U.S. Supreme Court Cases
Baron & Budd's United States Supreme Court victories in Amchem Products v. Windsor and Ortiz v. Fibreboard Corp. are widely recognized as two of the most important appellate decisions of the past decade for consumer rights. These victories have resulted in important protections for the rights of victims injured by toxic substances.
Imagine that you have just been diagnosed with mesothelioma, a fatal form of cancer almost invariably caused by asbestos exposure. You want to know why this has happened to you, and you want to provide for your family after you are gone. Although you worked a few summers of construction as a youth, you did not realize at the time that you had been exposed to asbestos. But at the suggestion of your doctor, you contact a lawyer regarding your rights to file a lawsuit.
Now imagine that this lawyer tells you that your case was settled years before you ever developed this horrible disease. She tells you that, although she very much wishes that she could file a lawsuit for you and your family, instead you have only the right to a limited, predetermined range of money that is significantly less than what you likely would have recovered if you had sued the asbestos companies responsible for your cancer. That limited range of money - for YOUR case - was "settled" upon years before by a group of lawyers who you have never heard of, much less met. The lawyer explains that you were a member of a class of "future" asbestos claimants whose future claims were resolved as part of a "settlement class action." You did not know about this settlement, and you certainly did not consent to it. At the time, you had not even realized that you had been exposed to asbestos. But now you learn that this settlement reached years earlier has destroyed your rights to a day in court for the injuries you suffer today.
Fortunately, the above events never actually occurred. But if the asbestos companies had gotten their way, this scenario would have played itself out thousands of times over the next 30 years as new victims of asbestos disease became ill. Several asbestos companies filed two separate "future claimant" class actions in 1993, in an effort to cap their asbestos liabilities forever by cutting off victims' future rights. Before these class actions were even filed, the companies had reached a "settlement" of the future lawsuits of people who had been exposed to asbestos, but had not yet filed lawsuits (usually because they had not yet developed any injury, because asbestos-related diseases only manifest themselves many years following exposure to asbestos). Thanks to the efforts of a team of Baron & Budd lawyers, the United States Supreme Court eventually held that both of these class actions were illegal and improper.
In both cases, Baron & Budd represented several "objectors" who did not want their future rights taken away. The firm also assembled an all-star cast of constitutional lawyers and law professor experts to help fight these class action wars. Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe, one of the nation's most prominent constitutional scholars, successfully argued before the Supreme Court on behalf of Baron & Budd's clients in both Amchem and Ortiz.
The battle to defeat these two class actions was often not fought on an even playing field. The courts faced overwhelming political pressure to "do something" about the supposed "crisis" created by asbestos litigation, and these two cases provided a perfect opportunity for judges to clear the dockets of asbestos cases forever. As a result, both district courts confronted with the two settlements approved them, despite the vociferous objections of Baron & Budd's clients and a large outcry from public interest groups. In the Ortiz case, the objectors had to seek review in the Supreme Court not just once, but twice. Ultimately, however, Baron & Budd's perseverance and commitment to justice paid off, and asbestos victims continue to be able to exercise their rights to seek redress in our country's civil court system.
Results depend on the facts of each case.
