Asbestos Trial Underway

A jury trial in a civil case involv­ing alleged asbestos expo­sure at Gen­eral Motors opened Tues­day in Defi­ance County Court. Fayrene Den­nis, the wife of for­mer Gen­eral Motors employee Johnny Den­nis, who died from lung can­cer at the age of 57 back in 2003, filed the suit against GM and the Ohio Bureau of Work­ers Com­pen­sa­tion, in which she is seek­ing a jury ver­dict allow­ing her to par­tic­i­pate in ben­e­fits from the work­ers com­pen­sa­tion fund. Den­nis’ com­plaint states that her husband’s employ­ment at GM “cre­ated a risk of con­tract­ing asbestos-associated dis­eases and con­di­tions in a greater degree and in a dif­fer­ent man­ner than the pub­lic gen­er­ally. A jury was seated Tues­day morn­ing, and the Cres­cent News reports that open­ing state­ments followed.