Business, Government Upset by Ruling

Business and government spokesmen complained Thursday that the state Supreme Court’s refusal to permit retroactive application of Proposition 51 thwarts the will of voters and will leave them liable for millions of dollars in damages they had hoped to avoid.

The court ruled that the so-called “deep-pockets” initiative, which limits a defendant’s share of non-economic damages, cannot be applied in cases filed before the proposition was passed or in cases where the alleged injury occured before the new law took effect in June, 1986.

Assistant Los Angeles City Atty. Richard Helgesson, who had written a brief in behalf of 40 municipalities arguing for retroactive application of the initiative, said the court’s decision was “very disappointing.”

“It looks like we’re to have blessings of Proposition 51, but we will have to wait for them for as long as five years,” when the current Superior Court backlog is depleted, Helgesson said.

Cases Pending

Currently, 4,000 cases filed before June, 1986, are pending against the City of Los Angeles. Although Helgesson said all those cases are not “deep-pockets” cases, the city is still sure to sustain considerable losses that would have been avoided if the court had been swayed by his argument.

Helgesson had contended that large personal injury awards and skyrocketing insurance costs were threatening to “engulf” some cities.

Attorney Kelly Wooster, who represented the Asbestos Claims Facility, a collection of defendants in asbestos poisoning cases, was also dismayed by the court’s decision.

“The purpose of the legislation . . . was to cut down on the damages being applied to these defendants,” Wooster said. “If that was the will of the people, it should apply as broadly as it can.”

Asbestos claims are one of the largest groups of lawsuits affected by the initiative. Thousands of cases filed previous to June, 1987, are still pending and damages could have been severely limited if the court had applied Proposition 51 retroactively.

But spokesmen for some plaintiffs welcomed the court’s decision. David McClaine, attorney for the Asbestos Victims of America, a nationwide advocacy group for those suffering from asbestos poisoning, said the ruling was a “major victory” for his clients, whose injuries may not surface for as long as 20 years.

Legal Briefs

Leonard Sacks, an Encino attorney who used to write legal briefs for the California Trial Lawyers Assn., also said he was pleased with the ruling. He added the decision eases suspicions that new justices appointed by Gov. George Deukmejian would overturn previous decisions considered by the governor to be “anti-business.”