Union Carbide Tries To Remove Judge in $322 Million Asbestos Case

Union Carbide has sought the recusal of a Mississippi judge who oversaw a $322 million asbestos verdict because he neglected to notify defense lawyers of an important fact: His parents were involved in similar litigation and had actually settled a case against Union Carbide. In a motion filed yesterday, lawyers for the Dow Chemical unit said Smith County Judge Eddie H. Bowen made offhand comments during the trial about how his father might have been exposed to asbestos at Ingalls Shipyard. Defense lawyers first doubted “such a blatant conflict of interest was a possibility in this case,” but began poking around and eventually verified that one Howard J. Bowen, whom they identified as the judge’s father, had sued Union Carbide and others in 1989 and 1992.