DuPont, Others Become Targets of Asbestos Lawsuits -------------------------------------------------- Published January 03, 2003 DuPont Co. and other plastics manufacturers are targets of new asbestos lawsuits that broaden legal attacks on the cancer-causing substance beyond the makers of building materials. The suits mark a shift in strategy by plaintiffs, who say makers of plastic industrial products containing asbestos are also to blame for worker health problems. Many of the suits have been filed in Mississippi by attorneys acting before a new state law capping damage awards takes effect tomorrow. "We have to find out who else is responsible," said Stacey Sims, a Hattiesburg, Mississippi, attorney who has filed asbestos suits on behalf of 8,000 workers who used plastic products made by DuPont, Eastman Chemical Co. and other companies. "I want everybody to pay their part." Asbestos suits already have forced more than 60 companies into bankruptcy since 1982, including 20 since January 2000, the Rand Institute reported in September. Such suits will eventually cost businesses and insurers more than $200 billion, the policy research group estimated. With defendants including Owens Corning, Federal-Mogul Corp. and W.R. Grace & Co. bankrupt, attorneys are turning their sights on companies better able to pay damage awards and settlements, an attorney said. "The lawyers wanted some fresh blood to feed off of," said Marcy Croft, a Jackson, Mississippi, lawyer for the Coalition for Asbestos Justice, a Washington-based group seeking to curb personal-injury suits."Lawyers were getting money from companies who are not here anymore to pay." Asbestos, a combination of flame-retardant minerals, was used in insulation, drywall and other building materials through the 1980s and is still used in some products, including caulk. Asbestos has been tied to lung disease as well as cancer. The recent Mississippi suits claim asbestos-bearing plastic parts used in industrial settings can release dust that also endangers workers. DuPont, already a defendant in building-related asbestos suits, was sued over plastics products in Mississippi's Lawrence County Circuit Court on October 8, 2002. DuPont supplied asbestos-filled plastic pellets to companies that heated and molded the material for use in consumer products and industrial equipment, said Alwyn Luckey, an Ocean Springs, Mississippi, attorney. He has sued DuPont on behalf of as many as 1,000 workers, he said. Wilmington, Delaware-based DuPont, the world's second-largest chemicals maker after Dow Chemical Co., doesn't expect the previously undisclosed suits will have a material impact on the company's "competitive financial position, liquidity or results of operation," spokesman Clifton Webb said. He declined to address specific allegations. Damage to DuPont from plastics suits won't be significant, agreed Rafael Tamargo, director of research at Wilmington Trust Co., which owns 30 million DuPont shares. Still, disclosure of such suits probably will encourage other lawyers to try the same strategy, he said. "It's not going to change our view on holding these things," Mr. Tamargo said. "It's just more bad news we have to bear." DuPont shares were unchanged at $42.31 on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares have fallen less than 5 percent, compared with a decline of more than 7 percent in the Standard and Poor's Diversified Chemicals Index. Kingsport, Tennessee-based Eastman Chemical, the largest US plastics maker, won't comment on the Mississippi suits, spokeswoman Nancy Ledford said. Eastman shares fell 7 percent on Nov. 7, when the company disclosed the suits. The shares rose 30 cents yesterday to $36.60 on the New York Stock Exchange, and have fallen 6 percent this year. Mississippi, where companies including Halliburton Co. and 3M Co. have lost asbestos suits, has seen a flurry of asbestos claims with the approach of new caps on punitive damages that take effect tomorrow. Business groups sought the law, arguing that Mississippi's track record of multimillion-dollar jury awards was driving companies out of state. While the law applies to all liability suits, new asbestos claims have been especially common, lawyers said. Lawyers estimated that 25 asbestos suits against plastics makers have been filed in the state since July. Sims said her firm alone has filed seven suits. Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific Corp. reported last month in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that 9,500 claims in multiple suits were filed against it in Mississippi in the third quarter. Mississippi ``is a judicial hellhole for any defendant and asbestos cases are no different,'' said Mark Behrens, a Washington attorney for the Coalition for Asbestos Justice. ``It's one of the hot jurisdictions around the country and is a real problem with asbestos defendants.'' Juries award punitive damages in addition to compensation to penalize corporate wrongdoing. The new Mississippi law will cap punitive damages at $20 million for large companies and at 4 percent of a company's value for businesses worth less than $50 million. The law restricts where lawyers may file suits to prevent shopping for sympathetic judges. Mississippi juries have handed down awards including a $150 million verdict in November 2001 against Halliburton and 3M. That verdict was for compensation only and didn't include any punitive damages.