Asbestos-liability bill could affect Danville area, lawmaker says

RICHMOND – House of Delegates members clashed Monday over a bill that essentially would relieve just one company in Virginia of liability in asbestos-related claims from former workers with breathing problems.

Delegate Ward Armstrong, D-Henry County, said the bill’s outcome could affect Owens Brockway Glass Containers’ Danville operation.

After a complicated debate about corporate law and liability, seven Republicans joined House Democrats in voting against the measure. But ultimately it passed the House 50-42 on second reading. Del. Danny Marshall, R-Danville, was among the opponents.

Delegates Don Merricks, R-Danville, and Charles Poindexter, R-Franklin County, voted to approve the bill.

Essentially, HB 629, sponsored by Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, would protect Crown Cork & Seal, which has operations in Winchester and Suffolk, from asbestos-claims liability. The bill does not mention Crown Cork & Seal by name, but Kilgore said he didn’t know of any other company that would be affected by the bill.

Kilgore argued that protecting Crown Cork & Seal was justified because it acquired liability for asbestos-related claims only because its parent company, Crown Holdings, bought a company that once installed asbestos insulation.

Armstrong argued that the bill “turns 300 years of tort law on its head” because when one company buys another, it also acquires that company’s liabilities.

Kilgore said Crown doesn’t deserve the liability, because when it acquired Mundet Corp. in 1963, the federal government had not yet declared asbestos a dangerous material.

Other House Democrats said that 18 workers’-compensation claims were pending against Mundet at the time, so Crown knew, or should have known, there was a problem.

Owens Brockway’s parent company, Owens Illinois, has an interest in the bill because it is a defendant, along with several other corporations, in a large pool of asbestos-related claims.

Owens Illinois and other codefendants don’t want the number of companies in a potential claims settlement to shrink by Virginia’s relieving Crown of liability, according to lobbyist Julie Rautio with Capital Results in Richmond.

Kilgore has sponsored the bill for three years. This is the first time it got past a committee and onto the House floor.  The measure faces a third reading in the House before it can go to the Senate.