Asbestos Settlements in the News
9/11 Health and Environmental Issues
Beth Keiser/Associated Press
Updated: Dec. 22, 2010
Scientists have called the dust, smoke and ash unleashed by the destruction of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, the greatest acute environmental disaster in New York City history. Fires burning at 1,000 degrees created a toxic plume that clouded lower Manhattan and spread to adjoining areas. The collapsing towers pulverized cement and everything the buildings contained, including some asbestos, while the tremendous pressure of the collapsing floors fused materials together in potentially dangerous combinations that scientists had not seen before. Officials and medical experts estimate that in all, between 40,000 and 90,000 workers and volunteers spent time on the debris pile and may have been affected in some way by the dust.
Officials and medical experts estimate that in all, between 40,000 and 90,000 workers and volunteers spent time on the debris pile and may have been affected in some way by the dust. More than 9,000 workers at ground zero brought lawsuits against 90 government agencies and private companies related to illnesses and injuries they say stemmed from working at the site. The plaintiffs claimed that the city, along with its contractors and other major defendants like the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, offered inadequate safety procedures and supervision to shield them from exposure to contaminants while working amid the debris in the 16-acre area. In June 2010, lawyers for the city and the rescue and cleanup workers announced a $712 million settlement, replacing an earlier one that a federal judge had rejected as inadequate. In November, more than 95 percent of the workers who sued New York City and its contractors narrowly approved a negotiated settlement, clearing the way for payouts of at least $625 million.
Democrats proposed legislation creating a $7.4 billion fund to provide medical care for those who become sick because of their exposure. The House passed the bill in September. But in December, during a lame-duck session, Republicans initially blocked a Senate version of the measure, citing concerns over how it would be paid for.
After drawing criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike, the Republican senators backed down. Under an agreement worked out by conservative Republicans and Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, the bill was scaled back, and then passed by unanimous consent. The new version provides $4.3 billion over five years for health coverage to the 9/11 workers, instead of the original $7.4 billion over eight years.
The new version of the bill calls for providing $1.8 billion over the next five years to monitor and treat injuries stemming from exposure to toxic dust and debris at ground zero; New York City would pay 10 percent of these costs. The legislation also sets aside $2.5 billion to reopen the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund for five years to provide payment for job and economic losses.
An additional provision allows for money from the Compensation Fund to be paid to any eligible claimant who receives a payment under the settlement of lawsuits that 10,000 rescue and cleanup workers recently reached with New York. Currently, those who receive a settlement are limited in how much compensation they can get from the fund, according to the bill's sponsors.
There are nearly 60,000 people enrolled in health-monitoring and treatment programs related to the 9/11 attacks, according to the bill's sponsors. The federal government provides the bulk of the funding for these programs.
GROUND ZERO'S HEALTH LEGACY
Plaintiffs in the suit against the government agencies claimed that their conditions — most commonly asthma and other respiratory illnesses — resulted from the toxic brew of contaminants at ground zero and a lack of adequate supervision and safety equipment, like respirators. Among the first cases chosen for trial was that of a firefighter, Raymond W. Hauber, 47, who died of esophageal cancer in 2007 before his case could be heard.
Initially, workers complained of a dry hacking cough, but in time more debilitating symptoms developed. Experts consider the most reliable health studies to be those done by the New York City Fire Department. They have shown that firefighters experienced a significant decline in lung capacity after 9/11. More recent studies by the department have found that firefighters have developed sarcoidosis at a rate that, while small, is significantly higher than expected since 9/11.
The pact announced in June drew a vigorous endorsement from the judge, Alvin K. Hellerstein of United States District Court in Manhattan. Heeding another complaint from the judge, lawyers for the workers agreed to reduce their fees to one-quarter of the total payout rather than the one-third called for in the lawyers' original agreement with their clients.
SETTLEMENT APPROVED
With the settlement approved by 95 percent of the plaintiffs in November 2010, workers could begin receiving compensation within weeks. If all of the plaintiffs accept the pact, the total payout by the city's insurer, the WTC Captive Insurance Company, could reach $712 million, with a minimum payout of $625 million.
Plaintiffs had faced a deadline of Nov. 23 for accepting or rejecting the settlement, with a 95 approval rate required for the accord to take effect. In responses relayed on Nov. 19 to the federal judge overseeing the litigation, they narrowly cleared the threshold: 95.1 percent , or 10,043 of the 10,563 workers, accepted the settlement's terms.
Individual payments will range from $3,250 to $1.8 million or more for the worst injuries, lawyers estimated. Under a system that ranks injuries in four tiers, about half the plaintiffs fall into the fourth tier, reserved for the worst injuries, and will get 94 percent of the payout, the lawyers said. Far smaller settlements have also been reached in recent weeks with other defendants in the litigation, including the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, owner of the World Trade Center.
Lawyers for the city's insurer, the WTC Captive Insurance Company, said they were reviewing claims packages in preparation for individual payouts. The company administering the claims, the Garretson Firm Resolution Group, said the first checks could go out within weeks.
The decision to settle was nonetheless a painful one for plaintiffs who said they felt shortchanged by the payout terms, which rate the severity of illness and how conclusively an injury can be linked to exposure to dust and fumes at the World Trade Center site. For example, some types of cancer did not qualify for compensation or were compensated at lower amounts than respiratory illnesses like asthma.
The agreement calls for a medical panel to advise on the validity of the claims and a claims administrator to decide the settlement amounts. Kenneth R. Feinberg, the former special master of the federal compensation fund that paid awards to families of 9/11 victims, was appointed to handle appeals from plaintiffs disputing their awards.
Grace Will Settle Asbestos Claims
Published: April 8, 2008
The specialty chemicals producer W. R. Grace & Company, which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001, said Monday that it would settle all present and future asbestos-related personal injury claims, sending its shares up nearly 8 percent.
The settlement includes $250 million in cash to be paid to a trust and deferred payments of $110 million a year for five years beginning in 2019, the company said in a statement. It also includes a deferred payment of $100 million a year for 10 years beginning in 2024. The deferred payments would be backed by 50.1 percent of its common stock.
The agreement contemplates the filing of a plan of reorganization and related documents with the bankruptcy court, Grace said.
"A lot of work remains to be done before we can confirm a plan of reorganization," the chief executive, Fred E. Festa, said, "but I am optimistic we will be successful in reaching that goal by the end of this year or early in 2009." Shares of W. R. Grace closed up $1.98 Monday, at $26.83.
COMPANY NEWS; PPG SETTLES ASBESTOS CLAIMS FOR $2.7 BILLION
Published: May 15, 2002
PPG Industries has settled asbestos injury claims for $2.7 billion and will take a charge against earnings of about $500 million, the company said yesterday. The settlement will be paid over the next 21 years by the manufacturing company and at least three-dozen insurers, including the Travelers Property and Casualty Corporation, the company said. Raymond W. LeBoeuf, PPG's chief executive officer, said most of the asbestos claims were the result of the company's 50 percent ownership position in Pittsburgh Corning, a joint venture with Corning Inc., a company that made asbestos pipe insulation before it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April 2000.
Ground Zero Workers Reach Deal Over Claims
By MIREYA NAVARRO
Published: March 11, 2010
A settlement of up to $657.5 million has been reached in the cases of thousands of rescue and cleanup workers at ground zero who sued the city over damage to their health, according to city officials and lawyers for the plaintiffs.
They said that the settlement would compensate about 10,000 plaintiffs according to the severity of their illnesses and the level of their exposure to contaminants at the World Trade Center site.
Lawyers from both sides met on Thursday to discuss the terms of the settlement with Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Payouts to the plaintiffs would come out of a federally financed insurance company with funds of about $1.1 billion that insures the city. At least 95 percent of the plaintiffs must accept its terms for it to take effect. If 100 percent of the plaintiffs agree to the terms, the total settlement would be $657.5 million. But if only the required 95 percent agreed, the total would shrink to $575 million.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs estimated that individual settlement amounts would vary from thousands of dollars to more than $1 million for the most serious injuries.
The settlement, which took two years to negotiate, raises the prospect of an end to years of complex and politically charged litigation that has pitted angry victims against city officials, who questioned the validity of some claims and argued that the city should be immune from liability.
"This is a good settlement," said Marc Bern, a lawyer with a firm that represents more than 9,000 plaintiffs, "and we are gratified that these heroic men and women who performed their duties without consideration of the health implications will finally receive just compensation for their pain and suffering, lost wages, medical and other expenses, as the U.S. Congress intended when it appropriated this money."
In a statement, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg called the settlement "a fair and reasonable resolution to a complex set of circumstances."
Under the settlement, a claims administrator, who will be chosen by the lawyers in the case, would decide whether a given plaintiff had a valid claim, whether the plaintiff qualified for compensation and if so, for how much. The system is similar to the one used for payouts from the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund to families of those killed in the terrorist attacks. The process is meant to screen out fraudulent claims.
Since 2003, thousands of firefighters, police officers, construction workers and emergency responders have filed lawsuits against 90 defendants — including the city and the private companies it hired to remove debris at ground zero — over illnesses they say developed after they spent days, weeks or months working at the World Trade Center site after the attacks.
The plaintiffs claimed that their conditions — most commonly asthma and other respiratory illnesses — resulted from the toxic brew of contaminants at ground zero and the defendants' failure to adequately supervise and protect them with safety equipment, like respirators. Among the first cases chosen for trial was that of a firefighter, Raymond W. Hauber, 47, who died of esophageal cancer in 2007 before his case could be heard.
Some of the cases that fall under the settlement involve plaintiffs who are not ill now, but fear they will develop illnesses like cancer that can take years to manifest themselves. The settlement provides for a $23.4 million insurance policy to cover future claims by such plaintiffs.
The first 12 cases were scheduled to come to trial on May 16 in Manhattan, and those trials will now not take place. But under the settlement, plaintiffs have 90 days to opt out of the settlement and pursue trials.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs would collect a third of the settlement amounts in legal fees. The insurance company, known as W.T.C. Captive Insurance and financed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has already paid out more than $200 million in legal fees to defend the city and its contractors and in administrative costs.
To determine individual settlement amounts, the administrator will use a point system to determine the severity of a plaintiff's illness, as documented by medical history. Other factors that will be considered include evidence of a link to ground zero and adjustments for age, pre-existing conditions, time of diagnosis and smoking history. The process could take up to a year.
Mindful of the intense public interest in the cases, Judge Hellerstein has told lawyers on both sides that he planned to review each settlement and hold "fairness" hearings to determine whether the settlements were reasonable, which legal experts said was unusual for litigation not involving a class action.
"Many of them are similar, but in fundamental aspects they have an individual plaintiff — they all revolve around one person," Judge Hellerstein told the lawyers at a Jan. 21 hearing. "I'll be looking carefully, if there is a settlement, at how individual members are treated."
The city argued that it was immune from damages in cases involving a national emergency or a civil defense disaster. It also questioned the connection between the illnesses and ground zero and cast doubt on many of the claims, for example, arguing in the case of a ConEd mechanic, which was also to be among the first trials, that the man's lung problems predated 9/11.
"If this settlement allows me to move on in my life, if it allows me to protect my family's future, I guess I don't have anything else to fight about," said one plaintiff, Kenny Specht, 41, a retired firefighter.
But Mr. Specht, who has thyroid cancer and founded a group to help fellow firefighters financially, said the outcome was hardly a victory.
"Why did families who had to bury somebody have to wait this long?" he said. "Why didn't they handle this in a timely manner?"
Smithsonian settles asbestos lawsuit
Ex-employee gets $233,000 and health insurance
By James V. Grimaldi and Jacqueline Trescott
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 10, 2009
An outside consultant urged improvements in the Smithsonian Institution's handling of asbestos in its buildings, calling for changes in procedures and training, and inspections to locate the toxic substance throughout the sprawling museum complex.
Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough ordered the study this year after The Washington Post reported in March that a former exhibit specialist who worked on walls containing asbestos had been sickened during his 28-year career at the National Air and Space Museum.
The worker, Richard Pullman, 54, has settled a lawsuit with the institution for $233,000, according to records obtained by The Post this month from the Department of Labor under the Freedom of Information Act.
Pullman said he frequently sawed and drilled into interior walls to install and update exhibits for more than 25 years. In 2008, he and other workers were told for the first time that the walls contained asbestos, Pullman said. Asbestosis, a lung disease linked to breathing asbestos fibers, was diagnosed in Pullman by his physicians.
Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas said, "There's no admission of guilt" in the settlement.
Clough, a civil engineer by training, noted in an e-mail to employees this week that the report, by engineering consultant URS, calls for "a number of improvements." He emphasized the report's positive findings.
"Our written policies and procedures are typical of a federal agency and our efforts exceed those of most commercial entities, according to the report," he said in the e-mail, which the Smithsonian provided to The Post.
Clough is scheduled to testify at an oversight hearing Thursday before the House Appropriations Committee panel that monitors the Smithsonian. St. Thomas said there were no plans to bring up the report in his testimony.
"The recommendations like improving records maintenance and communication in no way indicates that the Smithsonian is unsafe for its employees," St. Thomas said.
Pullman's settlement was signed in July by Air and Space Museum Director John R. Dailey, but it was filed under seal at the Labor Department's administrative court.
The engineer's report, which the Smithsonian gave to The Post, said that the institution failed to use the most reliable method of asbestos testing, which would "afford greater protection for employees, contractors, and the public."
While the Smithsonian had conducted baseline studies to locate asbestos in facilities years ago, the institution had failed to reinspect buildings every three years, a commonly accepted "best management practice," the report said.
The Smithsonian also failed to keep a complete record on asbestos-containing material. Workers often did not have adequate information on the location of asbestos or how to work around it, according to the report.
The consultants suggested improved training, better tracking of employees who should wear respirators and the posting of clear signs around areas containing asbestos. "Employee training appears to be one of the areas in most need of improvement," the report concluded.
Smithsonian spokeswoman Samia Brennan said more than 800 workers have attended asbestos classes in 2009 and about 50 workers have taken the offer to see an asbestos-disease physician contracted by the institution.
Under the terms of his settlement, Pullman received $154,000 in August and will receive $79,000 in severance pay. The Smithsonian also agreed to pay 65 percent of his health insurance for nine months. The terms prohibit Pullman and the Smithsonian from disparaging each other.
Pullman won an appeal over the summer on his worker's compensation coverage claim for asbestosis. The claim was initially denied a year ago. The decision means he can be reimbursed for asbestosis-related treatment and can get benefits if he becomes disabled or dies from the disease, said his attorney, David J. Marshall.
Pullman contacted The Post in 2008 after learning that joint compound in the Air and Space Museum's walls contained asbestos. He also began to file a series of occupational-safety complaints. Pullman, who had an otherwise positive employment record, was disciplined after filing the workplace safety complaints. Those sanctions were deleted from his personnel file as part of the settlement.
His case prompted hearings in Congress and an internal review. It also prompted contract steamfitters who had worked at the National Museum of American History to contact The Post to allege that asbestos was mishandled during that building's $85 million renovation.
The Smithsonian said the problems were corrected.
Marshall said his client was pleased with the settlement. "Mr. Pullman feels that he has done his part in the fight for a safer workplace and for the right of workers to advocate the same without fear of retaliation," Marshall said.
The Post reported earlier this year that in 1992, a consulting firm hired by the Smithsonian, Versar, found 1 to 5 percent asbestos in the joint compound used in two dozen Air and Space museum rooms. A level above 1 percent is supposed to trigger worker-safety requirements. The report said the material would be harmless if undisturbed. The report urged that workers be alerted, but the Smithsonian has acknowledged that warnings rarely were issued.
Thousands of pages of other documents, which fall under the Smithsonian's public-records policy and were released to The Post over the summer, confirm another of Pullman's complaints: Construction and plan specifications did not always notify outside contractors that asbestos in the wallboard joint compound triggered the safety precautions.
Among those specifications were the 2007 plans to replace the electrical system. The plans state incorrectly that the amount of asbestos in the joint compound "would constitute less than one percent."
The Smithsonian acknowledged that warnings about asbestos in the walls were not passed down over the years, but said there was no evidence that asbestos was released in the building.
Pullman had alleged that the workers during those two projects had drilled numerous holes throughout the building without using methods to prevent asbestos from floating through the museum. He said debris was allowed to blow throughout the museum. He secretly collected and tested dust samples, some of which showed high concentrations of asbestos dust.
The Smithsonian dismissed the results of Pullman's tests and conducted new air tests that found no problems.
Halliburton Agrees to Asbestos Settlement
December 12, 2002|From Bloomberg News
Halliburton Co. agreed to pay as much as $4.2 billion in cash and stock to settle asbestos-related claims against several current and former units and wipe out future asbestos liability, plaintiffs lawyers say.
The world's second-largest oil-services company will pay $2.75 billion in cash and issue $1.4 billion in stock to compensate workers and others for health problems tied to asbestos, said Peter Kraus, a lawyer for asbestos claimants in the Harbison-Walker Refractories bankruptcy case. The unit was formerly owned by Halliburton's Dresser Industries subsidiary.
The settlement allows Halliburton to avoid a bankruptcy filing and create a trust to pay its asbestos liability as part of Harbison's Chapter 11 case, Kraus said. Asbestos suits have forced 20 companies to file for bankruptcy protection since January 2000, including Owens Corning and Federal-Mogul Corp., and may cost U.S. businesses more than $200 billion, consulting firm Towers Perrin estimates.
"They are buying peace from asbestos litigation for all time," Kraus said.
Halliburton said in a statement that the postponement was requested by creditors in the Harbison bankruptcy case. Company spokeswoman Wendy Hall declined to comment further on the case.
Shares of Houston-based Halliburton on Wednesday rose 57 cents to $20.40 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Halliburton has predicted that its asbestos litigation expenses will reach $2.2 billion by 2017. Asbestos, used as an insulating and fireproofing material until the 1980s, has been tied to lung cancer.