Sick mine workers allege insurer delaying medical payments, settlements

BILLINGS, MONT. >> Attorneys for Montana mine workers sickened and killed by toxic asbestos exposure filed a lawsuit against Zurich American Insurance on Monday for allegedly stalling legal settlements and medical payments after transferring the workers' claims to investors who can profit off the delays.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Great Falls on behalf of 17 former workers and representatives of 29 deceased workers who developed lung cancer and other diseases following exposure to asbestos during the 1960s and 1970s at a W.R. Grace & Co. vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana.

The legal dispute over responsibility for their suffering dates back two decades, to when news reports about sick and dying mine workers and residents in the remote mountain area triggered an emergency cleanup by federal authorities. That cleanup is ongoing and the contamination is blamed for hundreds of deaths among mine workers, their families and others in the area near the U.S.-Canada border.

The Montana Supreme Court in 2020 ruled that insurer Maryland Casualty Co. — now owned by Zurich — should have warned the workers about small fibers of asbestos in vermiculite dust that can be easily inhaled and damage a person's lungs. Maryland Casualty provided workers' compensation coverage at the now-shuttered W.R. Grace mine.

But rather than move to resolve the many remaining liability cases still pending against it, Zurich has paid to transfer at least some of the workers' claims to investors, said Allan McGarvey, an attorney for the workers. The investors, including Enstar Group Ltd., can hold onto and profit off that money even as the workers' health further deteriorates, according to McGarvey and the lawsuit.

A person who answered the phone at Enstar Group in Bermuda referred questions to the firm's office in the U.S., where telephone messages seeking comment were not immediately returned.