Defiance Woman Wins Asbestos Suit

An eight-member jury in Defi­ance County on Fri­day, fol­low­ing a three day trial, decided that the sur­viv­ing spouse of a for­mer employee at Defiance’s Gen­eral Motors plant is enti­tled to ben­e­fits through the state’s work­ers com­pen­sa­tion pro­gram.

In the suit, which was filed back in 2009 by Loretta Bryant of Defi­ance, whose hus­band, Ivan, had worked at GM’s Defi­ance plant for approx­i­mately 30 years, will now be enti­tled to those ben­e­fits.

Ivan retired in 2003. In 2007, he died at the age of 67 from lung can­cer. The suit had asked that Loretta Bryant be per­mit­ted to par­tic­i­pate in the work­ers com­pen­sa­tion fund for widow’s ben­e­fits as a result of her husband’s occu­pa­tional dis­ease and sub­se­quent death. The jury’s deci­sion came fol­low­ing the tes­ti­mony of three doc­tors who all said that Ivan Bryant’s lung can­cer was caused by expo­sure to asbestos while work­ing for GM.