THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, May 10, 1996                   TAG: 9605100537
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                         LENGTH: Medium:   55 lines

HOUSE FAILS TO OVERRIDE VETO OF LIABILITY SUIT THE VOTE FELL 23 SHY; CLINTON SAID THE BILL WOULD ``LET WRONGDOERS OFF THE HOOK.''

Settling an election-year battle between trial lawyers and business, the House on Thursday sustained President Clinton's veto of a bill limiting damage awards in lawsuits over faulty products.

The vote was 258-163 in favor of overriding Clinton's objections - 23 votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed to enact a law over the president's veto.

In rejecting the bill last week, Clinton had said it would do little to improve the legal system but ``would mean more unsafe products in our homes. It would let wrongdoers off the hook.''

Limiting monetary awards for damages has been a major goal of manufacturers and businesses for 13 years. Consumer groups and lawyers representing people who claim to have been harmed by faulty products have just as adamantly opposed such limitations.

Before the vote, Democratic lawmakers supporting the veto argued that corporations spent lavishly on Republicans to get the bill passed. Republicans demanding an override countered that trial lawyers' financial support of Clinton influenced the president.

Defending the president, Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called the bill ``a continuation of the majority Republican war on public safety, on workers, on women, on seniors.''

Rep. Thomas Bliley, R-Va., chairman of the House Commerce Committee, responded that Clinton's veto was ``a bonanza for America's trial lawyers and a disaster for factory workers.'' The workers, he said, would be laid off because of business' high cost of product liability lawsuits.

The legislation would have capped the punitive damages that a jury could award in cases involving faulty products. Punitive damages could not have exceeded the larger of $250,000 or twice the claimant's compensatory damages, which are awarded for economic losses and pain and suffering. ILLUSTRATION: HOW THEY VOTED

A ``yes'' was a vote to override the veto.

Herbert H. Bateman,

R-Va.Yes

Owen B. Pickett, D-Va.No

Robert C. Scott, D-Va.No

Norman Sisisky, D-Va.Yes

Eva Clayton, D-N.C.No

Walter Jones Jr., R-N.C.Yes

by CNB