(The Charleston Gazette posted the following story by Martyn Chase on its website on July 1.)
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — More than 1,500 asbestos lawsuits filed in West Virginia against CSX Corp. this year will negatively impact the company’s second quarter by about $17 million, the company disclosed Friday.
The lawsuits were filed just days before a new venue law in the state came into effect June 4.
With the latest filings, hundreds of cases have entered the state’s “resource-constrained court system” that have no connection with the state, according to Ellen Fitzsimmons, CSX Senior Vice President of Law and General Counsel.
About 1,500 cases were filed in West Virginia against CSX Transportation, the company’s rail operating unit, according to a statement from the Jacksonville-based company.
The vast majority of the claims involved people who never lived or worked in West Virginia and could have been dismissed and required to be heard in states more closely related to the claim, the company said.
They were filed just days before the new law took effect.
“The rush to beat the effective date shows why the leaders of West Virginia made such a responsible decision earlier this year to reform the state’s venue statute,” Fitzsimmons said in a statement.
“Responsible citizens and the shareholders and employees of CSX want us to fight for judicial fairness and against every illegitimate claim, and we will,” Fitzsimmons said.
The CSX disclosure came at the end of a week that saw a possible political compromise emerge in Washington that would make it easier for asbestos victims to qualify for payments from a proposed $108 million trust fund that is aimed at ending the long-running wave of asbestos litigation.
That trust fund would end all lawsuits and instead pay victims according to a set payment schedule.
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved an amendment Thursday aimed at ensuring that the trust fund has sufficient funding to pay claims to affected workers.
It cleared an amendment that could require insurance companies and businesses with asbestos liability to pay as much as $45 billion more to make sure the fund stays solvent.
CSX owns the largest rail network in the eastern United States. Its 34,000 employees provide rail transportation services over a 23,000-mile network in 23 states, the District of Columbia and two Canadian provinces.