Mesothelioma Attorneys
Owens Corning Settling Most of Its Asbestos Cases
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During the last two decades, as thousands of people have learned each year that they were ill or dying because of exposure to asbestos, manufacturers that sold the versatile but deadly mineral have given up fighting and settled claims with the notable exception of Owens Corning, the building products company best known for its pink fiberglass insulation. But yesterday, Owens Corning said it was settling 176,000 cases, nearly 90 percent of those pending, for $1.2 billion. After paying their lawyers, plaintiffs will pocket an average of $4,600. The Toledo, Ohio, company said the settlement, with more than 50 law firms, would help it remove investor uncertainty about the nation’s largest maker of building insulation. The change in policy had no effect on Owens Corning’s stock price, however. It finished at $36.0625 share, unchanged. Plaintiff lawyers who did not participate in the settlement said the company faced years of litigation as about 3,000 people a month develop asbestos-related disease and sue the company, a trend expected to continue well into the next century even though Owens Corning last sold its Kaylo pipe insulation in 1972. By 2030, nearly a century after the first asbestos case was reported in the United States, about 300,000 people will have died because of asbestos, said Dr. Philip J. Landrigan of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, a leading authority on asbestos-induced illness. Owens Corning sold $135 million worth of Kaylo between 1958 and 1972, Glen Hiner, its chief executive, said yesterday, but will spend nearly $5 billion on claims before the issue becomes history. He said the company made perhaps 1 percent of asbestos products over the years. More : query.nytimes.com |
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