BEAUMONT - A Houston attorney has added the names of almost 1,000 plaintiffs to lawsuits filed in a state court as a result of the deaths of more than 2,000 people in Bhopal , India.

Benton Musslewhite first filed a lawsuit against Union Carbide Corp. in state District Judge Gary Sanderson's court in January. That lawsuit was filed in behalf of five survivors and victims of a Dec. 3 isocyanate gas leak that killed more than 2,000 people who lived near a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal .

Another lawsuit filed Wednesday listed 11 1/2 pages of plaintiffs and seeks an undetermined amount of money.

"The actual personal injury and wrongful death damages to the plaintiffs are astronomical," the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit says Union Carbide and other defendants "should be required to pay an amount in punitive and exemplary damages which will not only adequately punish these defendants for their despicable conduct but will also deter, by example, similar conduct in the future by American multi-national corporations who callously enforce pitifully inadequate safety standards in developing nations."

The earlier suit sought $50 billion in damages.

The lawsuit contends Union Carbide Corp., Union Carbide of India, Ltd., Union Carbide Eastern Inc., Enserch Corp., Humphries & Glasgow Consultants Pvt. Ltd., Humphries & Glasgow Ltd. and Ebasco-Humphries & Glasgow Inc. were at fault in the disaster because of the way they built, repaired or operated the plant.

Musslewhite said Texas law allows the lawsuit to be filed in state courts. He said he picked a court in Beaumont because he thought Jefferson County jurors would identify with the Indians who lived near the Bhopal chemical plant.

The earlier lawsuit was removed to federal court, but U.S. District Judge Joe Fisher remanded the case back to Sanderson's court.