Law Suits: TN Dana faces secondhand smoking suit

Dana faces secondhand smoking suit

11-04-06
By JULIE M. McKINNON. BLADE BUSINESS WRITER

A Tennessee factory worker is asking Dana Corp., a Toledo automotive parts supplier, to pay him $10 million because he is exposed to second-hand smoke on the job.

In what appears to be an unusual move, 52-year-old Carl Munsey of Carthage said he researched how to file a claim because he couldn’t afford an attorney. His claim was submitted recently to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, where Dana has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Mr. Munsey, who has worked at Dana’s 215-employee Gordonsville driveshaft plant for nearly three years, said he wasn’t sure how much to ask for. He said he gets headaches on the job and he has been getting bronchitis and sinus infections.

“If I do wind up getting lung cancer or something from this, I want my family taken care of,” the married father of two grown children said. “I don’t know how you put a value on a life.”

Firms with contract disputes and people who have been injured at work or by products typically file claims against large corporations in bankruptcy, said attorney Ronald Silverman, a partner with Bingham McCutchen LLP in New York.

“This would seem to be unusual,” he said. “I expect the company will attempt to address it.”

Dana spokesman Chuck Hartlage said the company does not comment on pending litigation.

Mr. Munsey also is asking the court to make the company repay him for his losses on its stock, to refrain from taking any retaliatory actions, and to protect his benefits.

A member of the factory’s safety committee, he said he brought up the issue of smoking at work.

“I’m a real minority here,” he said. “There might be 10 of us here on the floor who don’t smoke.”