The first lawsuits against asbestos manufacturers were brought as early as 1929. Since then, many suits have followed. As a result of the litigation, manufacturers sold off subsidiaries, diversified, produced asbestos substitutes, and started asbestos removal businesses.
Asbestos related cases increased significantly on our court dockets after 1980. By the early 1990s, “more than half of the 25 largest asbestos manufacturers in the U.S. including Amatex, Carey-Canada, Celotex, Eagle-Picher Industries, Forty-Eight Insulations, Manville Corporation, National Gypsum, Raymark, Standard Insulation, Unarco, and UNR Industries had declared bankruptcy. Filing for bankruptcy protects a company from creditors such as litigants. Two large class action settlements, designed to limit liability, came before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1997 and 1999. Both settlements were ultimately rejected by the Court because they would exclude future claimants, or those who later developed asbestos-related illnesses.
Asbestos litigation has been the longest, most expensive mass tort in U.S. history. It has involved more than 6,000 defendants and 600,000 claimants. If current trends continue, the rate at which people are diagnosed with the disease will continue to increase through the next decade. Some experts predict that the total cost of asbestos litigation in the U.S. will reach $200 billion. The degree of the asbestos liability has troubled the manufacturers and insurance industry. The amounts and methods of allocating compensation have been the source of many court cases, and government attempts at resolution of existing and future cases.
Congress is pondering a 2005 bill called the “Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act of 2005”. The Act would establish a $140 billion trust fund to supplant litigation as a means to compensate victims of asbestos and limit liability. Opponents of the bill argue that many of the bill’s provisions are unsupported by medicine and would unfairly exclude a large number of people who have become ill or died from asbestos. On June 14, 2006, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved an amendment to the bill which would allow victims of asbestos related diseases $1.1M within 30 days of their claim’s approval. This version would also expand eligible claimants to people exposed to asbestos from the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and to construction debris in Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The future of asbestos litigation remains unclear. Some argue that it is winding down while others see the need for asbestos litigation increasing. Many of the mass tort lawyers involved in the asbestos litigation have moved on to other mass torts litigation aimed at the tobacco and gun industries and most recently the fast food industry.
We will continue to report on the progress of mass tort litigation including asbestos.
– J. Kenneth Butera