County to collect asbestos damages
Erie County will collect about $1.3 million as its share of a lawsuit against makers of asbestos, said County Attorney Cheryl A. Green.
Erie County joined the lawsuit years ago, when Dennis T. Gorski was county executive. An army of plaintiffs around the country was filing claims against Celotex Corp. and Carey Canada.
Celotex was a major manufacturer and nationwide distributor of building materials containing asbestos.
Carey Canada, a wholly owned subsidiary of Celotex, mined and distributed asbestos fiber until 1986.
Celotex and Carey Canada sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 1990 after being named in thousands of lawsuits filed by people claiming personal injury from asbestos and by property owners with asbestos in their buildings.
Erie County was one of those “property damage” plaintiffs, along with dozens of other governments and public institutions. Green said a class-action settlement was recently cleared and Erie County will collect about $1.3 million with interest.
That’s not enough to clear county-owned buildings of all of their asbestos, however. Removing asbestos from just one floor of the 16-floor Rath County Office Building two years ago required about $400,000.
