The federal criminal trial against W.R. Grace has been scheduled for February of 2009. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula said Friday he wants jury selection in the case to begin Feb. 19, with the trial starting the following Monday.
He said that now that pretrial motions have been dealt with, he wants to get to trial and has told the attorneys to be ready. He is planning on the trial taking about 3 months with breaks in the schedule for holidays and a March hearing on Grace’s bankruptcy case.
This trial involves public exposure to vermiculite which was mined by Grace in Libby, Montana. In separate earlier agreements, Grace had agreed to put aside between 1.8 and 3 billion dollars into a trust that will be used to settle lawsuits for individuals who have suffered from asbestosis and/or mesothelioma from using the Grace products.
Mesothelioma is almost always caused by exposure to asbestos either directly or indirectly through family members who worked with the material. A mesothelioma cancer diagnosis can be made years after a family member carried home asbestos dust or fibers on their clothing, shoes, skin or in their hair. Usually by the time mesothelioma is diagnosed, the patient has only a short time to live, 12 to 18 months average. Because it takes so long after exposure to be diagnosed, many mesothelioma attorneys expect that mesothelioma lawsuits will continue for many years to come.
Another agreement approved in June requires Grace to pay another 250 million dollars to settle lawsuits brought to clean up Libby, Montana where asbestos was mined by Grace. At the peak of production, the mine produced 500,000 pounds of asbestos a day through the mill and released as much as 24,000 pounds a day of dust from the mill stack. About 1900 men worked at the mine and x-rays of those who had been there 21 plus years showed that 92% of them had signs of lung disease.
