Asbestos companies have for decades attempted to limit their personal injury claims liability by filing for bankruptcy protection. The Union Asbestos and Rubber Company and Johns Manville were the first in a series of companies who have sough protection. Adequately funding an asbestos personal injury claims trust is essential to protect injured workers and other victims of asbestos disease, ie. asbestosis, lung cancer & mesothelioma. As long as asbestos is not banned in the US, it is critical that these trust adequately compensate the victims and potential victims for decades into the future.
Today's post was shared by Legal Newsline and comes from legalnewsline.com
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Attorneys transitioned Friday from days of expert testimony on the carcinogenic effects of asbestos and the work practices of attorneys representing asbestos plaintiffs to arguments about how much financial liability Garlock Sealing Technologies should face in the company’s ongoing bankruptcy trial.
Garlock attorneys called on economists to give the court estimates for how much money the company should place in a trust for future mesothelioma victims who might sue the company over exposure to asbestos from their products. Doing so will allow the company to escape bankruptcy.
Charles Bates, chairman of the economic consulting firm Bates White LLC and former assistant professor in the economics department at Johns Hopkins University testified about an estimation report his firm created to assess how much Garlock should put in the trust to compensate valid claimants.
Bates estimated $25 million was the net present value enough to sufficiently cover payouts for pending asbestos claims with $100 million being the net present value to cover claims by future mesothelioma victims. He said he arrived at that figure by taking into account factors such as the estimated number of future claimants. He said he used an epidemiological model to estimate how many more mesothelioma claims are likely to arise. Bates said Garlock’s proposal to fund the trust with $270 million would be sufficient to satisfy all of the future and...
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