A Santa Clara County jury awarded $7.1 million this week to the family of Gerardo RamÃrez-Soriano, a 46-year-old countertop fabricator who died from artificial stone silicosis, in a case that exposed how major tile companies concealed health hazards from workers for years.
The Aug. 19 verdict marks the fifth silicosis case involving engineered stone to reach trial in the United States and the fourth resulting in a plaintiff victory. Documents and testimony revealed what attorneys described as corporate negligence spanning nearly two decades.
Dal-Tile Distribution and Dal-Tile Tennessee began distributing crystalline silica slabs in 2006 but didn't affix warning labels until 2017—more than a decade without alerting workers to hazards the companies' internal evidence suggested they knew existed. Paragon Industries, which operates as Bedrosians Tile & Stone, started distributing high-silica engineered stone in 2010 and delayed warnings until 2016.
Both companies marketed their products as "natural" and "non-hazardous" despite evidence suggesting otherwise.
In 2025, well into litigation over these products, Dal-Tile introduced Purevana, a non-toxic engineered stone described as "practically identical" to its existing lineup. Paragon simultaneously launched Nouvel, a low-silica alternative. Both companies continued aggressively defending and selling their original high-silica formulations.
The jury determined that Dal-Tile entities bore 2% liability and Paragon Industries 1% liability for RamÃrez-Soriano's death and disease, assigning 62% liability to other manufacturers and suppliers—many of whom settled before trial.
The verdict broke down to $2.4 million in economic damages and $4.7 million in non-economic damages for a family that lost a breadwinner and a husband and father.
RamÃrez-Soriano had worked with natural marble and granite without incident before engineered stone products entered the market. He developed progressive, fatal silicosis without understanding why no one had warned him of the health hazards.
The jury's verdict focused on product defect claims—both design defect and failure to warn. Defense attorneys argued that workers misused the product and invoked the "sophisticated intermediary" doctrine.
Paragon's legal team fought to keep certain evidence from the jury, including details about the company's own stone-cutting workshop operating in Fresno since at least 2000 and its internal Silica Exposure Control Plan. Despite those efforts, the jury learned that Paragon itself used dry-cutting processes in its own facility—the very technique the defendants later characterized as worker misuse.
Products containing 90% or higher crystalline silica mixed with toxic metals and resins were sold for years without adequate warning. Workers had no meaningful choice to protect themselves because they didn't know what they were breathing.
With hundreds of similar cases still pending across the country, the verdict may offer a template for holding manufacturers accountable. However, RamÃrez-Soriano died before getting his day in court.
