An appellate court in Seattle has overturned a Missoula judge's decision to ban dozens of witnesses from testifying in the criminal case against W.R. Grace & Co., the chemical company charged with concealing the dangers of asbestos-contaminated vermiculite mined near Libby.

In announcing its decision Thursday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the judge exceeded his authority in issuing several pretrial orders last year.

The three senior judges sided with federal prosecutors who argued that U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy's decision hindered their efforts to bring Grace and seven of its current and former senior executives and managers to trial last September.

"This court's recent pretrial rulings have changed the legal and evidentiary landscape of trial," Assistant U.S. Attorney Kris McLean wrote last year in a brief announcing the government's appeals.

In addition to barring testimony from scores of expert and nonexpert witnesses, Molloy also prohibited the government's use of numerous documents, including scientific and medical studies spelling out the hazards of asbestos. Expert witnesses may now rely on those studies when they testify at trial, which is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 3.

Federal prosecutors are still awaiting rulings on another interlocutory appeal regarding Molloy's decision to dismiss the indictment's most serious charges - multiple counts of "knowing endangerment" - that would have carried the stiffest sentence.

However, Thursday's decision marks a colossal triumph for the government, and alleviates previous concerns that lawyers would be left with a case too weak and diluted to prosecute.

"I am gratified by today's decision by the 9th Circuit," said Montana U.S. Attorney Bill Mercer. "It moves the United States one step closer to the ultimate goal of trying the grand jury's charge against W.R. Grace and the individual defendants to a jury with a full complement of evidence."

In February 2005, the government obtained a 49-page, 10-count indictment against Grace and its officers, alleging criminal acts spanning 26 years and creating at least 1,200 victims and 230 potential witnesses. Those charges relate to the improper disposal of disease-causing asbestos, which experts say led to hundreds of deaths and sickened thousands more in Libby.

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