Proposed Asbestos Legislation Called "A Subterfuge" to Alter the Civil Justice System

H.R. 982, the “Furthering Asbestos Claim Transparency (FACT) Act of 2013.


"Asbestos defendants and insurance companies, under the guise of creating increased 

“transparency,” are introducing proposed legislation in state legislatures to grant solvent asbestos  defendants new rights and advantages to be used against asbestos victims in court. Some of these  bills would also burden the asbestos trusts with unnecessary reporting requirements, slowing  their ability to pay claims, and further draining them of the resources needed to make their  already diminished payments. In general, the bills are an attempt to change the rules of the tort system to provide defendants with an advantage, using the existence of the trusts and claims of a lack of “transparency” as a subterfuge."

Elihu Inselbuch, Member, Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered, Testimony, Hearing: March 13, 2013

H.R. 982, the “Furthering Asbestos Claim Transparency (FACT) Act of 2013”

COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY SUBCOMMITTEE ON REGULATORY REFORM, COMMERCIAL AND ANTITRUST LAW

Failure to Remove Asbestos Property Results in Guilty Plea

California contractos who failed to properly remove asbestos construction material from a job site plead guilty in Federal Court to a a violation of the asbestos work-practice standards of the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants. Asbestos is a know cancer causing substance. It is linked to: asbestos, lung caner and mesothelioma.

Joseph Cuellar, 73, of Fresno, Calif.; Patrick Bowman, 46, of Los Banos, Calif.; and Rudolph Buendia III, 50, of Planada, Calif., each pleaded guilty today to a violation of the asbestos work-practice standards of the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.

According to the indictment, Joseph Cuellar was the administrative manager of Firm Build Inc., Patrick Bowman was its president, and Rudolph Buendia was its construction project site supervisor. From September 2005 to March 2006, Firm Build operated a demolition and renovation project in the former Castle Air Force Base in Atwater, California. They were to turn Building 325 into a mechanic training center for the Merced County Board of Education. The defendants hired local high school students from the Workplace Learning Academy in Merced to perform some of the renovation.

Workers' Compensation Injuries Must Be Reported in a Timely Matter

In order to file a valid workers' compensation claim, an injured worker must report the accident within 90 days to his or her employer. The NJ Appellate Division affirmed the trial court's ruling dismissing a case of a volunteer emergency medical technician who failed to give timely notice of his injury.

The worker, captain of the rescue squad, alleged an injury occurred when he responded to a one care motor vehicle accident when minor injuries had occurred and he allegedly jumped off a flat bed truck some 3-4 feet off the ground injuring his back. The worker was 42 years old, 6.25 feet tall and weighed 325 pounds who was previously being treated for an arthritic condition.

Stucco Contractor in NJ Receives OSHA Fines $70,000+ for Scaffolding Violations

Some of the most serious workplace injuries occur because of falls from scaffolding. Those construction site injuries result in major workers' compensation cases.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Paterson-based F&G Sons Contractors Inc., doing business as F&G Contractors Inc., with five repeat and one serious violation, including scaffolding and fall hazards, found at a Kinnelon work site. OSHA's October 2012 investigation was initiated in response to an imminent danger complaint and resulted in $70,840 in penalties.

The repeat violations, with a $67,760 penalty, include an unsecured scaffold missing cross braces, exposing workers to scaffold collapse and failing to fully plank and provide guardrails or other means of fall protection on scaffolds. A repeat violation is issued when an employer previously has been cited for the same or a similar violation of a standard, regulation, rule or order at any other facility in federal enforcement states within the last five years. Similar violations were cited in 2009 and 2010.

AAJ Responds To WSJ Report About Rising Asbestos Claims

Workers' Compensation claimant's attorneys have lived through decades of denial and delay of asbestos disease claims by the asbestos industry and their suppliers, manufacturers and distributors of asbestos products. Asbestos, a known carcinogen, was marketed throughout the US for decades and still is not banned in the US. 

Click here to read

The energies and economies of the asbestos / insurance industry have been misplaced, for what now seems like generations. Instead of trying to defeat the claims, the asbestos industry, which gained enormous profit from trading in a deadly product, would best serve public health by supporting a total ban on asbestos manufacturing/importation and use in the US and support medical research for a cure for the rare and fatal malignancies it causes, ie. mesothelioma and lung cancer.

The following is a statement from American Association for Justice President Mary Alice McLarty, in response to theWall Street Journal story “As Asbestos Claims Rise, So Do Worries About Fraud:”

“Asbestos has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and 10,000 more will die this year.

“Countless lives could have been saved and lawsuits prevented if Big Asbestos had been transparent and disclosed the dangers of asbestos decades ago.  Instead, as more Americans die, this industry continues to invest massive resources into evading accountability, vilifying the victims and opposing a ban on asbestos. 

“The Wall Street Journal and Congress should not be aiding this campaign to let Big Asbestos off the hook for killing Americans.”

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As the world's largest trial bar, the American Association for Justice (formerly known as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America) works to make sure people have a fair chance to receive justice through the legal system when they are injured by the negligence or misconduct of others—even when it means taking on the most powerful corporations. Visit http://www.justice.org/newsroom.

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Carbon Nanotubes Exposure Linked to Lung Tumor Formation in Mice

"Earlier today, at the annual meeting of the Society of Toxicology, NIOSH researchers reported preliminary findings from a new laboratory study in which mice were exposed by inhalation to multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT).  The study was designed to investigate whether these tiny particles have potential to initiate or promote cancer.  

By “initiate,” we mean the ability of a substance to cause mutations in DNA that can lead to tumors.  By “promote,” we mean the ability of a substance to cause cells that have already sustained such DNA mutations to then become tumors. "

See the NIOSH Science Blog

Another Asbestos Company Files for Bankruptcy: Rapid American / Philip Carey Manufacturing Co.

On Friday Rapid-American Corp., successor to asbestos liability of Philip Carey Manufacturing, filed for bankruptcy protection. Philip Carey was established in 1888 and was a long-time manufacturer of insulation products containing asbestos fiber.

Asbestos litigation was initiated in the 1970's for health conditions arising out of the exposure to asbestos products including asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma. 

One of the successor companies was Celotex that had filed for bankruptcy protection previously. The Celotex bankruptcy fell shirt of covering the financial responsibilities of the asbestos litigation claims, and the responsibility fell upon Rapid America.