Plaintiff Challenges Sophisticated User, Says Sand is Dangerous Product

NEW ORLEANS - A plaintiff who alleged that he developed silicosis from years of sandblasting throughout Louisiana has opposed defense efforts to have his case thrown out based on the sophisticated user doctrine, claiming his employer didn't know that silica was dangerous until at least 1994. Mullins, et al. v. Mississippi Valley Silica Co., et al., No. 2002-18069 (La. Dist. Ct., Orleans Parish).

Wardell Mullins argued in briefs filed March 5 in the Orleans Parish District Court that he had been sandblasting for 15 years before his employer became aware that exposure to dust from the trade could cause his …