Coming to a Theater Near You: Tort Reform Propaganda
Monday, May 11th, 2009
The National Law Journal tells us that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is running two-minute movie theater trailers that warn movie audiences about “lawsuit abuse.” The trailers feature Mike Carter, owner of Monroe Rubber & Gasket of Monroe, Louisiana. Mr. Carter is being “hammered” (a word used over and over again in news stories; no doubt it comes from the Chamber’s press release) by over 100 asbestos-related lawsuits. The plaintiffs say exposure to asbestos in Carter’s gaskets caused them to develop mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases.
Carter’s side of the story is that, prior to 1986, the company manufactured gaskets containing “encapsulated” asbestos, meaning the asbestos fibers were coated in a way to prevent the fibers from becoming airborne and breathed in by people handling the gaskets. Further, Carter contends, the fibers didn’t escape the gaskets, and no one suing him is actually sick. The suits are not coming from his own loyal employees, but from strangers working for companies to which Carter supplied gaskets years ago.
I spent considerable time looking for the other side to this story, and I am not yet satisfied that I found it. But one gets hints in a news story by David Yates in the Southeast Texas Record. The attorney for the plaintiffs says workers were exposed to asbestos when they used a grinder to remove old gaskets, and that the gaskets contained no safety warnings.
And is it true no one who handled Carter’s gaskets has developed asbestos-related disease? Yates writes (emphasis added):
Carter said he believes most of the individuals suing him are not really sick, and plaintiffs’ lawyers are notorious for conducting assembly line mass medical screenings and lumping hundreds of healthy people into a class with only a few sick plaintiffs.
In other words, it is Carter’s opinion that most of the individuals suing are not really sick. But what do their doctors say? We don’t know.
Carter also contends that there is no way to know if a particular case of mesothelioma or asbestosis came from his asbestos, or someone else’s.
“The real problem came from (companies using) asbestos insulation and lining, not gaskets,” Carter said.
For decades, he said, industrial pipe fitters and cutters were exposed to asbestos fibers on a daily basis.
Blackwell said it was not possible to determine which exposure situation was more likely to inflict a person with an asbestos illness.
That’s true, but if no one is getting sick, what is the problem? One suspects there are some actually sick people involved in these suits.
But here’s the kicker — Yates’s news story begins this way –
Last week, Mike Carter said all he could do was roll his eyes as he read the newest lawsuit filed against his small Louisiana company: this time it was a suit by a woman that had to wash her father’s allegedly asbestos-laden uniforms.
I mean, how frivolous is that? But wait — what’s this? Last week a jury in Indiana awarded $2 million to the family of a deceased asbestos victim. Was the deceased an industrial worker? No; she was the wife of an industrial worker, and she contracted mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos when she laundered her husband’s clothes.
I’m going to continue to look into this, and into the other examples of “lawsuit abuse” being presented in the Chamber of Commerce trailers. It may be that Carter is innocent of wrongdoing and that suits being brought against him have no merit. But it’s obvious there is another side to this story that is not being told to the public –which is why we need courts.
Barbara O’Brien
May 7, 2009
