Civil Conspiracy

Civil conspiracy is a claim that two or more parties agreed to act together to accomplish an unlawful purpose, or a lawful purpose by unlawful means, and that the agreement caused harm. In asbestos cases it usually alleges that companies agreed to hide or play down what they knew about asbestos disease.

Origin

Civil conspiracy grew out of English common law and is recognized in most U.S. states, usually not as a standalone wrong but as a way to hold each member of an agreement responsible for a tort committed in carrying it out. In asbestos litigation, conspiracy claims became prominent after the Sumner Simpson Papers, the correspondence of Raybestos-Manhattan's president with Johns-Manville's Vandiver Brown and others, surfaced in the 1970s.

Significance in Asbestos Context

A conspiracy claim can matter to a family because it may reach a company whose own product the person never used, if that company is shown to have joined an agreement to suppress information about asbestos hazards. Plaintiffs have pointed to documents such as the 1930s correspondence about controlling publication of industry-funded research, and to the role of trade groups and insurers. Defendants respond that sharing information or funding research is not an unlawful agreement, and courts have reached different results on whether the evidence was enough. Most states require an underlying tort, such as fraud or concealment, and proof of an actual agreement, though the agreement can be shown with circumstantial evidence. Where a conspiracy is proven, each conspirator can be held responsible for the harm caused by acts done in furtherance of it, and some states allow punitive damages. These claims are document-heavy and contested, and how far they go depends on state law and on the specific evidence.

Example Sentence

The complaint alleged a civil conspiracy among the mining company, the textile maker and their trade association to keep the results of the dust studies from workers.

Related Terms

Sumner Simpson Papers, Vandiver Brown, Corporate Knowledge, Fraudulent Concealment, Fraudulent Misrepresentation, Joint and Several Liability, Punitive Damages

Notes

• Conspiracy claims depend on historical company documents; your lawyer, not you, will usually supply this evidence.
• Do not assume a company is out of the case just because you never used its product; ask whether any conspiracy claim applies.