A Trust Fund Victims Can't Trust
Lester M. Cable’s story
Bridgeport, Connecticut. Lester was exposed to asbestos throughout his life. He performed brake jobs on tractors and trucks as a teenager growing up on a farm and car repairs for friends later in life. He worked on home construction and repair projects, handling caulking, roof cement, and heat-resistant boards. He repaired asbestos-containing household appliances and heating systems in his home. And he served as a boiler man in the U.S. Navy from 1951 to 1954 aboard the U.S.S. Larson.
While in the Navy, he worked and slept in the boiler room, spending about 20 hours a day there. For all those hours, he was exposed first- and second-hand to asbestos in maintaining and repairing boilers, valves, pumps, steam traps, pipes, and asbestos-containing insulation.
Now Lester suffers from malignant mesothelioma, a terminal cancer caused only by asbestos. Liters of fluid build up in his lungs and press against his internal organs. The fluid must be drained from his lungs every few weeks.
Once an athletic and active man who could spend an entire day splitting wood for his wood stove, Lester has dropped a significant amount of weight and is too weak to work his post-retirement job as a draftsman. His asbestos disease forced him to give up his position as a volunteer firefighter — a service he has enjoyed providing in his community since 1958.
How would the asbestos bailout bill hurt Lester’s family?
Lester’s case is filed in the Bridgeport Superior Court in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He has a trial date set for July 2006 as an accelerated “living mesothelioma” case. Most mesothelioma patients die within months after diagnosis. If the proposed asbestos bill is enacted, his case would be wiped out, forcing him to start the claims process again from the beginning under the proposed asbestos trust fund. This would take precious time Lester may not have.
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