Asbestos Trusts / Trusts Database / Asarco
Asbestos Trust Claims: Compensation is Available Without Filing a Lawsuit
Asbestos companies and their insurers placed close to $30 Billion dollars into trust funds to pay people who were injured by asbestos.But nearly 40% of the funds have still gone unclaimed by the victims. You may be entitled to a portion of these funds. |
Applying for asbestos trust fund compensation is not getting into a fight.
This money was set aside in a trust account for those who were injured.
Applying for a payment from these trusts is not affecting any company or coming out of anyone’s pocket. This is insurance money specifically to help people hurt by asbestos.
The court ordered the funds because the asbestos industry could no longer hide its secret: asbestos is very dangerous to breathe.
Asarco Asbestos Trust
Company Founding | 1899 |
Core Businesses: | smelting, mining |
Bankruptcy | Southern District of Texas (2005) |
Year Trust was Founded | 2009 |
Assests at Founding: | > $900,000,000 |
Assets as of 2022 | $735,865,455 |
Payment Percentage | Thirty-five percent (35%) |
Amount of Money Paid To Date | > $580 million |
Number of Claims Paid | > 9,900 |
Company Summary
Founded in 1899, ASARCO (American Smelting and Refining Company) began as a group of lead and silver smelting companies that made its name in the mining industry. Until the Great Depression, ASARCO was one of the largest refineries in the world. The company found 50 years of success and business acquisitions before beginning to mine copper and other metals.
- Though asbestos is not a metal, it was a widely-used industrial mineral. ASARCO’s purchase of an asbestos field in Canada in 1952 ensured the most notorious material it mined was raw asbestos.
- In 1974, the company took ownership of an asbestos cement pipe manufacturer, CAPCO, for twenty (20) years until it was sold in 1994.
- In 1999, ASARCO became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Group Mexico.
Workers Generally Eligible for the ASARCO Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust:
Workers who may have been at risk of exposure to asbestos mined by ASARCO include:
Smelters | Pipefitters | Mechanics |
Factory Workers | Construction / Demo Workers | Ironworkers |
Insulators | Laborers | Shipyard Workers |
Workers such as smelters, pipefitters, miners, and mechanics, are among some of the trades that were at risk of exposure to asbestos mined by ASARCO.
Further, any factory workers that assembled the products manufactured with the company’s asbestos were additionally at risk of developing asbestos diseases.
The Vast Majority of Our Clients Qualify for Payments from Multiple Asbestos Trusts.
Secondary Asbestos Exposure
Spouses and household members of workers may qualify for the ASARCO Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust as well.
People who brought home asbestos on their work clothes may have also been exposed in their homes and vehicles. This especially includes anyone who regularly laundered asbestos-tainted work clothes. Asbestos is dusty and durable, and anyone who spent time in a garage or small laundry room breathing it in could have been at risk.
ASARCO Trust History
In the 1980s, CAPCO began to see the first of the asbestos injury claims brought against it.
Eventually, an increasing number of personal injury lawsuits caused financial distress for the company.
In 2005, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas; the petition included roughly 20 of the company’s subsidiaries.In 2009, ASARCO created the ASARCO Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust under its ASARCO Chapter 11 Joint Plan of Reorganization. The current payment percentage is 35%.
ASARCO states that it created the trust to “process, liquidate, and pay valid Asbestos Personal Injury Claims” by providing “fair, equitable, and substantially similar treatment for all Asbestos Personal Injury Claims that may presently exist or may arise in the future.”The ASARCO Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust has established forms and procedures to apply and collect compensation from the trust. You can learn more on their website.
In 2022, 472,695 claims were filed with the ASARCO Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust, according to its annual financial report.
The report also details that $66,464,897 was paid out in claims in 2022 alone, adding to the total of $580,220,411 the Trust has paid since it was established.
Important Facts About Asbestos Trust Compensation for People with Asbestos Illnesses
The Vast Majority of Our Clients Qualify for Payments from Multiple Asbestos Trusts.
Remember, there are about 50 active asbestos trusts, and it’s not uncommon for our clients to qualify for payments from ten or more trusts.
One of the advantages of hiring our law firm is that we have an expert asbestos claims department that is staffed with a number of former employees of the companies that administer the asbestos trusts. Our team thoroughly investigates the exposure history of every one of our clients in order to maximize the number and amounts of asbestos trust settlements our clients receive.
Depending on where you worked, or how you were exposed to asbestos, you may qualify to file claims with more than one asbestos trust. Different occupations worked with different types of asbestos products. The location of the work – the actual job site – also impacts which claims may be filed. Every case is unique, and thousands of clients have been able to receive compensation from multiple asbestos trusts.
Asbestos Trust Claims Are Not Lawsuits and Do Not Affect a Person’s Employer or Benefits.
Filing claims with asbestos trusts is a separate act than filing a lawsuit against certain companies. These claims are not lawsuits.
It is possible, however, to file a lawsuit and additionally file claims with asbestos trusts. This determination is made on a case-by-case basis depending on each client’s work and/or exposure history. Companies that are not bankrupt are eligible to be sued in a lawsuit, while bankrupt companies are those that were ordered to establish asbestos bankruptcy trusts.
The asbestos trusts exist for the purpose of awarding compensation to qualifying claimants.
The courts designated that insurance money be specifically set aside to provide payment to those individuals injured by asbestos. You do not have to be retired to file a claim, and the claim does not affect your current or previous employer(s), or any benefits you may already receive. If you worked with products or at a job site that was owned by a company that has established an asbestos trust, you may meet the criteria for compensation.
Most of our clients who choose to file an asbestos lawsuit also qualify for payments from the asbestos trusts; clients don’t have to choose one option or the other.
Our law firm works with our clients to first determine which options are available to a client and then which options does the client want to pursue.
We have a number of clients who we believe would prevail in an asbestos lawsuit but who chose not to file a lawsuit because they don’t want to go to court. We don’t force our clients into taking any actions they don’t want to, ever.
Veterans Injured By Asbestos Exposure During Service Can Claim Asbestos Trust Compensation and Veterans Benefits
Asbestos use was extremely common in the U.S. military for decades. Navy ships were built using asbestos insulation to ensure they were fireproof. The boiler rooms on the ships were full of asbestos insulation, gaskets, and valves used on the various types of equipment. Military tanks and vehicles used asbestos containing brake parts as well as gaskets and valves. These are just some examples of where asbestos would have been found.
- Some military jobs, such as mechanics, boilermakers, and pipefitters, to name a few, would cause servicemembers to be directly exposed to asbestos.
- Other jobs required that work be done near those using or working with asbestos, which still put those workers at risk.
NOTE: A military veteran’s benefits will not be affected by filing asbestos trust claims; this is true even if you already receive disability benefits from the VA.
Cigarette Smokers Are Absolutely Eligible to File Asbestos Trust Claims.
One of the common misconceptions surrounding asbestos trust claims is that people who smoked are not eligible to file for compensation.
That’s absolutely false.
Our Office has Recovered Many Trust Settlements on Behalf of Smokers.
Asbestos exposure makes it five times more likely you’ll develop lung cancer. Smoking makes it ten times more likely you’ll develop lung cancer. But being a smoker with asbestos exposure makes it fifty times more likely you’ll develop lung cancer.1
Asbestos exposure makes it five times more likely that a person will develop lung cancer. | |
Smoking cigarettes makes it ten times more likely that a person will develop lung cancer. | |
Being a smoker with asbestos exposure makes it fifty times more likely that a person will develop lung cancer!2 |
And that’s why asbestos companies will pay compensation to industrial workers or others exposed to asbestos, even if they were lifelong smokers.
I know this, because many of them are my clients.
Your rights can be lost if you wait.
Although asbestos trust claims are not lawsuits, they are subject to the same time limitations that lawsuits are. These laws are called Statutes of Limitation.
What exactly are Statutes of Limitation?
Statutes of limitation are state laws that set how much time a person has to file a lawsuit. Every state puts limits on how long individuals have to file lawsuits on their own behalf or on behalf of a deceased loved one. If you miss the deadline on a Statute of Limitation for your asbestos claim, you will not be able to file the claim or receive compensation from the Asbestos Trust. Don’t wait, get in touch.
Statutes of Limitations are often not very straightforward in asbestos cases because there are questions about when the statute should start:
- Does “the clock” start when a person is diagnosed with an asbestos-related illness, or does it start when they find out their illness could have been caused by asbestos?
- If they worked in Texas but now live in Missouri, which statute applies?
These are the sorts of questions that are best posed to an asbestos attorney, and we’re happy to answer them for you.
Statutes of limitation apply to asbestos trust claims:
If you wait too long to file an asbestos trust claim, you’ll lose the right to do so. Statutes of Limitation can be complicated in asbestos cases because a person typically doesn’t develop an asbestos-related illness until many years after he or she was exposed.
If you believe you are entitled to compensation for your asbestos-related illness, call, text or email our law firm so we can tell you how long you have to make the decision to file a trust claim or to seek asbestos compensation through an asbestos lawsuit.
It won’t cost you anything to call us, but it could cost you everything if you wait too long to file a claim.
Justinian C. Lane, Esq. – AsbestosClaims.Law
My grandfather, grandmother and father were all exposed to asbestos in their work, and all three died of respiratory-related cancers.
I found out too late about the health effects of asbestos to help them.
But my firm has helped many other people receive compensation for health problems they developed from exposure to asbestos.
Call, text or email us for a completely free consultation with no obligation. I will listen to the details of your story, and explain your options. We only work on contingency, so we only get paid if you do.
Every case is different, but the Law Offices of Justinian C. Lane, Esq. has obtained large settlements for thousands of people harmed by asbestos. This compensation has helped ease our clients’ financial burdens, and offers a legacy to leave for their loved ones.
At AsbestosClaims.Law, we’ve helped thousands of people who were exposed to asbestos in their job, car or at home. Can we help you? |
1 Klebe, S., Leigh, J., Henderson, D.W. and Nurminen, M., 2020. Asbestos, smoking and lung cancer: an update. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(1), p.258.
2 Klebe, S., Leigh, J., Henderson, D.W. and Nurminen, M., 2020. Asbestos, smoking and lung cancer: an update. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(1), p.258.