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The Truth Was Even Worse
On April 16, 2004, Houston attorney Joseph Gibson, speaking for the plaintiffs' committee, dumped a limited-time offer in 47 fax trays nationwide. Its message was clear: Settle all 9,000 cases now for $900 million, or we'll batter you with $1.5 billion in pretrial costs and then start picking you off one by one before a jury at millions each."Now is clearly the time for both sides," he wrote. Gibson said later that he wanted to "represent people I thought deserved help" and that a defense lawyer helped craft the offer.
The only space devoted to the victims in the three-page letter was a table similar to a mail-order shipping cost chart: $50,000 for people with a minimal level of lung damage, $100,000 for those who are slightly more affected, $150,000 to $750,000 for those with more advanced cases, and $250,000 to $2 million for those who have complicated silicosis. The deal would basically sell each of the plaintiffs for an average of $100,000 each -- $900 million in all.
Since lawyers commonly receive a fee of 40 percent on all money collected, this meant a relative handful of law firms would split $360 million, while the average take for each of the 9,000 alleged victims would drop to just $60,000.
Some cases, such as that of Leroy Trotter, a 50-year-old resident of Grand Bay, Alabama, stun even those critics who assume they've seen it all.
Trotter's lungs appeared shot from years of breathing sand dust. So it was no surprise when, in 2002, lawyers packaged Trotter with 41 other workers and sued more than 60 companies for making the plaintiffs sick.
That case was ultimately dismissed, but on June 21, 2006, a fresh set of lawyers filed a new case in a Mississippi federal court. Trotter was the only plaintiff, and the list of defendants was down to 13, but the allegations were the same: Silica and silica alone made him sick. He couldn't earn a living. He had medical bills. Trotter deserved a substantial sum to re-dress 15 kinds of injuries he suffered while working in a shipyard.
But key facts about Trotter were omitted. Taxpayers had already provided him $100,000 in disability benefits for another condition. His ex-wife and children got thousands more, including two four-figure overpayments that were never returned. He'd collected money from 18 defendants in deals to settle earlier lawsuits. And he got every dime based on the contention that his ills stemmed from ... asbestosis. Oops.
"Mr. Trotter is the classic double-dipper," say attorneys Fred Krutz and Jennifer Skipper. "Having sucked the asbestosis well dry, Mr. Trotter now tries to recast his lung injuries as silicosis to receive another payday."
The full truth was even worse. Although the lawsuit described his current suffering in detail, Trotter couldn't have provided such information, because he'd been dead since March 4, three and a half months before the suit was filed. Skipper and Reader's Digest independently discovered his death in early October from an online obituary and a Social Security notice.
How could an attorney file a lawsuit for a dead man? Trotter's lawyer, Robert Allen Smith Jr., said, "We had no idea that he was [dead]."
Michael Minns, a Houston attorney who specializes in legal malpractice issues, says he is not familiar with this case, but in general, "if you haven't checked with your client when you file your petition, it is negligence."
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