Mike Carter, owner of Monroe Rubber & Gasket, reviews paperwork in his Louisiana office. The company, which does not manufacture asbestos products, has been sued more than 100 times for alleged asbestos exposure.

Exterior of Monroe Rubber & Gasket in Monroe, La.

Last week, Mike Carter said all he could do was roll his eyes as he read the newest lawsuit filed against his small Louisiana company: this time it was a suit by a woman that had to wash her father's allegedly asbestos-laden uniforms.

However Carter's company, Monroe Rubber & Gasket, doesn't manufacture or utilize asbestos products. But decades ago at customers' requests, the business ordered a material containing encapsulated asbestos.

Encapsulated asbestos fibers are treated with a coating intended to prevent airborne release.

Since the calendar turned to the year 2000, Monroe Rubber & Gasket has been hammered by more than 2,000 plaintiffs in more than 100 asbestos suits - an ever-expanding litigious scenario threatening the livelihood of the 30-year-old, Monroe,La.-based family business and its two dozen employees.

"The trial lawyers have beat up on all the major asbestos manufacturers and put them out of business so now they're coming after the next tier," Carter told the Record during a recent interview at his Louisiana office, adding that plaintiff's attorneys are crippling the American dream.

"Small business - the backbone of this country - is going to start disappearing because of a broken legal system ... it's legalized theft," he added. "There's nothing (trial lawyers) have been able to pinpoint to us other than we sold a gasket listed as an asbestos ring gasket.

Court records reveal that Monroe Rubber & Gasket, at customer requests, sold encapsulated asbestos gaskets to companies such as Riverwood International to seal hazardous, leak-prone steam flanges.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the rubber encapsulating asbestos gaskets prevent the release of air borne fibers. Currently, encapsulated asbestos material, which is still legal, is widely used in countries like Canada and Brazil.

"Everything we have ever handled has been encapsulated - that material has not made one person sick," Carter said.

Carted added that to be one the safe side, he even had the asbestos gaskets tested before selling the product.

Court records support Carter's statement by showing that several of the suits against him have been granted summary judgment in the company's favor.

However, plaintiff's attorney Brian Blackwell, who represents several of the industrial workers suing Carter, adamantly asserts his clients were exposed to air-borne asbestos fibers when removing worn gaskets by cutting through the hazardous material with an electric grinder.

In a recent phone interview, Blackwell said, "The asbestos gaskets may have been encapsulated, but Monroe Gasket & Rubber never warned its customers that ... the use of a grinder disperses the fibers."

The asbestos steam flange gaskets in question needed replacing every two to three years, depending on use, according to Carter.

"The real problem came from (companies using) asbestos insulation and lining, not gaskets," Carter said.

For decades, he said, industrial pipe fitters and cutters were exposed to asbestos fibers on a daily basis.

Blackwell said it was not possible to determine which exposure situation was more likely to inflict a person with an asbestos illness.

"There is no scientific method for separating out which asbestos fibers caused the disease," Blackwell said. "You can't separate out something that has already happened. All of them are responsible."

Carter said he believes most of the individuals suing him are not really sick, and plaintiffs' lawyers are notorious for conducting assembly line mass medical screenings and lumping hundreds of healthy people into a class with only a few sick plaintiffs.

"The lawyers setup X-ray machines outside mills where untrained people examine (industrial workers) and say, 'oh yeah, there's a spot on your lung,'" Carter said. "You can X-ray anyone and you're going to find something wrong."

Carter says he has spent a "small fortune" battling lawyers like Blackwell. Time and money he says would be better spent doing what does best, "growing my business."

A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Carter has exhausted a good portion of his free time in Washington, D.C., pleading with the government he served to pass legislation to protect small business from greedy trial lawyers.

Unfortunately, he doesn't believe he will make any headway with the current administration or heavily Democratic Congress. Nonetheless, Carter says an uphill battle on Capitol Hill will not deter him.

"I'm going to go down fighting, and I'm going to be honest," Carter said. "The government is changing into something I'm not so proud of anymore. This is not the America I grew up in. I see now how America has been bought and sold."

Even though Monroe Rubber and Gasket is facing an endless stream of lawsuits, Carter said he and his employees are sympathetic to the people who actually have an asbestos disease, but are not so sympathetic to those looking for a free ride.

Around 90 percent of the suits against Monroe Rubber and Gasket were filed by LeBlanc & Waddell, a Baton Rouge, La., law firm.

Blackwell is a former LeBlanc & Waddell attorney.

His suits against Carter and his business claim the company is partially responsible for inflicting his clients with asbestosis and mesothelioma.