Posts Tagged ‘ asbestos lawyer ’

Asbestos Corporate Bankruptcies: Don’t Shed A Tear

April 29th, 2010. By admin

Guest blogger, RJ Abernathy, is an Asbestos attorney with Goldenberg Heller Antognoli and Rowland. He has a unique perspective as an asbestos lawyer, having been a Laborer with Local 100 in East St. Louis, Illinois for over 20 years prior to becoming an attorney. As a Laborer, he worked in many of the same conditions as those in which his clients have worked. Abernathy also lost his own father to asbestos-related cancer in 1999.

A recent article published by an arm of the US Chamber of Commerce noted that another company “collapsed” under the weight of asbestos claims. According to this article, 89 such companies have “collapsed” since 1982. In the latest case, Durabla Manufacturing sold asbestos containing products well into the 1980’s, long after asbestos was recognized as a dangerous and deadly material. 

A closer look at the other 88 “collapsed” companies reveals that not only have many of these companies remained in business, but many of them thrived after ‘going bankrupt.’ Walk into any Home Depot or Lowe’s home improvement stores and you will find a large percentage of these “collapsed” companies’ products on the shelves. For example, the Pink Panther didn’t lose his job when Owens Corning went bankrupt. Dick Cheney’s former employer, Halliburton, never missed a beat over the past seven years during the Iraq war since filing for bankruptcy protection due to its subsidiaries asbestos liabilities.

In another case, W.R. Grace filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001, even though it has annual sales of nearly 3 billion dollars. In 2005, the United States Department of Justice filed criminal charges against Grace, including counts for fraudulent transfers of nearly 5 billion dollars just prior to the bankruptcy filing.

In other cases, I think it is hard to argue that these companies should not have “collapsed.” The miners, manufacturers and purveyors of raw asbestos fibers should have been out of business Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Asbestos, asbestos lawyer, Asbestos Mesothelioma, Goldenberg Heller Antognoli and Rowland, RJ Abernathy
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