On August 23, 2016 in Hazard, Kentucky, the trial team of IADC member Bryant Spann (Thomas Combs & Spann), IADC member Bill Book (Tekell Book Allen & Morris), and Byron Miller (Thompson Miller & Simpson) obtained the first defense verdict ever returned in favor of a respirator manufacturer in ongoing litigation brought by Eastern Kentucky coal miners diagnosed with black lung. The unanimous defense verdict, in a case brought by the estate of a deceased miner, was entered after a 3 1/2 week trial in Perry Circuit Court.