Bush going after asbestos lawsuits to protect Halliburton

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Bush Takes Aim at Asbestos Litigation on Michigan Trip
Deb Riechmann
The Associated Press
01-10-2005

Claiming that asbestos lawsuits clog the courts and cost jobs, President Bush urged Congress Friday to change the way people are compensated for illness caused by the deadly material. "The system isn't fair right now," Bush said.

"It's not fair to those who are getting sued and it's not fair for those who justly deserve compensation," said Bush, appearing at a performing arts center just north of Detroit. He claimed that companies have been forced into bankruptcy because of asbestos-related litigation that has cost the nation about $80 billion -- the majority of which is not seen by victims but swallowed up by legal and processing fees.

"These asbestos suits have bankrupted a lot of companies and that affects the workers here in Michigan and around the country," said the president, sitting in front of a prop that displayed the scales of justice and the message "Ending Lawsuit Abuse."

"Those with no major medical impairment now make up the vast majority of claims while those who are truly sick are denied their day in court," the sign said.

The American Trial Lawyers Association, however, says many of the companies that filed for bankruptcy were reorganized, not liquidated, and that few cases filed in court actually go to trial. Association President Todd Smith said Friday that Bush should spend time with patients suffering from asbestos-related diseases that kill more than 300,000 workers who have died from asbestos exposure.

"Sadly, we doubt the president will meet with any asbestos victims," Smith said. "Rather, he'll once again meet with the asbestos and insurance industries which are fighting as hard as they can to avoid being held responsible for this national health epidemic."

Smith also called on Bush to support legislation proposed by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., calling for a ban on the importation and use of asbestos.

While the president did not back specific legislation, he urged lawmakers to make sure that compensation is received by those who are sick, not lawyers and claimants who are not ill. Bush also urged Congress to find ways to protect third parties -- companies that he said have nothing to do with causing asbestos illnesses -- from lawsuits.

"Most of the asbestos producers are now bankrupt so that lawyers target companies -- once considered to be too small to sue, or once considered to be not directly involved in the manufacture of asbestos," Bush said. "Because there's nobody else to sue, they try to drag in people who aren't directly involved in the manufacturing of asbestos."

The Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based environmental research group that opposes Bush's proposed changes, says asbestos is a public health, not bankruptcy crisis. Halliburton is the latest company to "emerge" from asbestos bankruptcy proceedings, the group says.

In July 2004, the Houston-based Halliburton Co. won court approval for a $4.2 billion plan for settling asbestos-related health claims. A judge signed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring plan for several of Halliburton's key business units. The judge's action was one of the final hurdles before Halliburton subsidiaries, including KBR and DII Industries, could emerge from bankruptcy. They still must fund a trust, using cash, stock and notes, to pay future claims.

KBR and DII Industries filed for bankruptcy protection in 2003 to deal with claims by about 400,000 people who said they were injured by asbestos exposure. Halliburton, once run by Vice President Dick Cheney, inherited most of the claims five years ago when the conglomerate, during Cheney's tenure as chief executive officer, acquired Dresser Industries for $7.7 billion. Cheney left the company in 2000.

The president has not expressed support for any specific bill in Congress.

A hearing is scheduled Tuesday for a bill being pushed by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Specter said this week that Republicans will try for quick action on a measure that would end asbestos lawsuits in exchange for a trust fund to compensate victims.

Republicans say Democrats wouldn't let previous bills pass because trial lawyers don't want to lose the money they make from asbestos lawsuits. Democrats argue that the GOP bills didn't have enough money for victims and that Republicans are only trying to help their friends in the business and insurance communities by immunizing them from lawsuits.

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My first wife died at 51 of asbesto related cancer in the pleura of her lung...100% fatal, inoperable and it ate threw her like a hot knife through butter....she went from happy go lucky, sharp and active to a godam skeleton with skin hanging off of it in eight months.....f*#k george bush and all the big business people he spends his time blowing while he's supposed to be running the country....

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50 years ago I worked in a steel plant and used abestos gloves and dressed in an abestos suit that covered me from head to toe. I was required to wear this "safety equipment" by the safety dept. of the company. Noone ever told me that asbestos was dangerous even though the manufacturers and purchasers of this stuff knew it was deadly in the 1930's. I have abestosis but am lucky in that it hasent turned into cancer yet. But a large percentage of the people who worked at this steel plant die of cancer each year. What many of you dont understand is when you inhale the fibers they stick in your aveloe and stay there the rest of your life. There isent any way too remove them. Most people have trouble breathing because the fibers scar the lungs. I wish Bush had worked in my steel plant and destroyed his lungs instead of destroying his brain cells with booze.

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Asbestos
Do any of you remember laying vinyl-asbestos floor tiles in your kitchens and bathrooms in the 1950s? They were the best selling floor tiles at the time.

We cut them to fit up to the walls, releasing asbestos fibers into the air and into our lungs.

As the president of my homeowner association in the 1980s, I led our homeowner's in a successful lawsuit against our high rise condo developer because (one of several construction defect problems) he installed "popcorn" ceilings containing asbestos throughout the 485 units and common areas. We had to research develop our own standards and processes for safe asbestos removal in occupied buildings because none existed at the time. Encapsulation of the asbestos was not possible in the common areas because our maintenance staff and other contractors were always having to cut into the ceilings for repairs. It cost our association $485,000 to remove the asbestos material just from the common areas, not including the ceilings in owner's units where encapsulation was possible. We had to pay for it because we had settled our lawsuit (against the developer and over 30 sub-contractors) before we discovered the ceiling material contained asbestos. Our research provided the groundwork for others to follow in California. The EPA finally got the message and got with the program.

Would you believe that laws were enacted prohibiting the use of asbestos---but any contractor-developer who had a building permit prior to 1978 was allowed to use the asbestos material until the permit expired because of the permit obtained before the ban date. To me that is criminal.

BBB

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I'm willing to ascribe the basest motives to Bush and his pals (hell, I think Bush is a war criminal), but on this issue I am inclined to believe that he is not advocating reform merely to aid some high-powered companies like Halliburton.

The asbestos crisis has become completely unmanageable. Lawsuits are bankrupting companies, and people who have been injured by asbestos are, in many cases, not getting compensated. It has become clear that, while lawsuits can be an efficient way to award compensatory damages to a limited number of injured plaintiffs, they are simply not an efficient or effective way to get compensation when the injured number in the tens or hundreds of thousands. Instead of getting money to the people who need and deserve it, the litigation system awards it to the people who are first in line, regardless of their injuries. Inevitably, this system has led to a "race to the courthouse," where everyone with even the most minimal (or, sometimes, non-existent) claims have an incentive to file suits.

Senator Orrin Hatch (another politician about whom I've seldom had good things to say) proposed a plan in the last congress to implement a national response to the asbestos litigation crisis. In its broad outlines, it was something like the 9/11 fund created by congress to award compensation to the victims of the terrorist attacks. Claimants, in exchange for dropping their rights to file lawsuits, would be awarded compensation based upon the severity of their injuries, not on how fast they could file. Although the plan had some problems, it was at least a significant step in the right direction.

And so, of course, it never went anywhere, a victim of both attacks from the left (the Democrats, backed by the trial lawyers lobby) and apathy on the right (the Republicans, who never got any clear signals from the White House). Which is why I find this statement in the story so disheartening:

Quote:

The president has not expressed support for any specific bill in Congress.

Without any leadership from the president, it is unlikely that any bill will garner enough support, or enough public attention, to pass congress. That's too bad. Instead of ginning up fake crises (e.g. social security, tort "reform"), the president has a chance to use his considerable powers to remedy a real crisis.

But he won't do it.

EDIT: deleted a redundant word

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And these plans help people like me who have fiber in thier lungs but dont suffer from serious effects of these fibers at this time. As a previous poster stated they settled with the abestoes people then found that they had more material to remove but had to foot the bill themselves because they had already setteled. This is why I havent setteled with the industries that made and distributed this material.

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Bush going after asbestos lawsuits to protect Halliburton

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