Op-Ed: Libby Montana Needs Your Attention

I am writing to bring to your attention a set of 5 bills that are harmful to regular Montanans in general, and specifically right now to the people of Libby, Montana, involved in asbestos litigation.

SB 385 (Sen Tom McGillvray) creates a "governor-appointed" special court that has the same clout as a state district court, except the judges are not elected and, as such, are not answerable to the people who elected them.

The special court this bill creates will also include the "asbestos court," however, there are no asbestos cases set for trial right now, so there is no work or demand for asbestos courts at the moment, begging the question of motive for this particular bill at this particular time. This bill will cost $8.5 million over four years and is redundant with existing processes.

Four other active house bills in this session are harmful to regular old people in general and Libby residents in particular.

HB 301 (Rep Nicastro, among others) shortens the time a person has to bring a lawsuit for property contamination.

HB 302 (Rep Nicastro) adds a full second hearing if one party chooses to add punitive damages to a case, which doubles the time and cost required to get a case through court.

HB 302 (Rep Nicastro) allows one liable party in a suit to point the finger at a liable party not involved in the suit, which has the net effect of reducing their own liability.

HB 803 (Rep Overstreet) simultaneously adds another paperwork layer to the process of bringing a suit specifically regarding asbestos exposure by requiring plaintiffs to swear that they know everything there is to know about their case within 30 days of filing it, or it doesn't count. It also allows the same finger-pointing that HB 303 allows.

Representative Nicastro is listed as a lead attorney for BNSF. BNSF is part of Berkshire Hathaway, which is valued at $1.4 trillion and is owned by Warren Buffett. A 2020 Montana Supreme Court ruling said that BNSF should be held strictly liable for its asbestos contamination in Libby. Libby is a Superfund cleanup site, and the average household income in Libby is about $40,000. Warren Buffett can afford twice the cost, twice the time, endless runaround, and delay on delay. Individuals cannot. Montana is better than this.