James Nevin of the Rise of Artificial Stone Litigation

James Nevin is a toxic tort trial lawyer. For more than twenty-five years, he has litigated asbestos and mesothelioma cases and benzene-caused disease cases. 

A couple of years ago, a smaller firm came to him with a number of toxic tort cases he had never heard of – workers getting silicosis from working with artificial stone.

“About two and a half years ago, a very small firm in Long Beach approached us,” Nevin told Corporate Crime Reporter in an interview last week. “They had about 25 cases of artificial stone silicosis. They were overwhelmed by that volume because they were a small firm. I have litigated toxic tort cases my whole career. I’ve been doing this for 25 years. The firm has been doing this for 45 years – mostly with asbestos cases – but also any occupational exposure leading to disease. But despite that background, I had never heard of artificial stone silicosis or the litigation, which was brand new at the time. The first case was filed in 2022.” 

(Nevin has a podcast covering the subject titled From Dust to Verdict.)

“We did a deep dive into it. And we quickly realized that this was going to be much more than 25 cases. It was going to be many hundreds if not thousands of cases. As we analyzed the history of what was known and which companies knew it, it quickly appeared that this was basically asbestos all over again. The companies knew that their product was toxic and it was going to eventually cause a fatal disease in the workers.”

What is artificial stone and where does the risk come from?

“To explain artificial stone, I first have to explain natural stone. Natural stone comes in big, huge rectangular stones that they quarry out of the ground. And since about the 1960s, natural stone has been very popular for kitchen and bathroom countertops, sometimes flooring as well.” 

“The slab has to be cut to size, holes for the sink, holes for the plumbing. It has to be ground, beveled and polished. There is a whole process of fabrication for that natural stone slab that happens in a fabrication shop before it gets installed. Fabrication shops have existed around the world and in the United States since the early 1960s.” 

“And throughout that time, there was not a single case anywhere in the world of a countertop fabrication worker getting silicosis, even though natural stone contains crystalline silica. And crystalline silica has long been known to be a toxin and carcinogen and causes cancer and various other diseases.” 

“The reason why no one was getting silicosis with just natural stone is because the amount of crystalline silica in natural stone is significantly lower – some with as little as one percent. Some of it is three percent and five percent. And yes, some natural stone has higher silica content, but the particles are relatively large. And the thing with breathing, we cannot actually breath in large particles. It’s the tiny stuff that gets in. The big stuff gets caught by all of our defense mechanisms. Natural stone being fabricated – those shops were all dust storms and no one was getting disease.”

“Artificial stone was introduced in the market starting in Israel in the 1990s. It picked up in the 2000s – introduced into Spain, Australia and eventually the United States. They take that crystalline silica, which is quartz – if you quarried it out of the ground as a big slab it would be called quartzite –  and they are used for countertops.” 

“But what they do to make artificial stone is that they take that quartz and they crush it and pulverize it into an ultra fine and nanosized crystalline silica flour before it goes to the artificial stone manufacturing facility where they are making this slab.”

“That flour gets shipped to the manufacturing facilities. They then mix it with various toxic metals and toxic resins for color. And they manufacture that slab.”

“The content of the artificial stone is then very high in crystalline silica. It’s concentrated to around 95 percent. Unlike most natural stones, it has a very high content of crystalline silica.” 

“But even more important, the silica is nanosized because it has been pulverized into this flour. And it’s the nanosized stuff that gets you when you breathe it in. But it also contains toxic metals and resins.” 

“And this artificial stone began to displace natural stone in the market. We begin to see this massive uptick in silicosis – silicosis through the roof in young workers. And not just in the less sophisticated shops that don’t do everything wet. We are seeing it in the state of the art, multi-million dollar, fully sophisticated shops – they are all getting silicosis.” 

“Some manufacturers have introduced lower content crystalline silica products – like 40 percent crystalline silica products. However, they are still selling the 95 percent stone alongside the 40 percent stone. Some of them sell a 10 percent stone. But there are similar problems.”

Where is the exposure – when they crush the quartz to make the flour or when they cut the slabs?

“Originally, in Israel, Italy and Spain, there were outbreaks in the facilities where they were making the artificial stone slabs. But what they quickly realized was that they could take the humans out of that process. That’s all robotic now. Or they shipped it to China, Vietnam and India where all the workers are dying. So there is that.”

“But this litigation is about the next step in the chain. Most of the artificial stone slabs used in the United States are manufactured in foreign countries – Italy, Israel, Spain, China, India and several other countries. Those foreign manufacturers own U.S. distribution companies. For example, Caesarstone Limited in Israel owns Caesarstone USA. Some defendants have established domestic manufacturing plants. The largest domestic manufacturer is Cambria in Minnesota.”

“The slab is then shipped to a fabrication shop and it is the fabrication shop workers who are dying. And they are the ones who are bringing this litigation.”

How many workers in the United States have been exposed?

“It’s difficult to answer. Stone countertop fabrication workers are not in any union. It’s not a unionized industry. We don’t know precisely. The number of workers in each shop varies. The typical average shop is only five to ten workers, sometimes less. The more sophisticated shops might have more workers. But even then, it might be 15 to 20 or 30. There are very few fabrication shops that have say 100 workers.” 

“And then it is very difficult to determine the total number of fabrication shops because they intermix them with slab suppliers. Sometimes you have to have boots on the ground to determine – is this a fabrication shop or is it just a supplier?”

“The more sophisticated shops are members of these organizations like the ironically named Natural Stone Institute. There is nothing natural about the stone. Or ISFA, the International Surface Fabricators Association. Or they are certified by Cambria because they have gone to Cambria University or they are certified by Caesarstone because they have done the Caesarstone Master of Stone class.” 

“If you look at all of that data, it is still hard to tell how many fabrication shops there are in the United States. In California, the California Department of Public Health has started to track the number of fabrication shops, the number of workers with silicosis. The CDPH has said that about 1,400 shops existed in California. They have determined that 750 of those shops have at least one case of silicosis.” 

“While they have vetted about 550 workers with silicosis, they have vetted the work histories of only about 300 of those workers.” 

“It’s trending toward maybe 2,000 shops in California and of those I think it’s trending toward about 80 percent of them have cases of silicosis.” 

“We have our own vetting process. We have confirmed about 5,000 shops in the United States so far.” 

There is one close to us – a father and son shop, immigrants, slabs outside the shop, slabs inside the shop – that kind of shop?

“Exactly. CDPH says that the average shop in California has five workers per shop. The owners almost always work alongside the workers. It’s often father and son and uncle and brother and cousin, which is a double tragedy because entire families are being wiped out. And they are artisans. It’s a tight knit community. It’s not an easy craft to learn. The majority are immigrants.” 

“And that’s true not just in the United States. In Australia, the majority of the workers are immigrants. So it’s typically a more vulnerable population. They often don’t speak English. They often don’t have workers compensation insurance. And they certainly can’t afford the millions of dollars of safety equipment to even have a chance to not get silicosis.” 

“There was a shop in southern California that shut down in 2023. It was an incredibly sophisticated multi-million dollar shop. And already nine of those workers have silicosis.”  

“The industry likes to proclaim that workers in those sophisticated multi-million shops don’t get sick. But we are already representing those workers. They all have silicosis.”

“We have already identified 31 workers in IFSA or Natural Stone Institute shops. The unsophisticated shops in southern California were the canary in the coal mine. But we are already seeing it rapidly spread throughout the United States and the more sophisticated shops as well.”

A consumer goes to one of these shops to order countertops, the shop goes to the house and measures the countertop, the shop cuts the slab to fit. That’s how it works?

“These are huge heavy slabs. A human being can’t lift them. It requires specialized trucks and cranes. The slab is sent directly to the fabrication shop.” 

“The customer has picked out the color and type – what they want it to look like. And someone from the fabrication shop has gone to the customer’s home and measured for the countertop in the kitchen. They go back to the shop with a template. The first step is cutting. And even the most unsophisticated shops cut wet. The most efficient, economical and cheapest way to cut artificial stone is to cut it wet.” 

“The industry would like you to believe that there are these criminal dry shops. They just don’t exist. They never have. The first step is wet cutting. But does the shop have wet grinding or dry grinding? Do they have wet polishing or dry polishing?”

“While wet cutting and wet grinding and wet polishing keeps the exposure down for natural stone, it doesn’t work for artificial stone. That’s because of the high content and nanosize of the silica. Silica doesn’t care if it’s cut wet. Workers are being exposed during the wet cutting, wet grinding or dry grinding – which is worse – and during the polishing.” 

“And then there is the install. There are always rough cuts on the job sites. You can’t bring the cutting equipment. The cheapest ones are $100,000. You can’t bring them to the homeowner’s place. Rough cuts are done dry. Grinding and polishing on the site is done dry. Often the holes for the plumbing for the sink are often done at the site and that is done dry. At best the worker is wearing a cartridge respirator, which is not protecting them. The fabrication worker is exposed at every step of the process.”

How many lawsuits have been filed so far?

“More than 400 lawsuits have been filed in California. My firm has the majority of those. Two other firms have a total of 67 lawsuits.” 

What about outside of California?

“We have filed two or three in Florida. We filed two in Kentucky. We filed a couple in Oregon, Washington and Nevada. At this point, we have clients in about 23 states. We have a total of about 700 cases where we have already filed or we are evaluating to file.” 

What about the total number of cases in the United States?

“Besides us, there is a firm in Texas that has filed two cases. There is a firm in Chicago that has about five cases.” 

“As of April 8, 2025, the CDPH dashboard reflects 554 confirmed cases of fatal artificial silicosis, 57 lung transplants, and 29 deaths in workers from 715 different fabrication shops.” 

“So total cases nationwide? We are trending to double the number of cases – we are going to be at 1,000 cases before you know it. By year’s end, we could have 1,000 cases filed.”

How many cases have been settled?

“Each case has many defendants – averaging 45 to 50 defendants in each case. That’s because there are so many manufacturers and suppliers of these slabs. The first case was the Gustavo Reyes Gonzalez case. It went to trial in 2024. In the Reyes Gonzalez case, all of the defendants settled except for three. And three went to trial. There was a $52 million verdict against three defendants. That verdict is on appeal.” 

“The next case went to trial in December 2025 and every defendant settled during trial. Nobody went to verdict. The next case went to trial and almost every defendant settled. Three went to verdict and that was a defense verdict. That case is on appeal.”

“The next case went to trial a couple of months ago. All of the defendants settled during trial. The last case went to trial a month ago. All of those defendants settled during trial. The next case is in trial right now. We just did jury selection today. Many defendants have settled, but there are still a number of defendants in trial now. Two more cases go to trial in May. Another in June. It’s starting to snowball where it’s just trial after trial after trial.” 

So only two cases have gone to verdict?

“Yes, one a plaintiffs’ verdict and one a defense verdict. And three have gone to trial and settled during trial. The total amount of settlements and verdicts at this point is approaching $250 million.” 

What’s the average settlement?

“It varies wildly. If you have a smaller one store supplier who only started supplying a couple of years ago, it’s going to be a smaller settlement. If it’s Caesarstone, with a long history going back to Israel where workers needed lung transplants years ago – that study was published in 2016 – it’s going to be a larger settlement. And they have a large market share.”

“These are relatively young workers. Their entire career is ahead of them. The medical cost of treating silicosis is insane. A typical lung transplant costs a million dollars. These guys need at least two because they are so young and transplanted lungs last five years on average.” 

“So the economic damages in these cases might be up to $10 million. And the jury is always asked to assess non-economic damages – their pain, their emotional distress, the suffering of what they are going through. While it’s tragic when an 80 year old is dying from an unnecessary disease like mesothelioma, it’s insanely tragic when a 24 year old needs a double lung transplant.” 

“The $52 million verdict gives you an idea what a jury might assess in these cases. The typical settlement as to any individual defendant is confidential. But the typical case is settling between $20 million and $30 million if they don’t go to verdict.” 

The Reyes case was not a punitive damages case, was it?

“It was not. But for one of these cases, the trial will include punitive damages. And for a defendant like Caesarstone or Cambria, that’s huge.” 

Were punitive damages alleged in the two cases that went to verdict?

“They were. But at the time, the evidence wasn’t fully developed. The judges did not let the jury even consider punitive damages. Now, three years into the litigation, we have developed the evidence to support punitive damages. I would expect that in all of the cases going forward, the juries will be allowed to consider punitive damages.”

“If a defendant offers reasonable value, we are going to accept that amount in settlement.”

But the reasonable value does not take into consideration a punitive damage award. How do you know what the right case is to pursue punitive damages?

“The Reyes verdict is a good barometer. We are not trying to get $52 million in settlements. But we are targeting around $30 million. Let’s say a defendant gives us their best settlement offer and it’s $5 million. Okay, we’re going to verdict. But if they give us their best settlement offer and it’s reasonably close to $30 million, we are going to take it.” 

“These clients are destitute. They need the money and they need it immediately. And a defendant is going to always appeal a verdict. So add two years until a plaintiff is going to get any money. Whether or not we go to verdict very much depends on whether the defendant is going to give us a reasonable settlement offer or not.”

You would expect that within the next couple of years there will be a trial that will get a punitive damages verdict?

“I would be shocked if in the next six months there wasn’t a trial that got punitive damages.”

[For the complete q/a format Interview with James Nevin, 40 Corporate Crime Reporter 16, April 20, 2026, print edition only.]