Cleveland built the twentieth century out of steel. The Cuyahoga River flats carried Republic Steel, LTV, and the Cleveland Works; the lakefront ran ore boats into the mills, and machine shops, foundries, and the Sherwin-Williams works filled the neighborhoods around them. For decades these operations ran on asbestos insulation, gaskets, and refractory, and the trades who built and maintained them were reportedly exposed for full careers.
Ohio asbestos cases are filed in the Court of Common Pleas of the county of proper venue — there is no single statewide asbestos court, though Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) has historically carried Ohio’s largest asbestos docket. Ohio allows two years from a mesothelioma or asbestos-cancer diagnosis to file (Ohio Rev. Code § 2305.10), and two years from the date of death for a wrongful-death claim (§ 2125.02).