GM Bankruptcy Leaves Asbestos Claimants Behind
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
General Motors emerged from bankruptcy last week after shedding nearly $130 billion in liabilities. The U.S. government now owns a majority stake in the company. CEO Fritz Henderson promised the new GM will repay about $50 billion in government loans ahead of a 2015 deadline.
Among the liabilities left behind in the courts were claims against the company by asbestos victims. Asbestos is still used in clutch, brake, and transmission parts in automobiles, and auto workers, auto mechanics and car owners who work on their own vehicles remain more at risk of exposure than they might realize. Exposure to asbestos leads to deadly diseases such as asbestosis and mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer.
Asbestos liability claims against GM have been accumulating in recent years, and by 2008 these claims totaled $648 million. Many claimants are workers employed by GM over the past three decades whose diseases are now being diagnosed. Because mesothelioma can take between 20 and 50 years to develop after exposure to asbestos, it’s certain that there will be more claimants in the years go come.
Right now, no one seems to know if or how these people will be compensated for their injuries.
According to Mike Spector of the Wall Street Journal, the “undesired remnants” of General Motors left behind in bankruptcy court will linger in court for years. People with injury claims, “including injuries from car accidents and asbestos — will have to fight over the bankruptcy estate’s scraps,” Spector writes.
Barbara O’Brien
