Businesses support bill that would set up trust fund, but victims worry it isn't enough
Gannett News Service, Maureen Groppe
Published February 19, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Stephen Rosenberg traveled to Capitol Hill in July to ask lawmakers not to stop his lawsuit against makers of the asbestos products he believed caused his cancer.
The Indianapolis resident rolled into congressional offices on a scooter while hooked up to the oxygen tank he needed to breathe.
Since his death in October, Rosenberg's widow and two children have continued a legal fight against asbestos makers they believe knew about the dangers but didn't protect workers, not even by offering a face mask.
"Anything would have been better than what they did because they did nothing," said his wife, Leslie Rosenberg. "This was a murder, the same as if someone took out a gun and shot Steve."
The decades-long battle over compensation for asbestos-related health problems doesn't look like it will be resolved anytime soon despite attempts by Congress to compensate victims without bankrupting companies.
On Tuesday, the Senate fell one vote short of stopping a procedural challenge to a bill that would set up a $140 billion asbestos trust fund, and it's uncertain when it will come up again for a vote.
Asbestos is the basis for the longest-running, most expensive mass tort litigation in U.S. history, according to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Since the 1960s, more than 850,000 people have sued for asbestos-related injuries.
Hoosier ties
In Indiana, more than 1,000 Hoosiers are party to lawsuits, according to the liberal Environmental Working Group, which compiled statistics from attorneys representing claimants. The group estimates at least 500 Hoosiers have died from asbestos-caused diseases.
At least 40 companies with Indiana locations have been sued over asbestos, according to the Indiana Chamber of Commerce's review of Indiana cases filed in 2002. The companies range from some of the largest in the nation -- such as General Motors and DaimlerChrysler -- to small or medium-size firms like Hoosier Gasket and Indianapolis-based Peerless Pump Co.
Peerless Pump is named in thousands of lawsuits around the country because it used to sell a water pump with a part that included asbestos.
"To say it has been devastating for us is not an understatement," Peerless Vice President Andrew Warrington said. He said the company, which made the fire pumps used in seven out of 10 of the world's tallest buildings, spent more on legal fees over the past three years than it earned in profits.
"We have to have relief from all these lawsuits because it's really hurting companies' bottom line, and that hurts our economy here in the state," said David Holt, the chamber of commerce's vice president of federal relations.
Congress has been trying for years to come up with a solution. Lawmakers proposed creating a trust fund paid for by firms that have been sued for asbestos injuries and by insurance companies. Claimants could receive up to $1.1 million depending on their injury. Pending lawsuits would be stopped, and no future ones would be allowed.
Victim was close to retiring
Stephen Rosenberg began his varied career as a boiler engineer in power plants when the boilers were being insulated with asbestos material. He was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2002 at age 65 after he complained to his doctor about shortness of breath.
"He was very close to retirement age. It was our turn," Leslie Rosenberg said. "We had finished putting the kids through college. We have two beautiful grandchildren. They were the light of his life."
Rosenberg's lawsuit, filed in Texas in one of the first counties he worked, seeks compensation from about two dozen manufacturers, suppliers and equipment makers.
Since filing the suit in 2003, the Rosenbergs have settled out of court for an undisclosed amount with about half the companies. The suit against the remaining companies could go to trial in May.
Michael Patronella, the Rosenbergs' attorney, said other clients his firm has represented have gotten more than the $1.1 million that is the maximum compensation under the proposed trust fund.
"They will do much better in a courtroom than they will with the U.S. Congress," Patronella said.
Stephen Rosenberg's son, Paul, said the money will be used to take care of Stephen's widow and will rightly punish the companies he believes killed his father.
"In this country," he said, "when an American is done wrong, you get the opportunity to take somebody to court."
Cost to smaller companies
The problem, some say, is that after the original manufacturers of asbestos and insulation materials settled or sought bankruptcy protection, lawyers started going after companies like Peerless Pump.
The part that included asbestos in the water pump Peerless sold couldn't be accessed without taking the pump apart, Warrington said.
"Even if you did," he said, "we would contend that you couldn't possibly get any disease from doing that."
And if asbestos makers knew the product was dangerous, he added, "they weren't telling their customers, and their customers' customers, and their customers' customers' customers, which was us."
Warrington said the company could have more than doubled its work force of 250 people if legal fees had been spent on wages instead.
He would like to see the issue settled but is concerned that the pending legislation would cost Peerless too much, particularly because insurance is now covering some of its legal costs.
Bigger companies, like General Motors, want to see the bill passed.
"We think it's a win-win bill, giving asbestos victims a much higher certainty of compensation and giving companies a greater certainty about future asbestos-related costs," said Michelle Bunker, a GM spokeswoman. "This bill helps the victims, the economy, and it protects jobs."
Both of Indiana's senators support the bill.
Sen. Richard Lugar, a Republican, said the "growing asbestos litigation crisis" is clogging the courts and driving companies into bankruptcy while "less than half of every dollar spent is going to victims of asbestos exposure."
Sen. Evan Bayh was among a minority of Democrats who joined Lugar and most other Republicans who voted Tuesday to keep the bill moving.
"There's no perfect solution," Bayh said, "but the compromise reform will get more money sooner in the hands of the sickest people."
