Insurers Spurn Senate Asbestos Bill Compromise Offer
By Steven Brostoff, Washington Editor
NU Online News Service, Oct. 10, 3:04 p.m. EDT?The insurance industry has apparently rejected a compromise proposal on asbestos litigation reform presented by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
"The industry reviewed the Frist proposal but agreed to stay with the unified position outlined in the Oct. 7 letter," said Anne Sittmann, a representative of the Des Plaines, Ill.-based National Association of Independent Insurers.
The Oct. 7 letter was signed by the presidents of the five major property-casualty company trade associations and sent to Sen. Frist, identifying the elements that the industry says must be in any final asbestos legislation involving a trust fund concept.
These elements include a cap on industry payments to the fund of $45 billion over the life of the program, creation of an exclusive remedy of all asbestos-related claims, an equitable allocation procedure and assurance that any back-end funding liability will not be imposed on the insurance industry.
In addition to NAII, the letter was signed by the Alliance of American Insurers, the American Insurance Association, the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies and the Reinsurance Association of America.
Details of the Frist proposal were not available at this writing, but it was believed to involve a payment schedule that would be less than the amount in S. 1125, the legislation currently pending in the Senate, but more than the $45 billion cap sought by the industry.
Under S. 1125, the industry's liability could be as much as $75 billion in front-end costs, with potentially unlimited back-end responsibility.
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