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Jump to full article: The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, 2001-01-17
Author: Cathleen Egan / Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5289
Intro: The burden of paying claims to injured asbestos workers falls squarely on the trust fund set up to do just that.
That was the closing argument made by an attorney representing cigarette manufacturers in the $136 million tobacco trial that concluded in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, N.Y., Wednesday.
The case, brought by Johns Manville Corp.'s (JM) Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust, will formally be given to the jury Friday. . .
David Bernick, a lawyer for Brown & Williamson, a unit of British American Tobacco PLC (BTI), said that when the Trust calculated what it owed injured asbestos workers, it explicitly subtracted out such items as workers' exposure to tobacco. The reason, Bernick said, was that the Trust only wanted to pay for Johns Manville's portion of the liability of the sick employees. And even then, Bernick said, the Trust has only paid 10% of its share of the liability.
So why then, Bernick asked, should the tobacco industry be obligated to pay for Manville's liability?
"Is that tobacco money?" he said.
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