Swiss Company Settles Asbestos Claims With US Government
December 21 , 2005
Swiss company ABB Ltd., which almost went into bankruptcy protection two years ago while facing asbestos lawsuits, has settled with the US government for $1.43 billion.
The company, based in Zurich, is the world’s largest manufacturer of power transformers. ABB Ltd.’s recent settlement will pay out the money to workers and other exposed to asbestos through its Connecticut based Combustion-Engineering branch. Some 135,000 people were said to be involved in the suit.
Since 1990 the company has paid about $900 million in order to settle the asbestos related cases that it has faced for years. The most recent settlement creates a fund and may mean that the company will stop paying out asbestos-related claims.
The plan still faces some challenges and signatures before it is official, but is expected to go forward as planned. The asbestos settlement of ABB comes on the shoulders of a US Senate plan to create one big asbestos fund of $140 billion from which asbestos claims throughout the country would be paid. The fund would be made of money given by companies facing asbestos-exposure related claims.
Critics of the plan say that the actual amount owed to people who have been injured, killed, or developed mesothelioma, a rare asbestos-related cancer, is much higher than the fund is set at. Critics contend that the overflow of payments would be left to the taxpayer, rather than the responsible companies.
Because ABB Ltd.’s settlement was already finalized, they are not waiting for the bill’s passage or failure, however.
Please contact us to confer with an attorney if you think you may have an asbestos case.
