Cambria Shares Fault in Colorado Silica Dust Trial, Jury Finds

Cambria Co. LLC could be on the hook for about $5 million after a Colorado state jury concluded it’s roughly 30% at fault in a lawsuit brought by a former countertop fabricator who claimed cutting and shapping its products led to his incurable lung disease.

The Denver jurors found late Thursday that Cambria wasn’t negligent and its products aren’t defective. However, they determined that Cambria misrepresented the harm its product could cause.

The jury awarded fabricator Tyler Jordan approximately $17 million in damages, but apportioned more than 60% of fault for his injuries to his parents’ Colorado-based fabrication shop where he worked. It attributed 32% of responsibility to Cambria and the remaining fault to another manufacturer and Jordan himself.

Caesarstone, another major defendant in the case, escaped liability entirely under the verdict.

The trial was the latest in a growing wave of courtroom disputes that are intensifying pressure on the engineered stone industry, which is facing lawmaker scrutiny as more workers who cut countertops become ill.

Jordan told Bloomberg Law on Friday he doesn’t agree with the jury’s high allocation of fault on his parents’ shop. However, he said this verdict will provide support for similar claims that could eventually force companies to either make safer products or lead to an outright ban of engineered stone similar to the one on asbestos.

“I’m the third or fourth case to go to trial and to get a verdict, I think is huge for the rest of the cases,” Jordan said.

Cambria’s attorney, senior counsel Khaled Taqi-Eddin of Womble Bond Dickinson, said the verdict demonstrates the company’s products aren’t defective and that fabricators that follow OSHA standards can protect their employees.

“Two very intelligent juries in two completely different states came to the same conclusion,” said Taqi-Eddin, referring to a California jury verdict in May 2025 that found that slabs made by Cambria and others didn’t contain a design defect.

“The product is not defective, and it’s the process in which it’s worked with that is the problem,” he added.

Cambria intends to appeal the Colorado verdict. It and Caesarstone are already appealing a separate verdict from August 2024, where a jury awarded more than $52 million to a 34-year-old former countertop fabricator who also alleged their products gave him silicosis.

As these cases mount, they expose oversight gaps and signal rising expectations that could push engineered stone manufacturers toward stricter safety standards and more proactive risk management, according to legal experts.

Caesarstone didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Three-Week Trial

Jordan, who spent a decade as a stone fabricator, sued Cambria, Caesarstone, and other manufacturers, claiming the companies failed to warn him about the high silica content of their products and potential dangers of breathing in silica dust.

He was diagnosed with silicosis—severe lung scarring and progressive breathing issues caused by inhaling silica particles. Jordan’s case represented one of the first that looks to expand litigation over silica from engineered stone beyond its base in Southern California.

During the Colorado trial, the jury had been shown internal company training logs related to silica dust and wet-cutting methods, photos of the fabrication shop, as well as safety data sheets and warning labels on the quartz slabs.

Manufacturers argued its labels clearly identified silica dust as a potential hazard and warned that dry-cutting its engineered stone slabs could result in fabricators breathing in the particles that cause silicosis. Jordan’s attorneys pushed back, pointing to broad and vague use of language on those labels such as “invisible dust.”

The trial lasted for roughly three weeks. The jury heard testimony from Jordan, his wife, his parents, and a former employee of their shop, as well as a medical expert and company representatives.

Attorneys for Cambria and Caesarstone argued during the trial that Jordan’s illness resulted from his employer’s negligence rather than a defective product, often noting instances where his father failed to use safety controls in the shop.