home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- <text id=90TT2457>
- <title>
- Sep. 17, 1990: Your Check Is Not In The Mail
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- Sep. 17, 1990 The Rotting Of The Big Apple
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- BUSINESS, Page 65
- Your Check Is Not in the Mail
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>Asbestos victims' endless wait
- </p>
- <p> For asbestos victims, illness is not the only indignity they
- have suffered. Tens of thousands of them have also endured a
- seemingly endless wait for compensation from the companies that
- produced the mineral that has been found to cause lung cancer
- and other diseases. The most immediate crisis involves the
- Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust, formed in 1988 as
- the company emerged from bankruptcy reorganization. At the
- time, trust officials expected to handle 100,000 cases, with an
- average payment of $25,000 each, but so far, they have paid an
- average of $43,500 each on the first 24,000 claims. By last
- June the trust was running out of cash, and more than 125,000
- cases were pending.
- </p>
- <p> Jack Weinstein, a federal judge in New York City, is leading
- an effort to restructure the Manville Trust and resolve 90,000
- asbestos lawsuits against dozens of U.S. companies, which
- represent the biggest ever product-liability issue. Last week
- Manville announced a plan to replenish the trust's cash supply
- in a stock deal that will provide as much as $520 million for
- settling claims over a seven-year period. But the company will
- not make the new money available until the end of next year.
- At the moment, with much of the trust's income dependent on
- future Manville profits, victims filing now are being told they
- may have to wait until 2015 to see their first payments.
- </p>
- <p> The judicial system is so clogged by the volume of claims
- that desperate judges are trying hundreds of cases at a time.
- Some critics complain that greedy lawyers are reaping
- exorbitant fees in the process. As a result, Weinstein has set
- a limit of 20% on contingency fees allowed lawyers for hardship
- settlements paid by Manville. Trust officials say they may have
- to handle as many as 300,000 claims.
- </p>
- <p> The flood of cases may swamp other companies as well. A
- court-ordered study released last week said Eagle-Picher
- Industries of Cincinnati, a former asbestos maker, has been
- devastated by claims and is likely to become insolvent by the
- end of 1992. The company has 64,000 claims pending, with 20,000
- more being filed every year. As part of his overall plan,
- Weinstein hopes to pool money from several companies, including
- Eagle-Picher, to help the firms resolve their claims.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-