Billings, Mont. – An asbestos screening clinic in a small Montana city where thousands of people have become ill from the nearest mine, the clinic resources have suddenly shut down the authority by the authorities after the court order for the Railway BNSF verdict.
Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday closed an asbestos-related disease center in Liby, about 50 miles (80 km) from the US-Canada border. The city of about 1.5 people is near a mine that created the asbestos dust for decades and the clinic is at the top of the attempt to help the victims.
The Montana court has said that the BNSF contributed to the pollution when it brought contaminated material from excavation through the city and the railway faced numerous cases from the asbestos victims of Libi and the surrounding communities.
However, the Texas-based railway won in the 2021 case that the clinic was fraudulently eligible for some patients for government benefits when they knew they were not ill. The Railway clinic challenged the validity of more than 2,000 diagnosis and was ruled 337.
The railway has filed a case for the federal government, which provides the specialized Medicare Service to the Asbestos victims of Libir. Million against the BNSF clinic was part of a million dollars of trial, and after adding the attorney fees, court expenses and interest, the railway said it was now $ 3.1 million.
BNSF spokesman Kendal Kirkham Slowan said in a statement, “The judge has determined the amount of damage to repay and the recovery process has been determined by the law.”
Tracey McNew, executive director of the clinic, says that as few people appear for asbestos-related health problems, this closure will have a wide impact on public health in the Libi region.
“The card is committed to its patients and the Libi community and will fight to re -open as soon as possible,” McNew said in a statement.
For more than 20 years, the clinic has provided health screening, monitoring and treatment to problematic patients due to asbestos exposure. It declared bankruptcy after the verdict in the fraud case. It has been handling it and the BNSF has not paid under a settlement that has reached bankruptcy with the Federal government.
The card bankruptcy Attorney James “Andy” Patten said that the railway attempt to collect the fraudulent verdict violated the bankruptcy disposal, which was approved by a federal court.
Sloan refused to comment on the disposal of bankruptcy.
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