Silicosis Lawsuit Settlement Amounts: Verdicts and Who Can File

Silicosis lawsuit settlement amounts reported to date range from roughly $750,000 for mild to moderate cases up to a $52.4 million jury verdict for a worker who needed a double lung transplant, with several confidential settlements landing between $5.9 million and $26 million for severe disease.¹² Where any individual case lands within that span depends on how sick the worker is, how much income was lost, which companies remain in the case, and whether a jury decides to punish the defendants on top of compensating the plaintiff.

The Largest Reported Verdicts and Settlements

The benchmark is the first U.S. jury verdict in an artificial stone silicosis case. In August 2024, a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury awarded $52.4 million to Gustavo Reyes Gonzalez, a 34-year-old stone fabricator with advanced silicosis after 15 years of cutting and polishing engineered stone, who required a double lung transplant.² The award broke down into roughly $4.4 million in economic damages, $18 million for pain and suffering, and $30 million in punitive damages.³ Of the 34 manufacturers Gonzalez originally sued, 29 settled before trial and two were dismissed on summary judgment. The jury found Cambria 10% at fault and the plaintiff’s employer 70% at fault, which left Cambria with an apportioned share of about $10.66 million.⁴ Caesarstone is appealing.⁵

Several other large outcomes followed:

A 51-year-old fabricator with accelerated complicated silicosis and progressive massive fibrosis reached a confidential settlement exceeding $26 million against Caesarstone, Cambria, EIDP Inc., Francini Inc., and others. The deal came together during jury selection in Los Angeles County in early 2025.⁶
A career fabricator who had received a bilateral lung transplant in 2024 settled for more than $20 million against Caesarstone and others during the plaintiff’s presentation of evidence at trial in early 2026.⁷
In May 2026, a Denver jury returned a $17.45 million verdict in Colorado’s first artificial stone silicosis trial, finding Cambria and Hyundai liable for misrepresenting the dangers of crystalline silica. The plaintiff, Tyler Jordan, is a former fabricator with incurable silica-related lung disease.⁸⁹
A family filed a posthumous claim after a worker died from silicosis and settled for $10.7 million in February 2025. The settlement included compensation for dependent care costs.³
In Marco L. v. Caesarstone USA, a Los Angeles County case, the plaintiff settled for $5.9 million in November 2024, with non-economic damages that included compensation for PTSD and anxiety tied to the diagnosis.³

These are high-end results. Mild to moderate silicosis settlements have historically fallen in a range of roughly $750,000 to $2 million, while severe cases involving progressive massive fibrosis, lung transplant, or death have reached $7 million and well above.¹ Many settlement terms stay confidential, so published figures understate the full picture.

What Drives the Value of a Silicosis Claim

Disease severity carries the most weight. A worker with mild chronic silicosis and stable lung function recovers far less than one facing progressive massive fibrosis or needing a transplant. A single lung transplant can cost more than $1 million, and that figure alone anchors economic damages in the most serious cases.¹⁰ Juries also look at lost wages and future earning capacity, which climb sharply when a young worker can no longer hold any job in the trade. In the Gonzalez verdict, the jury calculated that his lung transplant would extend his life by an estimated six years but that his ability to work was essentially destroyed.¹¹

Non-economic damages for pain, suffering, and loss of quality of life make up a large share of most awards. They are harder to predict and vary by state, since some jurisdictions cap non-economic damages.¹² Punitive damages, awarded to punish egregious corporate conduct, can dwarf the compensatory side of the ledger. Punitive damages of $30 million accounted for more than half the total in the Gonzalez verdict.³

The number of defendants still in the case also matters. Engineered stone moves through a supply chain of manufacturers, distributors, and fabrication shop employers, and liability gets apportioned among them. The jury in the Gonzalez case assigned 70% of the fault to the employer, which reduced each manufacturer’s share. The more defendants a plaintiff can hold responsible, the greater the total pool of available compensation and the greater the pressure on each one to settle before trial.

A personal injury lawsuit can also recover categories of damages that workers’ compensation does not. Workers’ comp generally covers medical expenses and a portion of lost wages but does not pay for pain and suffering or punitive damages against negligent companies.¹² That gap is a large part of why fabricators pursue product liability claims against the slab manufacturers in parallel with any employer-side benefits.

How Wrongful-Death Settlements Differ

When a worker dies from silicosis, surviving family members can file a wrongful-death claim instead of, or in addition to, the personal injury case. The damages shift: instead of the injured worker’s medical costs and lost wages, wrongful-death damages focus on the loss to the family, including dependent care costs, loss of financial support, and compensation for the loss of the person. Some cases combine survival claims (damages the deceased person would have recovered had they lived) with wrongful-death claims for the family’s separate losses.³ The $10.7 million and $26 million settlements both involved fatal or near-fatal silicosis and included significant compensation directed to surviving family members.

Deadlines differ too. In California, a wrongful-death claim must be filed within two years of the date of death, or within two years of when the family first learned (or should have learned) the facts connecting the death to a wrongful act, whichever is later.¹³

Who Can File and By When

Workers who developed silicosis or a related lung condition from on-the-job silica exposure are the primary claimants. Countertop fabricators who cut, ground, and polished engineered stone slabs make up the largest group, but workers in construction, mining, sandblasting, masonry, and demolition may also qualify if their silicosis resulted from occupational silica exposure.⁹ A medical diagnosis is required. Close family members of workers who died from silicosis complications can file wrongful-death claims.¹⁴

Filing deadlines vary by state. California applies a two-year statute of limitations for personal injury, but because silicosis can take years or decades to develop, the clock generally starts when the worker is diagnosed or reasonably should have become aware of the disease and its link to silica exposure.¹³ New York allows three years from diagnosis or discovery. New Jersey and Pennsylvania sit at two years; Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont at three.¹⁵

Why Some Cases Pay Nothing

Not every case ends in a plaintiff’s award. Caesarstone won a complete defense verdict in May 2025 in Wendy Solano Claustro v. Caesarstone LTD, a wrongful-death case in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The jury found that Caesarstone’s quartz slabs did not contain a design defect and that the company was not negligent. Evidence showed the deceased worker had been employed at illegal, unlicensed shops that lacked basic safety controls and violated Cal-OSHA regulations. Caesarstone argued that its finished slabs do not contain respirable crystalline silica, and that the dangerous dust is generated only when fabricators cut or grind the product without proper ventilation and dust suppression.¹⁶ That outcome, and the manufacturers’ broader argument that employers who violate workplace safety laws bear primary responsibility, is the reason the range of silicosis lawsuit settlement amounts starts at zero rather than at the mid-six figures. Case value tracks medical severity and defendant conduct, but it also tracks how clean the proof is that the stone itself, rather than a non-compliant employer, caused the injury.

The scale of pending litigation suggests the pattern will continue to develop. As of January 2026, Caesarstone alone faced lawsuits covering at least 618 claimants worldwide, with roughly 427 in the United States, and disclosed that it anticipates losses on 35 claims at up to $13 million per claim.⁵ One plaintiffs’ firm, Brayton Purcell LLP, reports representing more than 700 workers and families and having secured almost $200 million for them.¹⁷ There is no federal MDL and no certified personal injury class action; each worker’s claim is filed and valued on its own facts.¹¹

1
Law for People. Silicosis Lawsuit
2
Public Health Watch. Jury Awards $52.4M in Case Against Artificial Stone Countertop Makers
3
Helbock Law. Top Caesarstone Lawsuit Settlements and Amounts
4
U.S. Congress. Testimony of Rebecca Shult, Cambria Chief Legal Officer
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Bloomberg Law. Countertop Silica Dust Cases Pile Up in Courts
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PR Newswire. Landmark Results Against Artificial Stone Manufacturers Total Over $78 Million
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Brayton Purcell LLP. Court Successes – Artificial Stone Silicosis
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Brayton Purcell LLP. Press Releases
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Sokolove Law. Countertop Silicosis
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Motley Rice. Silicosis Lawsuit
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Brayton Purcell LLP. Engineered Stone Silicosis – Monetary Damages and Statute of Limitations
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RKM Law Group. Who Can File a Silicosis Lawsuit
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SilicosisCase.com. Silicosis Cases in New York
16
King & Spalding. King & Spalding Secures Complete Defense Victory for Caesarstone
17
PR Newswire. Brayton Purcell LLP Has Secured Almost $200 Million for Artificial Stone Fabrication Workers