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September 30, 2004

Hearing set next week in asbestos cases

• Judge asked to dismiss suits or order more info on claims
  
  By Jack Elliott Jr.
  The Associated Press
  
  Defendants in asbestos cases in three southwest Mississippi counties have asked a Jefferson County judge to dismiss the lawsuits or order plaintiffs to provide more information on their claims.
  
  Circuit Judge Lamar Pickard is scheduled to hear arguments Monday in Fayette.
  
  The hearing deals with pending asbestos litigation in Jefferson, Copiah and Claiborne counties. It involves thousands of plaintiffs in and outside Mississippi and hundreds of defendants. The defendants are mostly companies where the plaintiffs claimed to have been exposed to asbestos.

  Exposure to asbestos can cause asbestosis, in which the fibers get into the lungs and scar them. The lungs get stiff and it becomes difficult for them to take in air or to transfer oxygen to the blood. The condition can lead to frequent lung infections and heart or respiratory failure. There is no effective treatment.
  
  On Aug. 26, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled in a case from Bolivar County that such lawsuits must include the names of each defendant being sued, when the plaintiff was exposed and the work site where the exposure occurred. If the information is not provided, the claim should be thrown out, the court said. The defendants said they received no basic information about the plaintiffs. Attorneys for the plaintiffs, according to the court record, said such details were not needed right now and would come out when the cases were tried one at a time.
  
  Chief Justice Jim Smith, writing for the Supreme Court, said the information should have been included in the lawsuits.
  
  "This complaint comes to us from plaintiffs who, more than three years ago, filed suit against 137 defendants, who have amended the complaint six times and who are apparently unable to explain to the trial court, this court or to the defendants, exactly who each plaintiff has sued and why," Smith wrote. Smith said the trial judge should dismiss the claims of all plaintiffs who did not produce the required information within 45 days of the Supreme Court order. Smith said separate trials should be scheduled for each plaintiffs and those cases involving residents outside Bolivar County or outside Mississippi should be transferred to other courts.
  
  The Supreme Court has ruled similarly in lawsuits against the maker of a diet drug. In those cases, the court said it was improper to group plaintiffs together when their claims did not arise from the same incident. The defendants in Pickard's court are seeking the same remedy.
  
  Marcy Bryan Croft, a Jackson attorney representing defendants in asbestos litigation before Pickard and in other lawsuits across the state and the Southeast, said Wednesday that the defendants had raised similar issues before the Supreme Court's order.
  
  "But we didn't have Supreme Court precedent," Croft said. "It is what we had always said the Supreme Court would do if they addressed these issues. So, it's nice to be validated."

  Attorneys for plaintiffs in the case did not return calls to The Associated Press.

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