As a young man in the 1960s, Tommy Lineberger spent summers on construction sites, doing everything from driving a bulldozer to spackling and mudding walls in the North Carolina sun.
Decades later, those early experiences would come back to haunt the Newton resident. Lineberger was diagnosed with mesothelioma, an aggressive form of cancer caused by asbestos exposure, in 2016. He died less than two years later.
Lineberger is one of thousands whose claims against the companies that produced asbestos-laden products have sat in limbo for nearly nine years as the bankruptcy case of a Georgia-Pacific affiliate stalls in a Charlotte court…