Asbestos workers vow to fight legislation to limit lawsuits

Angie Wagner

Wednesday, April 12, 2000 | 10:27 a.m.

The stories of disease and death told by the men inside a small meeting room echo those from asbestos workers around the country.

One man talks about his father-in-law drowning in fluid built up in his lungs. Another man recalls how his father's retirement was cut short because of his death.

"He was a tenor in our quartet - best tenor in the world," another man recalls about his deceased friend.

The only recourse families of asbestos workers have had against the ravages of asbestos is through the courts. Families of those who have gotten sick or died long after they were exposed to asbestos have been suing manufacturers for years.

Sometimes the money they receive isn't much, but it's something, the members of the Heat and Frost Insulators and Asbestos Workers Union Local 135 say.

But legislation that has been proposed in Congress could change the way hundreds of thousands of asbestos victims try to recover money for their suffering.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., is pushing a bill to channel all asbestos claims through a new Justice Department office that would establish medical eligibility and encourage quick settlements. The committee approved the bill in March. It now heads to the House floor, where its prospects are uncertain.

Asbestos is a fibrous mineral once commonly used for insulation and fireproofing in goods and buildings. The inhaling of asbestos fibers can cause lung cancer and other deadly respiratory ailments, sometimes decades after the exposure.

The Las Vegas workers say streamlining the claims process is just an example of the asbestos manufacturers trying to avoid responsibility for the often-deadly material.

The group of 90 workers gathered recently with Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., to discuss the bill and how they will fight it.

In the past six months, one union worker and two retired union workers have died of asbestos-related diseases, said Rick DeVoe, a union worker and the group's political coordinator.

"We're not just fighting for ourselves, we're fighting for every worker across the country," DeVoe said.

Under the proposed legislation, the new Justice Department office would determine if a person is eligible for payment. The defendant company would make a settlement offer, and the office would propose its own figure. If the claimant was unhappy with the offers, he could appeal to an administrative court for action within 90 days or to a state or federal court.

The Coalition for Asbestos Resolution, the industry-backed group lobbying for Hyde's bill, said more than 500,000 asbestos cases have been filed in the past three decades and more than 200,000 are still pending.

"Sick claimants are victimized twice, once by disease and once by the legal system," Hyde has said.

The Supreme Court urged Congress to take legislative action to deal with what it said was a serious backlog in asbestos cases.

"The theme is to take care of the sick right away. The others can come back again and again and again," Hyde's chief of staff, Thomas Mooney, said recently.

Trial lawyers and environmental and consumer groups disagree. They contend the legislation would deprive victims of their legal rights to compensation.

Berkley called the bill a "ridiculous, self-serving piece of legislation."

Many of the local workers have settled lawsuits on behalf of their fathers or themselves, but most say they didn't get much. One man got several hundred dollars after attorney fees.

For the workers who haven't sued yet and are just starting to develop signs of illness, the legislation could affect any potential settlement.

The bill defines eligible claimants as only those people who are actually sick with asbestosis, lung cancer or other ailments associated with inhaling asbestos. People who show evidence, such as spots on the lung, but aren't yet ill would not qualify for settlements, although they could be retested in the future at government expense.

"Why do they want to change it? Because they know they've been had," said Chuck Hawk, a 68-year-old worker who already has settled lawsuit with asbestos manufacturers. Hawk predicts he will die of asbestosis.

"This is a cause that affects every American," he said.

Richard Owen, 66, worked for 45 years as an insulator. He watched his father-in-law die of cancer and is sure he will die of an asbestos-related illness, too.

"It's coming," he said.

His wife, Lorraine, remembers when she used the cloths that were wrapped around the asbestos as dust rags. So far, she shows no signs of illness.

"We're small in numbers, but mighty in spirit," DeVoe said.