ThePopTort

Montana’s "Tort Reform" Hypocrite – Caught!

Well well well, as the Church Lady would say, isn’t that special.  A big class action lawsuit has just been filed by 38,000 Montana wheat farmers, cattle ranchers and others against former New Jersey governor Jon Corzine, claiming that “the failed financial firm run by Corzine stole millions from their accounts to pay off its spiraling debts, and that Corzine's ‘single-minded obsession’ with making MF Global a big player on Wall Street led to the firm's collapse.”

Seems like the farmers had “’hedged’ their crop prices by placing millions in MF Global accounts but MF Global made a series of bad investments -- notably in European debt – [and] it began ‘siphoning funds withdrawn from segregated client accounts’ to cover its debts.”

Now that’s what we like to see!  No matter the outcome, it’s a great example of the civil justice system providing a level playing field so that farmers and small business owners can pool together and take on a big Wall Street fat cat!  In fact, who wouldn’t agree that everyday people, farmers and small business should have a level playing field when it comes to taking on Big Corporate America?

Their lawyer.  Apparently.

Mark Baker represents plaintiffs in this case (see him quoted here), and I don’t doubt that he’s all for this lawsuit.  But Mark Baker is also a Montana lobbyist and not just any lobbyist. He’s a lobbyist for the American Tort Reform Association, the DC trade association funded by large corporations that seeks to limit liability for its members, which we’ve covered many times, like here.

Not only that, Mr. Baker specifically lobbied for laws in 2011 written nationally by the corporate-backed American Legislative Exchange Counsel (ALEC), (we’ve covered ALEC quite a bit, like here), which would have placed new burdens on injured Montana victims who bring and win lawsuits, as well as make it more difficult for the state of Montana to hire outside counsel, allowing it to recoup money from corporate wrongdoers for its taxpayers.

According to lobby report, Mr. Baker supported three bills for ATRA: HB 341, HB 342, HB 585:

HB 341 would limit the interest on judgments for injured victims, but not for corporations.  Here’s the ALEC model bill. 

HB 342 lowers appeal bond amounts.  Here’s the ALEC model bill.  This issue has been a huge one for ALEC as far back as we can remember.

HB 585 deals with contracts between state AG's and outside counsel.  It is based on the ALEC model bill.

This final bill, which ALEC has pushed hard, would interfere with the contractual arrangement between outside counsel and the state Attorney General office, which are generally underfunded and understaffed and can't hope to take on big industries without outside counsels' help. Their work often results in states recovering billions of dollars from corporate wrongdoers.  (We've covered this issue a bit here.)

So what exactly did Mr. Baker say when lobbying for these bills?  That he would like his clients to have their day in court but not anyone else?  That he wants his clients’ legal rights protected but would like to weaken everyone else’s?  Did he complain about people suing – except when he's the attorney?  Did he complain about trial lawyers – except himself? 

Well, nothing new here.  Move along.

In Montana, Workers’ Comp is the Same as Social Security?

Earlier this week, the Montana Supreme Court decided to uphold a horrendous state law, which cuts off workers' compensation benefits for injured/disabled employees when they turn 65.

According to the court, workers' comp benefits are merely intended to cover an employee’s “work life,” not the Centrum Silver years.  Social Security should cover that, said the court.

Of course, insurers and businesses leapt for joy.  The Montana Chamber of Commerce did a couple of back flips too.

But talk about apples and oranges…in a scathing dissent, Justice Brian Morris pointed out that “Social Security benefits are not the same as work-comp benefits, and therefore should not be a trigger for cutting off an injured worker’s benefits.…[W]orkers give up the right to sue for damages for on-the-job injuries, in exchange for the certainty of benefits.  The state law cutting off work-comp benefits for disabled workers who qualify for Social Security ‘eviscerates’ that deal.”

The Asbestos War Takes a Criminal Turn

Here at ThePopTort, we don’t generally discuss criminal cases, but a conspiracy trial that got underway yesterday in Libby, MT touches on significant civil justice issues that have been around for years—so we’ve decided to make an exception.

The New York Times reported yesterday on the case against five former mine executives of the now defunct W.R. Grace & Company, who are accused of knowingly exposing mine workers and their families (among others) to asbestos for decades, resulting in the death or sickening of 1,200 people.   The charges are “conspiracy, violating the U.S. Clean Air Act and obstruction of justice,” and follow an incredibly sordid history of asbestos cover ups in this country.

An EPA official called Libby “the worst occupational disaster in the 20th Century.”   Libby residents suffer asbestos-related health problems at a rate of 40 to 60 times the national average, according to federal health investigators—and 100 times the national average in asbestos-related cancer.

Tragically, toxic asbestos exposure is anything but new in this country—and a lot of injured people have sought well-deserved compensation for their injuries.  And that (perhaps predictably) has led to a flood of corporate-backed legislation aimed at limiting the amount those victims receive.  Congress' most recent serious attempt to do this went down to defeat because of its unfairness to victims, like the Libby community.  Consumer groups also strongly opposed it.

Typically, these bills have proposed setting up paltry and inadequate trust funds to help compensate “victims,” which tend to be defined as workers exposed to asbestos on the job—not the countless others exposed, such as the children in Libby, MT who got sick after swinging on a rope into piles of the toxic dust at Grace mine’s export plant.  Another favorite anti-victim tactic is to limit compensation only to those with full-blown asbestos-related illnesses, despite the fact that such diseases can take decades to reach their deadly peak.

Ultimately, this repugnant war against asbestos victims is still very much underway, especially at the state level.  But if the Libby, MT victims stand for anything, it’s that people who continue to be killed or made sick by asbestos deserve fair compensation, and those at fault must be held accountable.