Its acronym is FAIR, Fairness In Asbestos Injury Resolution, but one St. Clair County woman who lost her husband to an asbestos disease contends it isn't fair at all.Deb Watson, a physical education teacher at Ashville Elementary, knows firsthand the damage done by asbestos. Her husband died just eight months after being diagnosed with mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer caused by inhaling asbestos.
Congress wants to settle the matter through a special fund for claims, but victims like Watson still want their day in court.
The proposed bill would reduce asbestos-based court claims, but it may have stalled in debate.
The FAIR Act proposal would establish a $140 billion trust fund that sufferers of asbestos-related injuries and illness could file a claim against. The money in the fund would be put up by companies, large and small, that previously used asbestos materials in their products. The compensation fund would not be financed with tax dollars.
The FAIR Act stalled in the U.S. Senate but it is not dead. Procedure allows it to be brought up again in the near future.
"I know it has stalled, but I also know it can be brought up again," Watson said. "And I still don't think the act, as it is being presented now, is fair."
Watson’s husband, Dennis, died after his diagnosis in 2002.
"Every place he worked was related to asbestos," she said. "The Navy, Capco and Goodyear."
Capco, a pipe-producing plant that used asbestos in its materials and once operated in Ragland, has been the center of many civil suits originating from St. Clair County.
Watson said she has a suit pending in the courts claiming injury due to asbestos her husband encountered. She said she feels the FAIR Act is not fair at all.
"I'm mixed on some of it, " she said. "Overall, it is not a fair act."
Watson said she agrees with the portion of the proposed act that allows veterans to claim benefits for injury resulting from asbestos exposure.
"It would give veterans an option," she said. "They can't sue the federal government, but if they can prove they had exposure to asbestos in the military then they have a claim under the act."
Political groups and companies that used asbestos in their products have rallied around the FAIR Act. Alabama Voters Against Lawsuit Abuse claim small business owners could be ruined if the legislation doesn't pass. In support of the bill, AVALA states the FAIR Act would offer victims timely compensation without having to pay up to half in lawyer fees and court costs. AVALA also claims the act would prevent fraud by setting up strict medical and exposure standards.
Watson feels differently.
"If it passes in the form it's in now, it will deny a lot of people because they would have to prove five years of exposure. It doesn't take five years — it only takes one breath.
"If it passes, it will only help asbestos companies more. Some companies have been ordered to pay billions, now they may only be required to pay millions into the trust fund," Watson said.
According to AVALA, in the past 30 years, 730,000 asbestos claims have been filed in the courts, with 300,000 still pending.
"The act is unfair and un-American not to allow us to take our cases to court," Watson said.
One of the strongest objections in the Senate is that the trust fund, funded through private companies, would quickly run out and then would have to rely on taxpayer money.
A September 2005 study conducted by Bates White LLC, stated the proposed $140 billion trust fund "is not financially viable" and would "sunset within three years of its inception with a debt of more than $45 billion." Bates White LLC stated in its report that to compensate current and future claimants the trust fund would have to be near, or exceed, $300 billion.
Alabama’s Republican Sens. Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions voted to allow the debate on the trust fund but have not commented on how they would vote if the issue comes up again.
Watson, who visited Washington, D.C., on Asbestos Lobby Day, said she hoped to speak with Shelby and Sessions but did not get the opportunity to meet them.
"We met with their top aides, and they were very gracious and took our concerns back to the senators," she said. "We were disappointed not to speak to our senators."
Watson said she urges people to contact their senators about the FAIR Act.
"I've never felt this strongly about any issue," she said. "There is nothing that will bring Dennis back, but there are so many other people who could be wronged if this (FAIR Act) passes."
