Caesarstone silicosis lawsuit
A Caesarstone lawsuit is a claim brought by stone workers, or by their families, who say engineered quartz countertops left them with silicosis after all the cutting and grinding the work required. Silicosis is a disease of the lungs that comes from breathing in tiny silica dust. A few California cases have already reached trial against Caesarstone and other manufacturers of stone, and the outcomes have been very different.
- Company sued
- Los Angeles jury, August 2024, Caesarstone among those liable
- $52.4 million
- settlement in early 2025, as jury selection began
- Over $26 million
- Torrance jury, June 2025
- Defense win
- California cases being coordinated
- About 80
Where things stand with the cases
Workers say the dust that made them sick got into the air while they cut and ground artificial stone countertops. Engineered quartz sold under the names Caesarstone, Cambria, Silestone, and others can be up to 93% crystalline silica.
During 2025, the Superior Court for Los Angeles County moved to join about 80 California silicosis lawsuits into one group. Presiding Judge Sergio C. Tapia II submitted the request for cases based in L.A., Orange County, and San Francisco courts.
What the juries have decided so far
Two workers' cases brought large amounts, and one jury ruled for the manufacturers.
| Lawsuit | Outcome | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Reyes-Gonzalez, L.A. | Jury found Caesarstone and other manufacturers partly liable | Roughly $52.4 million |
| Anonymous v. Caesarstone | Settled during jury selection in early 2025 | Over $26 million |
| Solano-Claustro, Torrance | Jury sided with the manufacturers | Nothing |
Gustavo Reyes-Gonzalez had spent 15 years working in stone shops around Los Angeles and Orange County. A couple of months after the verdict, Judge William Fahey partly reversed it, saying there was too little evidence against one defendant.
On March 12, 2025, Brayton Purcell, the law firm, said its cases against manufacturers of artificial stone had brought in a combined total above $78 million.
The trial in Torrance
This case was only the third silicosis suit over artificial stone to reach a jury. The family of a countertop installer who died of silicosis filed it in May 2023, 3 months after his death.
They argued that the manufacturers were negligent, that the design and warnings were flawed, that the danger was hidden, and that the product did not live up to its promises. Before the jury could weigh in, Judge Eric C. Taylor threw out the claims about failure to warn and about punitive damages. After that, the jury found no design flaw and no negligence, so it never reached the defenses the manufacturers raised. Caesarstone's side argued the shops that employed him handled the stone badly.
Caesarstone's lawyer said dangerous dust only escapes while workers cut, grind, and polish the slabs, and that the work is safe when shops follow Cal/OSHA, California's agency for workplace safety. James Nevin, the lawyer for the family, said he expects an appeals court to overturn the verdict, since he believes his clients never got a fair trial.
Who can file a claim?
Under Labor Code § 3602, workers in California generally cannot sue the shop that hired them. Money in a lawsuit comes from the manufacturers of the stone, the distributors, or the owners of the place where the work happened.
Money from your employer normally comes by way of workers' comp instead. That program covers people hurt on the job, and every state has its own version.
The filing deadline
In California, you have 2 years to bring a claim over toxic exposure. With silicosis, the clock usually starts at your diagnosis, not at the first time you breathed the dust.
That matters because the illness can take years to appear. Workers in engineered stone tend to show symptoms within 10 to 15 years of their first exposure, versus the 20 to 30 years, sometimes longer, that other silica work can take.
Common questions
Did anyone ban Caesarstone?
Not the product. What Cal/OSHA banned in December 2023 was dry cutting and grinding of artificial stone that contains 0.1% or more breathable silica.
Is Caesarstone linked to silicosis?
Workers bringing these lawsuits say they developed silicosis after breathing dust released while cutting and grinding engineered stone countertops, including Caesarstone. The differing verdicts concern manufacturers' legal responsibility. Without engineering controls, engineered stone dust commonly exceeds federal safety limits by about 10 times.
How much do silicosis lawsuits settle for?
There is no typical amount, since every case turns on its own facts. Anonymous v. Caesarstone settled for more than $26 million during jury selection in early 2025. The roughly $52.4 million awarded in Reyes-Gonzalez was a jury verdict, not a settlement, and a judge later partly reversed it.
How many stone workers have silicosis?
James Nevin said thousands of artificial stone workers, spread across many thousands of shops, have the disease. In early 2025 the California Department of Public Health launched a public online dashboard tracking confirmed cases.
Does silica dust cause trouble beyond California?
It does. Public records since August 2019 name 44 employers in 15 states cited for silica dust by OSHA, by Cal/OSHA or by Washington's Department of Labor and Industries. Washington had the most with 11, then California with seven and Georgia with six. 25 of the cited businesses worked with stone or countertops.
