Jury says health clinic in Montana Superfund town submitted 337 false asbestos claims

By MATTHEW BROWN and AMY BETH HANSON
Associated Press

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — A federal jury has ruled that a health clinic in a Montana town where hundreds of people died from asbestos exposure submitted 337 false asbestos claims making its patients eligible for benefits such as Medicare. The seven-person jury said in a Wednesday verdict that the false claims caused more than $1 million in damage to the government. The case focused on the Center for Asbestos Related Disease clinic in Libby, Montana. BNSF Railway filed a lawsuit against the CARD clinic under the federal False Claims Act. The railway is also a defendant in numerous lawsuits over its own role in the town’s contamination. Montana’s Supreme Court found it liable for shipping asbestos-tainted vermiculite from a nearby mine through Libby.