AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry touted a portion of the 2003 tort reform law he signed as a Texas job saver, but the state Supreme Court ruled Friday that it was an unconstitutional law designed to protect one company from a lawsuit brought by a man dying of asbestos exposure.

The court, in a divided opinion, knocked down a portion of the tort reform law saying it was an unconstitutional attempt to protect Crown Cork & Seal Inc. of Pennsylvania from a lawsuit filed in a Houston court.

A swirl of high-level politics has surrounded the case from the start.

Crown Cork's $200,000 lobby team in 2003 included a lobbyist whose wife worked for Perry as his fitness czar. Another of the lobbyists once had employed Perry's wife, Anita, as an aide.

A year after the law passed, one of the lobbyists and the Houston lawyer representing the company in its fight with Barbara and John Robinson arranged for then-House Speaker Tom Craddick, a Catholic, to have an audience with the pope in Rome.

Crown Cork pushed similar legislation to limit asbestos lawsuits in other states through the national American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization that last year listed Craddick as its chairman.

When the case hit the state's high court, former Texas Supreme Court Justice Deborah Hankinson represented Barbara Robinson and her late husband, John, in the case against Crown Cork. Former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Phillips was on the legal team representing the company.

1,000 Texas workers

Attorney General Greg Abbott had filed a brief urging the court to find for the company, saying filing a lawsuit did not give the Robinsons constitutional protections against the Legislature passing retroactive state laws to keep them from suing Crown Cork.

Republicans portrayed passage of the Crown Cork provisions in the 2003 law as an act of fairness for the company.

Crown Cork has 20,000 employees worldwide with 1,000 in Conroe, Sugar Land and Abilene. In 2009, the company had a $1.2 billion gross profit, according to the Supreme Court decision.

A prior version of the company - a corporation that made bottle caps known as crowns - purchased the Mundet Cork Corp. in 1963 in New York, and within 90 days sold the firm's insulation manufacturing operation. The companies then merged and reincorporated in Pennsylvania. But under New York and Pennsylvania laws, Crown also got Mundet's asbestos liabilities.

Crown had purchased Mundet for $7 million, but by May 2003 Crown had paid more than $413 million in asbestos settlements and estimated another $239 million in liabilities, according to the Supreme Court decision.

As the legislation was pending, the Robinsons were suing Crown Cork in a Houston court for asbestos exposure John Robinson had received while in the U.S. Navy working with insulation manufactured by Mundet.

Days after the Crown Cork provision in the tort reform became law, Crown moved for and obtained a summary judgment against the Robinsons. John Robinson died several days later, but his widow continued to pursue the case on appeal.

Justice Nathan Hecht, writing for the six-justice majority, said Crown had obtained similar retroactive laws in 10 other states. Pennsylvania courts already have ruled the law unconstitutional there, he wrote. Hecht said constitutional prohibitions on retroactive laws are designed to "pre-empt this weighing of interests" of justice for companies like Crown against the interests of plaintiffs such as the Robinsons.

Justices Dale Wainwright and Phil Johnson dissented, saying the Robinsons' property rights were not violated by the retroactive law because they had not yet won their lawsuit.

Crown did not respond to a request for comment.

Jeff Mundy of Austin, the Robinson's trial attorney, said Crown Cork likely will ask the Supreme Court for a rehearing and if that fails the case finally will go to trial in Houston.

30,000 possible cases

Mundy said the company in federal Security and Exchange Commission filings reported that it already had charged off anticipated losses against future earnings so any court judgments will not affect the company financially now. Mundy said Crown Cork in one court filing said there are as many as 30,000 asbestos cases possible against it in Texas.

Barbara Robinson currently lives near Dallas and looks forward to a trial, Mundy said.

"The governor was not involved in the legislative amendment that included the language addressed by the court, but he was proud of the final bill and its role in increasing fairness and balance in the Texas legal system," Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said.

In 2004, the governor held a news conference at an expansion of Crown Cork's Abilene plant to say tort reform had saved 147 local jobs.

"Crown Cork is a great example of what is happening all across Texas in various industries that have been plagued by an abundance of frivolous lawsuits," Perry said at the event.

r.g.ratcliffe@chron.com