JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. _ Juries have awarded large sums to people exposed to asbestos in recent years. Now, Missouri lawmakers want to limit those awards.
Asbestos causes cancer, and people often are exposed to it through no fault of their own _ working at a business with asbestos insulation, for instance. But the money awarded to people exposed to asbestos has gotten out of hand, legislators argue.
"What I don't agree with is getting two to three times what your case is worth," said Republican state Rep. Bruce DeGroot of Chesterfield, who sponsored the legislation.
The Missouri House sent the measure to the Senate this week. It was supported by pro-business groups, including the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Many people such as construction workers and firefighters exposed to asbestos seek restitution through organizations called bankruptcy trusts.
Decades ago, because so many people sued the companies producing asbestos, the companies went out of business, but the trusts were established so victims could still get relief, according to a 2011 study from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
If victims got money through the trust, they could still sue and seek damages through the courts. The measure the House endorsed would allow the amount given by the trust to offset some of the damages a jury decided to grant a victim.
The measure would also institute time limits for providing certain materials during a lawsuit. Critics blasted the provision as a way for companies to run out the clock on people dying from cancer.
"If you delay these cases, what you can do is make it so the plaintiff never has an opportunity to be in front of a jury," GOP state Rep. Jay Barnes of Jefferson City, who is a lawyer, said on the House floor Tuesday.
"Isn't that what they want?" GOP state Rep. Dean Plocher of St. Louis asked Barnes.
"That's exactly what the companies that want this want," Barnes replied.
Other Republicans also said they thought the legislation only benefited corporations.
Life "is not about protecting companies," GOP state Rep. Steve Cookson of Poplar Bluff said. "It's about protecting people."
At one point during the debate, Democratic state Rep. Mark Ellebracht of Liberty breathed heavily into the microphone on the House floor, sounding a little like Darth Vader.
"That was not the sound of a person suffocating from mesothelioma, although it sounds like that a little bit sometimes," he said. "That's the sound of this body suffocating the constitutional rights of our constituents."
The legislation would prevent people from getting the full award they're due, Ellebracht said.
DeGroot responded to criticisms by saying his legislation would make the process "fair."
The legislation would also require trusts to release information on how many claims were made in a certain time period and the amount of each claim. The study from the GAO found that most trusts already release the total amount of claims made and the total amount of payments.
In 2010, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce pushed similar legislation on the federal level, according to the GAO. Representatives for the Chamber and its Institute for Legal Reform testified in favor of DeGroot's bill in January, according to committee minutes.
The speaker of the House, Rep. Todd Richardson, a Poplar Bluff Republican, said the legislation fit into the body's push for more pro-business changes in the legal code.
"I think it's part of the overall tort package that we're trying to put together," he said. "On balance, I think this is good policy."
The legislation is House Bill 1645.
