Judge Dismisses Railroad Company Challenge to Asbestos Trial Plan

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A federal judge in West Virginia has dismissed a lawsuit filed by several railroads that claimed the state's plan for handling thousands of pending asbestos cases is unconstitutional. Norfolk Southern Railway Co., et al. v. Chief Justice Warren R. McGraw, No. 01-1238 (S.D. W.Va.).

In a memorandum order issued Aug. 12, Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia said abstention was appropriate in the case, which was filed against several state trial and appeals court judges.

At the heart of the lawsuit, filed Nov. 29, 2001 by …