PITTSBURGH – The Bethel Park School District faces an asbestos lawsuit from a former worker now suffering from lung cancer.
Kenneth Schivley was a mechanic for the district for 33 years and claims that in the 1980s, he was exposed to asbestos dust from its fleet of buses and vehicles. That led, his lawsuit filed Nov. 3 in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, to the diagnosis he received a year ago.
Asbestos was in various products he encountered, including brake assemblies, the suit says.
“Defendant, Bethel Park School District, has possessed since 1929 medical and scientific data which indicated that asbestos-containing insulation and other materials were hazardous to health,” his suit says.
“Prompted by pecuniary motives, the Defendant willfully and wantonly ignored and/or failed to act upon said medical and scientific data.”
It is at least the second asbestos lawsuit Bethel Park faces following a state Supreme Court ruling that allows plaintiffs to sue their employers instead of being shut out of recovery in the Workers’ Compensation system.
The other was brought by the estate of a former teacher, the late Alice Ursin, who developed mesothelioma. Ursin was a teacher at John McMillian Elementary School, Neal Armstrong Middle School, Independence Middle School and Bethel Park High School.
That suit blames Ursin’s death on asbestos in the district’s steam, sewer, water, gas and electric systems. Bethel Park argued in a motion for summary judgment that Ursin’s estate has failed to show it was negligent, as experts have not shown that it deviated from the applicable standard of care.
“Plaintiff has no facts to support and expert opinions by which they can prove that the School District violated any applicable standards; that it was aware of any health risks posed to Mrs. Ursin when she was present in any School District building; or that any alleged negligence of the School District caused Mrs. Ursin’s cancer,” attorneys for the district argued.
The case against Bethel Park has been consolidated with another filed on behalf of Ursin against Crane Co. and U.S. Steel. Schivley does not seem to have filed a separate case against the makers and sellers of asbestos-containing products.
Employers now face asbestos lawsuits in Pennsylvania after the Supreme Court ruled in January 2025 that it was only fair. Previously, they were subject to a four-year statute of limitations stipulated in the Occupational Disease Act.
Statutes of limitations can create confusion in asbestos cases, given diseases like mesothelioma take decades after exposure to manifest. Since asbestos-related illnesses do not reveal themselves until more than 300 weeks after the last occupational exposure to asbestos, claimants are ineligible for Workers’ Compensation, so a civil lawsuit is their only shot.
The Supreme Court green-lit those cases if they are filed within two years of the diagnosis. Justice David Wecht wrote in a dissenting opinion that the court was putting its own policies into place by ignoring laws passed by the legislature.
