Dallas-based Dean Omar Branham Shirley filed suit in Columbia, South Carolina state court for more than 150 plaintiffs seeking asbestos disease-related damages against De Beers PLC and its affiliated companies.

The complaint filed Monday in the Court of Common Pleas, County of Richland for the Fifth Judicial District names plaintiffs based in South Africa, the United Kingdom and the Bailiwick of Jersey, France, Switzerland, as well as in several states in the United States.

The 91-page complaint, styled Augustus A. Adams et al v. Cape PLC et al, was filed in South Carolina because a Cape PLC is the U.S.-based successor in interest to Cape Industries Ltd.—a United Kingdom-based company and De Beers project formed in 1891—and its subsidiares and global affiliates, according to the complaint.

“Cape and its related entities, by its own admission, sold more than 95% of the type of asbestos commonly used in industry and on U.S. Navy ships for decades. That asbestos is responsible for untold death and despair among the workers of South Carolina and the nation,” said Trey Branham, partner at Dean Omar Branham Shirley, who along with co-counsel Theile McVey of Kassel McVey represents the plaintiffs.

Cape PLC was acquired by Altrad Group, a French company, in 2018. Several Altrad entities are also named defendants.

Altrad and De Beers corporate offices were contacted to request comment, but had not responded by the publishing deadline.

Cape had a monopoly on amosite, a lucrative form of asbestos that was "an ingredient in the most popular and dominant asbestos products in the market, which were used in virtually every states, including products used in South Carolina," the complaint states, adding, "The volume of Cape's asbestos supply to the United States was breathtaking."

The complaint alleges Cape led efforts in the U.S. to hide from consumers and its own employees the risks it knew existed. When asbesto-related lawsuits began surfaced in the 1970s, Cape took measures to shield itself by creating new entities and then fleeing the U.S.

"It is sadly unsurprising that Cape, acting with various other foreign entities, concocted this scheme, because Cape boldly admitted that it had no 'moral responsibility' to the people injured or killed," the complaint alleges. "Executing on that scheme, Cape allowed default judgments against it in asbestos lawsuits across the United States, and simply absconded, leaving no assets for recovery."

The complaint claims the De Beers companies, "controlled by the powerful Oppenheimer family of Jahannesburg," have so far avoided consequences by allegedly:

  • Failing to follow corporate formalities among affiliated entities;
  • Leveraging common ownership and control of entities to effectively dominate the South African economy and global market for certain forms of asbestos;
  • Creating a byzantine web of entities with the deliberate purpose of avoiding public scrutiny and escaping liabilities;
  • Siphoning funds from entities to maximize financial return to Cape's overseas owners, eliminate liabilities, escape responsibility by neutralizing the risk of asset attachment by tort creditors;
  • Destroying corporate records and publicly misrepresenting the nature of Cape's business.

“This case is about finally bringing this company to the forefront for the harm they’ve caused,” said Ms. McVey, managing partner of Kassel McVey. “We intend to hold these bad actors to account for the damage they have inflicted on so many lives.”

Causes of action include negligence and negligence per se; product liability—strict, vicarious, and by breach of implied warranties—fraudulent misrepresentation; loss of consortium; and violation of the South Carolina Unfair Trade Practices Act.

Some plaintiffs also included a wrongful-death cause of action.