Local News in Brief : Calabasas Residents Sue Over Asbestos Insulation in Homes

The owners of 454 homes in a Calabasas subdivision have filed a $2.2-million claim against the Manville Corp., alleging that their homes were built with dangerous asbestos insulating material, neighborhood leaders said.

Philip Ramuno, president of the Malibu Canyon Park Homeowners Assn., said tests performed in the single-family tract north of the Ventura Freeway, at Las Virgenes Road, showed evidence of asbestos in heating ducts and sprayed-on ceilings.

“Like many other housing tracts built in the 1960s and beyond, every one of them has asbestos,” Ramuno said Thursday. The Denver-based Manville Corp. had been one of the nation’s largest asbestos producers until it was flooded with lawsuits from persons claiming health damage from exposure to the material. The firm filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in 1982 because of the claims.

Ramuno said tests were ordered on his tract’s houses after neighborhood leaders learned that a Jan. 31 deadline had been set for the filing of claims as part of the firm’s bankruptcy proceedings.

He said the claim was filed according to estimates that it would cost about $5,000 per home to remove asbestos material. Asbestos has been blamed for causing a lung disorder, asbestosis, and higher rates of lung cancer.