Asbestos Maker Turns Bankruptcy Case Into Hearing on Bogus Suits
Asbestos maker W.R. Grace is pursuing an unusual strategy in an effort to emerge from bankruptcy. The company wants the judge overseeing its reorganization to declare invalid many of the roughly 100,000 asbestos claims pending against it.
Judge Judith Fitzgerald of Pittsburgh appears to be cooperating, the Washington Post reports. She has allowed the company to introduce evidence that suggests asbestos-related diseases were overdiagnosed. W.R. Grace contends it is responsible for paying about $500 million in claims, while plaintiffs lawyers say as much as $6 billion is at stake, more than the market value of the company.
Fitzgerald is hearing the evidence as she considers liabilities faced by the company.
Cardozo law professor Lester Brickman applauded the move. “This could be the first time in more than 80 asbestos-related bankruptcies where a court will allow the company to try to prove that thousands of pending claims are bogus and not legitimate,” he told the newspaper.
Brickman wrote a Dec. 26 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that took the Justice Department to task for failing to prosecute doctors and lawyers who commit mass tort fraud.
