Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 2, 1995 TAG: 9503020075
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
They came to lobby: The woman scalded by spilled coffee who has become known as ``the McDonald's coffee lady,'' the man severely burned by exploding gas tanks on his GM pickup truck, the lawmaker who was a subject of an experiment with the drug DES without her knowledge.
Battling a GOP bill that would make it harder to win punitive damages from companies for harmful products, a consumer group brought injury victims to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to tell their stories.
Supporters of the bill, meanwhile, ran full-page newspaper ads warning of Little League teams imperiled by lawsuits and television spots featuring political personalities Jack Kemp and George McGovern.
The House is expected to vote next week on the legislation, which is part of the Republicans' ``Contract With America.'' The House Judiciary Committee approved the measure a week ago by a 21-11 vote.
The measure would establish a national, uniform set of laws on product liability and limit the sums awarded to injured people. Supporters say it is needed to free business from a patchwork of state laws and to limit the growth of court-clogging lawsuits.
Critics contend the bill would deprive citizens of legal redress if they are harmed by defective products and would usurp states' rights.
``We're definitely fighting an uphill battle,'' Rep. John Bryant, D-Texas, one of the lawmakers leading the opposition, told a news conference organized by the consumer group Public Citizen. Bryant called the bill the ``Corporate Wrongdoers' Protection Act.''
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said opponents hope the legislation will face a tougher reception in the Senate and that President Clinton will threaten to veto the measure.
The influence campaign on both sides is in full swing.
Stella Liebeck, the New Mexico woman who sued McDonald's, appeared at the news conference but remained silent because of a confidentiality agreement she signed with the company in settling the case. Her daughter and son-in-law spoke for her and showed color photographs of the scarring they said is permanent over 16 percent of her body.
Liebeck spilled the hot coffee in her lap while seated in a parked car three years ago.
``She spent eight days in the hospital, received skin grafts, and took over two years to recover her health of today,'' said her daughter, Judy Allen.
Also telling her story was Rep. Patsy Mink, D-Hawaii, an unwitting subject of an experiment with the drug diethylstilbestrol when she was pregnant in 1951. She sued more than 20 years later. The Food and Drug Administration removed the drug, known as DES, from the market in 1972 after medical reports showed that some users' children had developed a rare form of cancer.
Doug Worden, a teacher from Washington state, was severely burned in a 1992 accident involving his GM truck, which had side-saddle fuel tanks.
When Washingtonians opened their morning newspapers, they saw a salvo from the bill's supporters: a full-page, black-and-white ad showing a young girl in pigtails holding a baseball bat.
``Don't let her season end in a lawsuit,'' the ad says in large type. It contends that Little League baseball teams across the nation ``are endangered by lawsuit abuse'' and that the teams spend more to protect themselves from the suits than on bats, balls and uniforms.
The ads are sponsored by a coalition of groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Council of Life Insurance and the National Federation of Independent Business.
Similar spots are running on Washington TV stations and CNN.
In addition, the corporate-sponsored American Tort Reform Association aired a 30-second TV ad featuring an exchange between former presidential candidates Kemp, a Republican, and McGovern, a Democrat.
``We agree on the danger to our country from lawsuit abuse,'' McGovern says, adding, ``Frivolous lawsuits helped drive my small inn out of business.''
by CNB