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From: bob@islenet.UUCP (Bob Cunningham)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Class Action Suits against Polluters
Message-ID: <1305@islenet.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 23-Jun-85 09:29:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: islenet.1305
Posted: Sun Jun 23 09:29:26 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 29-Jun-85 03:03:23 EDT
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Organization: Hawaii Institute of Geophysics
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> > Many states have prohibited class action lawsuits in air and water
> > pollution cases "to keep from clogging up the courts".

On the other hand, individual liability lawsuits have been known to clog
the courts.

There are now more than 700 individual lawsuits pending in federal and
state court here concerning Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard workers exposed to
lung-damaging asbestos over the last 40 years or so.

Roughly 200 of the lawsuits have been filed just recently -- since an $8.3
million judgement was rendered on behalf of Lawrence Kaowili.  Years ago,
when the suit was originally filed, he was alive.  He's since died of lung
cancer ... and obviously the jury thought that damage due to asbestos was
definitely a contributing factor.

Still, the lawsuits represent oly a small minority of the estimated 4
million people who have worked at Pearl Harbor during the last 40 years who
may have been exposed to asbestos.  More lawsuits will presumably continue
to be files.
-- 
Bob Cunningham  {dual|vortex|ihnp4}!islenet!bob
Honolulu, Hawaii