Cambria Lawsuit: Silicosis Verdicts, Legislation, and Class Action

The Cambria lawsuit docket now runs to roughly 400 cases, nearly all filed by stone fabrication workers who developed silicosis after cutting and polishing the Minnesota company’s engineered quartz slabs.¹ Two of those cases have gone to a jury and produced verdicts totaling nearly $70 million against Cambria and co-defendants; a third ended in the company’s favor. All three are on appeal. A separate class action seeks court-ordered medical monitoring for exposed workers who have not yet been diagnosed, and a bill pending in Congress would dismiss the pending suits outright.

Why Workers Are Suing

Engineered stone contains 90 to 97 percent crystalline silica, compared with under 45 percent in granite and under 5 percent in marble. Cutting, grinding, and polishing the slabs releases very fine silica dust mixed with resin particles, and workers who inhale it can develop silicosis, an incurable scarring lung disease. Research shows engineered stone workers develop the disease faster and more severely than workers exposed to other stone dust.² In California alone, more than 480 stonecutters have been diagnosed, at least 27 have died since 2019, and dozens have undergone lung transplants.³ Most of the affected workers are young Latino men employed at small fabrication shops.⁴

The suits allege Cambria failed to warn fabricators and their workers about the specific risks of its high-silica product.

The $52.4 Million Los Angeles Verdict

The first silicosis case against Cambria to reach a jury involved Gustavo Reyes Gonzalez, a 34-year-old fabricator who had cut artificial stone for 15 years and had undergone a double-lung transplant in February 2023. His doctors said he is unlikely to live past 50.⁵

In August 2024, a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury awarded him $52,437,366, made up of $4.4 million in economic damages, $18 million in non-economic damages, and $30 million in punitive damages.⁶ Reyes had originally sued 34 manufacturers; 29 settled, two were dismissed on summary judgment, and Cambria went to trial alongside Caesarstone USA and Color Marble.⁵ The jury assigned Cambria about 10 percent of the fault, and Cambria’s chief legal officer later told Congress the company’s net judgment came to roughly $10.7 million.⁷ The verdict is on appeal.

The May 2025 Defense Verdict

Cambria’s next trial went the other way. In May 2025, a California jury found that slabs made by Cambria and other defendants did not contain a design defect and returned a verdict for the manufacturers.⁸ That verdict is also on appeal.

The $17.45 Million Colorado Verdict

The litigation left California in April 2026, when Tyler Jordan took his case to Denver District Court. Jordan, 31, had worked at his parents’ shop, Jordan Marble and Granite, for a decade starting as a teenager. He was diagnosed at 28 with silicosis and silica-related chronic kidney disease and faces a possible lung transplant.⁸

On April 30, 2026, the jury awarded Jordan and his wife Caitlin $17.45 million: $7.6 million in economic damages, $1.65 million in non-economic damages, $7.6 million for physical impairment, and $600,000 for loss of consortium.⁹ The jury assigned 32 percent of the fault to Cambria (about $5.4 million) and more than 60 percent to Jordan’s parents’ shop.¹⁰

The jury’s liability findings are worth reading closely. It concluded that Cambria’s products were not defective in design and that Cambria was not negligent. It did find that Cambria had misrepresented the character and quality of its engineered stone in a way material to users.¹⁰ Trial evidence focused on warning labels that used vague phrases such as “invisible dust” rather than clearly identifying the specific risks tied to the material’s high silica content. Cambria has said it will appeal.⁸

Cambria’s Defense

Cambria’s central argument is that it is being sued for injuries caused by the people who actually cut its slabs. Rebecca Shult, the company’s chief legal officer, told a House subcommittee in January 2026 that the lawsuits rest on a “misapplication of basic black letter tort principles” because Cambria neither controls fabrication shops nor employs the injured workers. She blamed “unlawful fabrication cutting businesses” that use dry-cutting methods to avoid the cost of safety equipment, training, and OSHA compliance.⁷

Shult cited Cambria’s own fabrication record: more than 20 years of operating its own facilities, over 650,000 slabs fabricated, more than 10 million labor hours, and no reported case of a Cambria worker contracting silicosis.⁷ The company says its products are safe when handled according to OSHA requirements and points to NSF and GREENGUARD certifications.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys reject the safe-if-handled-correctly framing. Raphael Metzger, who represents silicosis plaintiffs, has argued that engineered stone cannot be fabricated safely and that the slabs should be banned.¹ Public health researchers note that even well-equipped shops have seen workers contract the disease. Cambria has not introduced a low-silica or silica-free alternative to its current line.³

A Class Action for Medical Monitoring

Not every case involves a worker who is already sick. In January 2026, fabrication workers who have not been diagnosed with silicosis filed a federal suit in San Francisco seeking court orders that would require Cambria and other manufacturers to pay for ongoing medical monitoring of all California workers exposed to artificial stone dust.³ Epidemiologists say reported silicosis numbers understate the problem because many exposed workers are uninsured or undocumented and never seek medical care.⁴

The Bill That Would End the Lawsuits

The status of every pending case could change if Congress passes H.R. 5437, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Stone Slab Products Act, introduced by California Republican Tom McClintock in September 2025. The bill would bar workers from suing stone slab manufacturers and sellers for injuries caused by third-party fabricators and would dismiss the hundreds of currently pending suits.¹¹¹²

The House Judiciary Subcommittee held a hearing on January 14, 2026, titled “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Protecting the U.S. Stone Slab Industry from Lawfare.”¹³ Shult testified in support. David Michaels, a former assistant secretary at OSHA, testified against, calling the bill “a death sentence for workers in this industry” and pointing to Australia, which banned engineered stone in July 2024, as the better model.¹ Subcommittee chair Darrell Issa said reputable firms following best practices should not face litigation.¹¹ Ranking Member Hank Johnson called the bill “blanket immunity” and a “handout to a millionaire friend of Donald Trump,” a reference to Cambria CEO Marty Davis’s Republican fundraising.

On June 3, 2026, the full House Judiciary Committee voted 16 to 7 to advance the bill with amendments. No Senate companion has been introduced.¹⁴

The 2021 Franchise Case

One older Cambria case sometimes turns up in searches and is unrelated to the silicosis litigation. In 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled for Lakeside Surfaces, a Michigan fabrication shop that alleged Cambria had required it to sell almost exclusively Cambria products, invest in Cambria-branded infrastructure, and then terminated the relationship after learning Lakeside had begun carrying a competitor’s quartz. The appeals court refused to enforce a forum-selection clause that would have moved the dispute to Minnesota, holding that doing so would violate Michigan’s franchise law.¹⁵ The case dealt with dealer contracts, not worker injuries.

Where Things Stand

As of mid-2026, roughly 400 silicosis suits remain pending against Cambria. The Los Angeles and Colorado verdicts and the California defense verdict are all being appealed. The medical monitoring class action is in its early stages in federal court in San Francisco. And the fate of every one of those cases could hinge on whether the Senate takes up H.R. 5437.

1
NPR. Kitchen Countertop Workers Are Dying Some Lawmakers Want to Ban Their Lawsuits
2
Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. Engineered Stone Countertops
3
KQED. As California Silicosis Cases Rise Engineered Stone Industry Seeks Immunity in DC
4
NPR. Silicosis Young Workers Kitchen Countertops Lung Damage California
5
Public Health Watch. Jury Awards $52.4M in Case Against Artificial Stone Countertop Makers
6
Seaside Signal. Landmark Results Against Artificial Stone Manufacturers Total Over $78 Million for Workers With Fatal Silicosis
7
U.S. Congress. Testimony of Rebecca Shult Before House Judiciary Subcommittee
8
Bloomberg Law. Cambria Shares Fault in Colorado Silica Dust Trial Jury Finds
9
PR Newswire. Brayton Purcell LLP Announces $17,450,000 Verdict in First Colorado Artificial Stone Countertop Fabrication Silicosis Case
10
Stone Update. Colorado Jury Awards Silicosis Victim $16.8 Million
11
Safety and Health Magazine. Bill Would Shield Stone Slab Manufacturers if Workers Get Silicosis
12
House Judiciary Democrats. Subcommittee Ranking Member Johnson Opening Statement
13
House Judiciary Committee. Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Protecting the U.S. Stone Slab Industry from Lawfare
14
U.S. Congress. H.R. 5437 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Stone Slab Products Act
15
FindLaw. Lakeside Surfaces Inc v Cambria Company LLC