New state budget passed by Wisconsin Senate could limit lawsuits regarding asbestos-related cancer

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Rep. Kristen Dexter, D-Eau Claire, inserted a measure which protects companies that merged with asbestos manufacturers before 1972.

It’s designed to protect Crown Cork and Seal of Philadelphia.

It has plants in Wisconsin which have paid out large damages after it bought a firm that used to make asbestos.

Dexter said she was concerned about workers in her district who could be affected by the lawsuits.

She said it balances justice with “common sense liability.”

But Debra Johnson of Madison, whose dying husband cannot breathe well enough to talk easily, said the bill might affect lawsuits against other companies besides Crown.

Caden Johnson has sued other asbestos manufacturers after breathing the chemical in a hospital boiler room where he used to work.

But a lobbyist for Crown says 10 other states have passed similar legislation, and no other asbestos-maker ever used it to ward off lawsuits.

Crown bought the Mundet Cork Co., which used to make asbestos, for $7 million in 1963. Since then, it has paid a $0.5 billion to victims.

The Wisconsin measure, along with the rest of the budget, will be taken up by the Assembly today.

Tags: wisconsin, asbestos, lawsuits