A local research institute is being compelled to testify about the relative dangers of cigarette smoke and asbestos-containing products for ongoing asbestos litigation before the New York Supreme Court.
In the New York case of Maria Ricci and Anthony J. Ricci, as executor of the estate of Peter L. Ricci, versus the Aluminum Co. of America, Mario and DiBono Plastering Co. Inc. and other defendants, Mario and DiBono filed a petition for the issuance of a local subpoena on July 14 in Cook County Circuit Court.
Mario and DiBono, the petition states, believes that the IIT Research Institute's Armour Research Foundation has evidence relating to Peter L. Ricci's asbestos-related injury prior to his death. By compelling the institute to give a deposition, the lawsuit states, the court will make way for testimony about the Institute's 1955 report "regarding the physical properties of cigarette smoke and the .. respective knowledge concerning manufacture and sale of asbestos-containing products.."
The institute's representative is being petitioned to appear at 9 a.m. Aug. 10 at the Chicago offices of Hinshaw and Culbertson LLP, which is representing Mario and DiBono.
Cook County Circuit Court case number 2015L007127.