John Crane Inc. has fired a new salvo in the legal war between industrial parts manufacturers and the asbestos plaintiffs bar by filing suits this week against Dallas-based Simon Greenstone Panatier Bartlett and Shein Law Center Ltd. of Philadelphia.
In two suits filed June 6 in federal court in Illinois, John Crane alleged that both firms have withheld evidence in cases brought by mesothelioma victims over their exposure to asbestos in violation of the U.S. Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Simon Greenstone and Shein Law faced similar allegations from gasket maker Garlock Sealing Technologies LLC, which sued them in 2014 after a judge overseeing its bankruptcy found that plaintiffs lawyers had shown a “startling pattern of misrepresentation” in mesothelioma lawsuits against it.
