Asbestos Plaintiff Firms Files Answer, Counterclaims to RICO Allegations

CHARLOTTE, N.C. –– Asbestos plaintiffs’ firm Simon Greenstone Panatier Bartlett P.C. has filed answers, affirmative defenses and counterclaims in response to allegations that it committed fraud and violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, maintaining that Garlock Sealing Technologies “knowingly withheld evidence of the dangers” of its products.

In the Nov. 16 brief filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, the firm alleged that Garlock also “fraudulently induced Simon Greenstone into settlement agreements that they had no intention of paying.”

The filing came in response to Garlock’s own accusation that a number of …