Castell is a small unincorporated riverside town in Llano County, Texas, United States. Located in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, its northern border is formed by the Llano River. Castell began in 1847 as a land grant in Comanche territory settled by German Abolitionists and Free-Soilers. The unsettled land had formerly been part of the Fisher-Miller land grant. It was part of a series of five immigrant settlements sponsored by a group of prominent Germans known as the Adelsverein, including Count Emil von Kriewitz, John Meusebach, Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, H. Spies, and Count Carl of Castell. The other communities were Schoenburg, Meerholz, Leiningen, and Bettina. The first two were unsuccessful from the start. Leiningen and Bettina had brief lives, Bettina lasting only a year. Only Castell remains. Describing conditions in Castell in the mid-1800s, a tour guide has written “ Life here was not easy. For the first couple of years, Castellites depended heavily on supplies and support from the people of Fredericksburg, who had problems enough of their own. A round trip to Fredericksburg—about 50 miles—took 4 days. ” Castell briefly experienced an influx of about twenty Mormon pioneer families under the leadership of Lyman Wight. They had settled in Zodiac, Texas in 1847, in Mormon Mills, Texas in 1851 (where Wight was eventually buried), and then settled in Castell briefly before moving south in 1854 to Bandera, Texas. Due to the Mormon custom of sending out missionaries, it is possible that the congregations of nineteenth-century North Carolina took their name from the Mormons who lived briefly in Castell, Texas. Castell had a population of 72 people in 1972 and again in 2000. In 2007, a Castell promotional site claims a population of only 23. Castell is in the Central Time Zone and is assigned zip code 76831 and area code 325.

What is toxic tort law?

Toxic Tort cases involve people who have been injured through exposure to dangerous pharmaceuticals or chemical substances in the environment, on the job, or in consumer products -- including carcinogenic agents, lead, benzene, silica, harmful solvents, hazardous waste, and pesticides to name a few.

Most toxic tort cases have arisen either from exposure to pharmaceutical drugs or occupational exposures. Most pharmaceutical toxic injury cases are mass tort cases, because drugs are consumed by thousands of people, many of whom become ill from a toxic drug. There have also been many occupational toxic tort cases, because industrial and other workers are often chronically exposed to toxic chemicals - more so than consumers and residents. Most of the law in this area arises from asbestos exposure, but thousands of toxic chemicals are used in industry and workers in these areas can experience a variety of toxic injuries. Unlike the general population, which is exposed to trace amounts of thousands of different chemicals in the environment, industrial workers are regularly exposed to much higher levels of chemicals and therefore have a greater risk of developing disease from particular chemical exposures than the general population. The home has recently become the subject of toxic tort litigation, mostly due to mold contamination, but also due to construction materials such as formaldehyde-treated wood and carpet. Toxic tort cases also arise when people are exposed to consumer products such as pesticides and suffer injury. Lastly, people can also be injured from environmental toxins in the air or in drinking water.

Answers to toxic tort law issues in Texas

In certain kinds of cases, lawyers charge what is called a contingency fee. Instead of billing by the hour, the...

Because of the health problems caused by lead poisoning, the federal Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction...

Property owners may be liable for tenant health problems caused by exposure to environmental hazards, such as...

In general, mass tort cases involve a large number of individual claimants with claims associated with a single...