The Associated Press reports the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that Owens Corning has no claim against tobacco companies over asbestos-related lung injuries. Owens Corning was trying to recover billions of dollars paid out in asbestos settlement cases by arguing the tobacco industry shared some of the blame for the health problems.

Asbestos companies have blamed cigarette smoking for thousands of workers’ injuries costing them millions of dollars in damages. Companies that previously manufactured products containing asbestos, including Toledo, Ohio-based Owens Corning, have gone into bankruptcy paying injury claims.

The report covered the competing arguments:

Lawyers for the tobacco companies said Owens Corning could not prove cigarette makers were liable for anything.

Owens Corning argued if the tobacco companies had been truthful about the harmful effects of tobacco, it and others might not have had to pay out huge settlements. The company said it was in bankruptcy as the result of lung disease litigation while the tobacco companies have continued to prosper.

The tobacco companies said whatever the alleged acts Owens claims the tobacco industry did had nothing to do with Owens’ decision to make settlement payments to victims. Industry lawyers said if Owens had not sold asbestos they would not have paid anybody anything.

The impact of Asbestos claims on Owens Corning has been pretty substantial but so have the numbers of people made ill by their asbestos:

At the time of its bankruptcy filing in 2000, Owens Corning estimated it had paid or agreed to pay $5 billion in asbestos lawsuit claims. The supplier of building and industrial material said it faced about $2 billion more in asbestos payouts even though it stopped selling insulation that contained asbestos more than 25 years ago.

The company has paid money to 440,000 people who said asbestos made them ill.