Cerritos Mall Wins Lawsuit 6 Years After Finding Asbestos Above Ceiling : Courts: The $14-million award will help defray cleanup costs. Employees and shoppers are not at risk.

Southeast Los Angeles’ largest shopping mall won a $14-million lawsuit against a fireproofing manufacturer last week, nearly six years after asbestos was discovered above the mall’s ceiling.

A Superior Court jury decided Thursday that Los Cerritos Center suffered property damage as a result of asbestos filtering down from fireproofing material. Even if mall owner H&H; Cerritos recovers the full $14 million, however, it will not meet the cost of cleanup, said T. Michael Reed, a San Diego attorney.

“The bill so far has been nearly $5.5 million, and they’re only one-third of the way through the mall,” Reed said.

United States Mineral Products, the New Jersey-based manufacturer of the asbestos fireproofing, will appeal the decision, attorney Kevin McNaughton said.

“We continue to contend this product is safe, and we will, all the way through the appellate courts,” McNaughton said.

Fireproofing was wrapped around roof beams in the mall in 1972. Mall owners discovered that the material contained asbestos in October, 1986--shortly after scientific studies showed that asbestos was a cancer-causing substance, Reed said. They didn’t know until remodeling began in 1987, however, that carcinogenic dust was sifting down.

Asbestos fell from the fireproof material onto the ceiling above stores and common areas when the building vibrated from an earthquake or remodeling work, Reed said.

Store employees and shoppers were not at risk of inhaling asbestos unless they climbed into areas above the ceiling, Reed said, and air monitors in the mall constantly check for the presence of the cancer-causing dust.

Asbestos cleanup has been done in empty shops. The mall owners wait for the shop’s lease to run out, then empty the store. The area is then wrapped in plastic, and the air is sucked out so that if the protective plastic is ripped, air will flow into the store rather than carrying asbestos out into the mall, Reed said. Workers wearing respirators are sent in to scrape off the asbestos by hand.

Cleanup takes at least 30 days and, with 150 stores in the mall, owners hope to have the job completed in 1995.

“The manufacturer is still saying, ‘Asbestos is OK, just don’t touch it,’ ” Reed said. “Well, somebody has to clean it up sooner or later.

“This case really boils down to deciding who should pay. Somebody, somewhere along the way, has to pay to have it removed sooner or later. We believe it should be the manufacturer who sold an unsafe material.”