Oppose Senate Bill 1125Austin, TX
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Dear Senator Cornyn: My name is Grant Gurley. During your tenure as Attorney General of Texas I was proud to serve as an Assistant Attorney General in your Natural Resources Division, where I specialized in environmental enforcement litigation. In that capacity, I worked under your administration to make the environment safer for the people of Texas, and I believe we did some good. Now I am writing to ask for your vote to stop legislation that would deprive myself and all Americans of the right to a jury trial to remedy one of the worst environmental disasters ever to afflict this country asbestos. Please vote against Senate Bill 1125, the deceptively and cynically named "Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act". I take SB 1125 not only as a constitutional affront, but as a personal insult. In December of 2001, my father died of mesothelioma, a rare cancer caused only by exposure to asbestos. The corporations that manufactured and sold the asbestos that killed my father knew that their products would cause widespread and serious health problems, but they sold them anyway. Accordingly, my step-mother, as representative of my father's estate, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit seeking damages for this intentional killing of my father. SB 1125 would abrogate my family's constitutional right to have a jury determine the amount of damages that should be paid by these killers. SB 1125 would reward the asbestos companies by capping damages at $1 million, a figure far below that set by juries who have heard these cases and the aggravating circumstances of the defendants' willful infliction of fatal illnesses. SB 1125 would be retroactive--families who have already reached settlements with the killers of their loved ones would have those settlements voided and cast aside by this new federal law. It is astounding to me that the authors of SB 1125 would have the gall to attempt to reach back into the settlement of private lawsuits that have already been finalized and void these settlements in favor of the very companies who have intentionally caused such much suffering. Furthermore, under SB 1125 cases of victims who have already been successful at trial of their claims but whose judgments have been appealed by the defendants would be nullified. To add a further insult to the victims of asbestos exposure, all payments by a medical carrier to a mesothelioma claimant would be deducted from the damages allowed under SB 1125 and paid to the insurance carrier. SB 1125 therefore is not only rewards those persons who killed my father, but also is a slap in the face of every asbestos victim. Senator Cornyn, from your experience as a Texas district court judge I know that you were exposed to the widespread cynical attitudes about the "asbestos docket". I know that it is a large docket and that it creates a burden on the courts. I know that there is the perception that other cases cannot be heard because of the large volume of asbestos cases. But there are tens of thousands of real human beings, just like my father, my family, and me, who are victims of the death and suffering represented by each one of those cases. Please don't let the sheer size of the the misdeeds of the asbestos companies numb you to the injustice that would be worked by SB 1125. Each of these victims deserves his own day in court, with the full protections of a jury trial, just as in other civil cases. SB 1125 may be a simple solution to the problem, but it is a supremely unjust solution that provides the most benefit to those who should instead be punished severely--the corporations who killed my father and thousands more like him. Please stop SB 1125. Sincerely,
Grant Gurley
*** POSTED ON SEPTEMBER 2, 2003 *** |