughly established. Finally, co-worker testimony that places you in a department during specific years. Most of this gathering is the firm’s job, not yours.
How much time Pennsylvania allows
Generally two years from diagnosis for the patient’s own claim, under 42 Pa. C.S. § 5524, and generally two years from death for a family’s wrongful death and survival actions. The nuances, including the discovery rule for slow diagnoses, are set out on our statute of limitations page. FELA carries its own limitations period, one more reason the railroad question gets answered first. When one family history includes both railroad and factory years, both analyses run side by side before anything is filed.
What this means for your family
Reading families do not need a Reading office. The file moves; the family stays put. The exposure history is taken by phone, the records are pulled by the firm, and testimony is scheduled around treatment. Venue is a strategic decision made case by case under Pennsylvania rules once the facts are documented. County court, Philadelphia’s asbestos program, and federal court are all possibilities on paper; the record decides which fits. Michael Schafle handles mesothelioma cases across the state from Philadelphia; his practice includes two multi-million-dollar mesothelioma settlements resolved in 2023, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Tell us which of Reading’s plants is in your history, and start with a free case review.