Luzerne County residents diagnosed with mesothelioma can pursue claims rooted in the Wyoming Valley’s two defining industries: anthracite coal and the ironworks that served it. Michael C. Schafle, Esq., a Philadelphia trial lawyer and counsel in the Philadelphia asbestos docket (In re: Asbestos Litigation, No. 1986-00001), represents mesothelioma patients and families across Pennsylvania, including Wilkes-Barre.
Coal built the valley, and steam ran the coal
The anthracite industry around Wilkes-Barre was more than the mines. Every colliery had its surface plant: breakers, boiler houses, hoists, wash plants, machine shops. Steam power ran through asbestos-lagged pipes and boilers, machinery braked on asbestos friction parts, and the men who repaired all of it handled insulation by hand. A miner’s work history frequently includes years above ground in exactly these jobs, and every stop can add defendants to a claim. The 1959 Knox Mine disaster effectively ended deep mining in the valley, but by then the exposure had been delivered; the men who worked those final decades are the ones facing diagnoses now. Our miners page and the occupations hub lay out the trades involved. Black lung dominated attention in coal country for so long that families are often surprised mesothelioma claims exist for miners at all; they do, and the National Cancer Institute identifies asbestos exposure as the primary cause of the disease (NCI asbestos fact sheet).
Vulcan Iron Works made the machines
Wilkes-Barre’s Vulcan Iron Works built mining locomotives and heavy equipment for the coal industry, foundry and machine-shop work of the classic high-heat kind. Molding floors, forges, and erecting shops used asbestos insulation and heat protection as standard materials, and the machinists and laborers who worked there carry histories that support claims today. Its locomotives worked mines far beyond Pennsylvania, but its workforce came from Wilkes-Barre’s own neighborhoods. Named industrial sites across the state are cataloged in our Pennsylvania exposure sites index.
Claims survive the industries that caused them
The collieries and the ironworks are gone, but mesothelioma claims do not depend on them. Liability rests with the manufacturers of the asbestos products those industries bought, and with the bankruptcy trusts many of those manufacturers established, holding roughly $30 billion in total according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO-11-819). What a case needs from your family is the history: employers, jobs, years, and any co-workers still able to confirm them. Households count too: laundry-borne exposure gave some miners’ wives and children claims of their own. Those household histories are documented the same way, through the worker’s employment record.
Filing after a death in the family
Many Wyoming Valley families first seek a lawyer after losing a parent. Pennsylvania’s wrongful death and survival statutes (42 Pa. C.S. §§ 8301-8302) give a family generally two years from the death to act; our wrongful death page explains who may file and what each claim covers. A living patient’s own claim generally runs two years from diagnosis instead. Estates should not wait for probate questions to settle before calling; the limitations clock and the estate process can run in parallel.
What this means for your family
Wilkes-Barre to Philadelphia is a distance the case absorbs, not the family. Histories are taken by phone, records are gathered by the firm, testimony is scheduled locally around health, and the filing venue is chosen strategically once the evidence is assembled, since more than one court is often proper. Michael Schafle handles mesothelioma cases statewide; his practice includes two multi-million-dollar mesothelioma settlements resolved in 2023, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
If coal or iron paid your family’s bills and mesothelioma is now its burden, request a free case review.