Court Approves $43 Million Montana Asbestos Settlement

A Montana judge has approved a $43 million settlement for people sickened by exposure toasbestos from a mine, with a large part of that amount to be paid by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, court documents show.

$43 Million Settlement for Residents

The settlement resolves a lawsuit filed against Montana over asbestos exposure at a W.R. Grace mine. Former miners and their families had accused the state of failing to properly oversee the mine or warn workers of dangers there.

The mine in Libby, Montana, produced vermiculite, used for home insulation, potting soil conditioner and absorbent packing material.

More than 70 percent of the vermiculite used in the country over eight decades camefromLibby — and it was all contaminated by asbestos deposits in the same mine, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Miners originally sued W.R. Grace over their exposure to asbestos, but after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001 the workers sued the state for failing to adequately protect them, according to court documents.
About 1,400 people will receive payouts from the settlement approved Sept. 8 by MontanaDistrict Court Judge Jeffrey M. Sherlock, ending a decade-long legal battle.

The deal ends numerous cases and claims against Montana “but expressly reserves their claims against all other responsible parties,” according to the agreement.



Many of the victims of asbestos exposure from the Libby mine are now over 65, and others have since died of asbestos-related diseases such as asbestosis and cancers likemesothelioma, records show.

Because of the decades-long latency associated with asbestos-related diseases, people continue to be diagnosed decades after the mine closed, according to federal health officials.

Montana officials conducted inspections of the mine in the 1950s and later years, but despite knowing the risk to miners from asbestos dust, the state did not adequately warnworkers of those dangers, the Montana Supreme Court found in 2004.

To cover the $43 million settlement, the state of Montana is using $26.8 million out of its self-insurance fund.

Montana’s insurers, National Indemnity, Berkshire’s reinsurance unit, and MontanaInsurance Guaranty Association will pay $16.1 million and $100,000 respectively, according to court documents.

Warren Buffet’s Berkshire has been active in taking over asbestos obligations frominsurance companies in exchange for huge up-front premiums.

Payments for victims range from $500 to nearly $61,000 each, legal records show.


In a separate order on Sept. 8, Sherlock ordered one-third — or $14.3 million — to be paid out of the $43 million to attorneys for the victims, who worked on contingency.

The W.R. Grace mine in Libby closed in 1990.

In 2008, the company agreed to set up a trust fund to pay victims’ health claims.

Attorneys for the victims and for Montana did not respond to requests for comment.

Mesothelioma Lawsuit Settles for $2.1 Million for New Jersey Construction Worker

A 48-year-old New Jersey (NJ) union construction worker, who had his left lung removed after he was diagnosed with occupational mesothelioma cancer, received a $2.1 million settlement from a lawsuit he filed against the manufacturers of the asbestos construction products that eventually led to his death.

$2.1 Million Settlement

The New Jersey law office of Weitz & Luxenberg negotiated the settlement on behalf of theworker’s surviving family – his wife and two children. According to his lawyer: “Almost every construction product used before the 1980s contained asbestos. Back then, manufacturers deliberately omitted health care warnings, and employers rarely provided workers with equipment to protect them against the fatal diseases asbestos causes.”

The construction worker joined his local New Jersey pipefitters’ union as an apprentice in 1978, straight out of high school. Thirty years later he was dead from mesothelioma – the signature asbestos-related disease that claims the lives of hundreds of retired construction workers every year due to the unbridled use of toxic asbestos materials in the U.S. construction industry.

“The only time I started seeing safety masks on the job was about the late 80s,” the construction worker testified during his deposition. “That’s when they started offering me them, by saying, ‘It's dusty, you know. You’re hammering and drilling in the ceilings. It's coming down in your face, put the mask on.’ ”

He died exactly two weeks after the deposition, leaving behind a wife and two sons, aged 8 and 10.

Asbestos is no longer mined in the United States, but it is still imported and used in construction. Websites still sell asbestos-made products to industry contractors. With the enactment of federal regulations to protect workers against occupational asbestos exposure, new construction work is no longer as risky as it used to be.



But renovation work on old buildings still holds certain perils. That’s because large amounts of asbestos materials remain deeply embedded in the infrastructure of most buildings built before 1980. Toxic asbestos exposure occurs when workers disturb these materials inadvertently during renovation and demolition activities.

Most cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed 20 to 40 years after a job-related asbestosexposure. That’s why, despite today’s regulatory protections, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta predict the number of cases of mesothelioma will peak this year in the United States. Currently, some 3,000 cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed in the country every year.