Endless Asbestos Saga
By now, the tragedy of asbestos litigation should have been an old story. Hundreds of thousands of laborers--shipyard workers, construction workers and sometimes their wives and children--made sick, sometimes fatally, by the asbestos fibers they breathed. The Dickensian saga of their injury claims stands as a monument to corporate greed and the civil courts’ failures. Except that the asbestos story is still without an ending.
A report released last month from Rand’s Institute for Civil Justice finds that, 20 years after the first wave of lawsuits, lawyers are filing more asbestos injury suits than ever. Clearly a congressional solution is needed.
Asbestos, used for decades as insulation in homes, ships, brake linings and many other products, can cause a variety of disabling or fatal lung illnesses, including cancer. Uncounted millions of Americans have been exposed to the fibers. Residents of tiny Libby, Mont., where asbestos-laced vermiculite was mined, are among the latest wave. Many of those afflicted never worked at the Zonolite Mountain mine or lived with anyone who did. They simply breathed the air coming from the mine.
Some companies knew the asbestos in their products was dangerous but chose not to protect or even warn their workers. By the 1970s, those workers, many disabled and desperately ill, started suing their bosses. Over half a million people have now filed claims, yet Rand researchers estimate that ultimately the number will more than double.
Over the past 20 years, this crush of claims has pushed at least 41 defendant corporations into bankruptcy. Insurers have paid out a staggering $21 billion and the lawyers for all parties have raked in fees.
But what of the injured workers and their families? For too many, the promise of fair and prompt resolution of their claims has been shattered by stonewalling corporate defendants, years of procedural delays and the pittance they finally received. The interests of all parties have been poorly served by the civil courts, those of the workers most egregiously. The Rand study stops short of suggesting a solution. However, a compensation fund for asbestos victims, perhaps funded by defendants and the federal government, would be a fair and efficient way to end this nightmare.
Removing these claims from the courts would eliminate the need to convince a jury, over and over again, that asbestos causes disease and that the plaintiff’s illness was caused specifically by the asbestos in his employer’s product or work environment. Asbestos-related disease should be de facto proof of exposure, as Congress has decreed for Agent Orange victims. A national asbestos fund would speed money to disabled and dying workers and cut the staggering litigation costs. It’s long past time this happened.
