The Montana Supreme Court ruled last week that a class-action suit against Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. and a multitude of other defendants should be heard in a Great Falls court.

The suit was brought by Robert W. Allen and 46 other people who claim they contracted lung diseases. The plaintiffs allege that they inhaled hazardous asbestos fibers from insulation at work and that the defendants knew that would injure them and concealed the knowledge.

Besides CFAC, the suit names 53 defendants, including Atlantic Richfield Co. and the Anaconda Co., former owners of CFAC; Glencore Acquisition LLC, the aluminum plant's current owner; Brack Duker and Jerome Broussard, former corporate officers at the plant; Zonolite Co.; Montana Vermiculite Co.; and W.R. Grace and Co.

CFAC had asked that the case be moved from Cascade County to Flathead County.

One of the defendants, Robinson Insulation, operated a vermiculite-expansion plant in Cascade County, where it received raw asbestos-contaminated vermiculite, expanded the vermiculite, and manufactured and sold products containing asbestos. In 1989, the company went out of business.

The aluminum company argued that Robinson was a "sham defendant," because it no longer exists and that the people who are suing never attempted to serve the company, its former directors or shareholders, with notice of the lawsuit. Naming Robinson was just a ruse to keep the matter in Cascade County, CFAC argued.

Supreme Court Justice John Warner agreed with that, but the rest of the court did not.

Five other justices said that case law clearly allows suits against companies that have dissolved. They ruled that Cascade District Judge Julie Macek was correct when she denied the request to move the lawsuit to a different county.

Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at [email protected]