Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy

January 17, 2025
Cosmetics Company Ben Nye Says No Error In Confirmation Of Reorganization Plan

SAN FRANCISCO — An appeal by asbestos plaintiffs and law firms of confirmation of the Chapter 11 Subchapter V plan of reorganization for family-run cosmetics company Ben Nye Co. Inc. to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (BAP) should be rejected because they failed to show that the Bankruptcy Court’s factual findings were wrong, the debtor says in an appellee brief.
January 16, 2025
Shipbuilder Creditor Appeals Asbestos Debtor’s Insurer Settlement Protections

RICHMOND, Va. — Shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., a frequent co-defendant of Chapter 11 debtor Hopeman Brothers Inc. in asbestos cases, has appealed a Virginia federal bankruptcy judge’s approval of an $18 million settlement between the debtor and insurers, saying in its statement of issues on appeal that a U.S. district court must decide whether the approval order’s inclusion of a “nonconsensual third party release and non-debtor discharge and corresponding injunction” amounts to reversable error.
January 16, 2025
Magistrate Judge Won’t Condition Talc Suit Dismissal On Expert Discovery

NEW YORK — A man is free to sue whomever he wants, and because dismissal with prejudice precludes any future litigation on the claims, the talc defendant will not suffer any prejudice and is not entitled to discovery into an expert on whom the plaintiff no longer relies, a federal magistrate judge in New York said Jan. 15 in recommending that the court grant the motion.
January 10, 2025
Facing Insurer’s Opposition, Talc Supplier Seeks Extensions Of Exclusive Periods

TRENTON, N.J. — Raw materials supplier and Chapter 11 debtor Presperse Corp. asked a New Jersey federal bankruptcy court to give it more time to file an amended plan of reorganization after the company’s lone insurer objected to the plan’s disclosure statement and disputed insurance coverage for asbestos personal injury claims.
January 09, 2025
Avon Affiliates Granted More Time To File Chapter 11 Liquidation Plan

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal bankruptcy judge has given the U.S. divisions of cosmetics giant Avon more time to file a Chapter 11 liquidation plan after the debtors said they have begun negotiations with unsecured creditors and the U.S. trustee on a consensual plan to resolve the consolidated cases.
January 09, 2025
Punitives, Bankruptcy Docs At Issue As Pittsburgh Asbestos Case Briefing Wraps

PITTSBURGH — In post-trial briefing, an employer hit with $1.5 million in punitive damages told a Pennsylvania judge that the statute of repose should have barred the case, that there was insufficient evidence that it acted in a way that warranted the award, that the jury was improperly instructed on the issue and that a court ruling improperly handled expert testimony and access to bankruptcy trust documents. But the couple awarded the $3.8 million mesothelioma verdict said the statute of repose does not apply to workplace safety claims, that there was ample evidence that the company breached its duty to workers and that its request for the bankruptcy filings was untimely.
January 06, 2025
Judge Won’t Recuse From Asbestos-Talc Law Firm Spat

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — An Alabama federal judge on Jan. 3 declined to recuse himself from a law firm’s suit alleging breach of contract involving a partner’s handling of asbestos-talc claims involving Johnson & Johnson and its debtor affiliate, saying his former work for the firm did not bring his impartiality into question.
December 19, 2024
Johnson & Johnson Can’t Swap Entities As Defendants, R.I. Judge Says

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Plaintiffs are ultimately the masters of their complaints and may sue who they see fit, a Rhode Island judge said in denying LLT Management LLC’s and Johnson & Johnson Holdco Inc.’s motion to substitute two related entities they claim now hold asbestos-talc related liabilities.
December 19, 2024
Talc Supplier Tells 3rd Circuit No Cause Shown To Dismiss Chapter 11 Case

PHILADELPHIA — A receiver appointed in South Carolina for defunct talc supplier Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Inc. (WCD) had no authority to place the company into bankruptcy in New Jersey because he never applied to be appointed as ancillary receiver, so the Chapter 11 petition approved by WCD’s board is valid and a New Jersey federal bankruptcy judge’s denial of the receiver’s bid to dismiss the case should stand, the debtor told the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 18 in a consolidated appeal of the ruling.
December 18, 2024
Contempt, Stay At Issue In Asbestos Expert Subpoena Case

NEW YORK — An asbestos expert, her hospital employer and Johnson & Johnson, locked in a battle over production of the identities of individuals the expert relied on in a study on talc exposures, briefed a New York Supreme Court justice on whether contempt sanctions are warranted for failure to produce evidence or whether a forthcoming motion to reargue and a pending motion for a protective order stayed an appellate court’s ruling, according to documents filed on the court’s docket.
December 17, 2024
Experts, Punitive Damages At Heart Of Connecticut Motions After $15M Talc Verdict

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A man urged a Connecticut judge to impose punitive damages in the wake of a $15 million verdict, saying that Johnson & Johnson (J&J) knew for decades about the dangers of asbestos and that there were asbestos fibers in its talc products but continued marketing a product that would be used on children. But in a trio of briefs, J&J and its various entities said the verdict resulted from improper court decisions on the admission of experts, wrongly given instructions and belabored references to other litigation the company faces.
December 17, 2024
J&J Opposes Pro Hac Vice Status In Wake Of Conduct Behind New Trial Order

PORTLAND, Ore. — Johnson & Johnson entities urged a judge not to renew the pro hac vice status of plaintiff attorney Ben Adams citing the failure to heed court orders and other misconduct that a trial court judge found reached such a level that it likely influenced the jury and required retrying a case that produced a $260 million asbestos-talc verdict that originally included $200 million in punitive damages.
December 12, 2024
No Cert Petition Planned For Dismissal Of J&J Spinoff’s 2nd Chapter 11 Case

TRENTON, N.J. — There will be no U.S. Supreme Court petition filed by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LLT Management LLC over the second dismissal of its Chapter 11 case, the Official Committee of Talc Claimants told a New Jersey federal bankruptcy judge in preparation for a hearing to decide if the case should be closed.
December 10, 2024
Georgia-Pacific Spinoff Not ‘Actually Bankrupt’ Debtor, Asbestos Claimants Argue

RICHMOND, Va. — Georgia-Pacific spinoff Bestwall LLC fails to convincingly argue that a bankruptcy court’s denial of a motion to dismiss its Chapter 11 case should be affirmed and does not “offer a single historical analog permitting any similar non-bankrupt debtor to enter bankruptcy,” the Official Committee of Asbestos Claimants tells the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a reply brief in support of its appeal.
December 06, 2024
Senators Reintroduce Bill Barring Texas 2-Step Restructurings, Nondebtor Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three U.S. senators reintroduced a bill on Dec. 5 that would force courts to dismiss any Chapter 11 case where a company has used the Texas Two-Step to place all of its liabilities, usually from asbestos personal injury claims, with a spinoff company that then files for bankruptcy protection. The measure would also prohibit the use of nonconsensual, nondebtor releases of third parties in bankruptcy cases, which the U.S. Supreme Court recently held are illegal.
December 04, 2024
Judge Grants Contempt Hearing In Asbestos Dispute Over Expert Moline, Northwell

NEW YORK — A New York justice on Dec. 3 issued an order scheduling a show-cause hearing on a motion seeking to hold an asbestos expert and her employer in contempt of court for “brazenly” ignoring court rulings after the state’s high court denied leave to appeal a decision compelling production of the identities of participants in expert Jacqueline Moline’s asbestos-talc studies.
December 03, 2024
Law Firms, Clients Say Ben Nye Bar Date, Plan Confirmation Should Be Reversed

SAN FRANCISCO — California federal bankruptcy court orders setting a bar date for asbestos personal injury claims and confirming the reorganization plan for Chapter 11 Subchapter V debtor cosmetics company Ben Nye Co. Inc. should be reversed because “they violate principles of statutory construction, Ninth Circuit precedent on when a bankruptcy ‘claim’ matures, and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution,” asbestos plaintiffs and law firms argue in their opening appeal brief to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (BAP).
December 03, 2024
Angelos, Asbestos Claimants Resolve Asbestos Malpractice Claims For $57M

BALTIMORE — A judge in Maryland granted final approval of a $57 million settlement resolving asbestos claimants’ legal malpractice claims stemming from Law Offices of Peter G. Angelos PC’s failure to file timely actions after learning about insurance proceeds available in a settlement.
December 03, 2024
Union Carbide Prevails In Rare Rhode Island Asbestos Trial

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Rhode Island jury returned a defense verdict for Union Carbide Corp. in a case alleging that a woman died after asbestos exposure suffered when she laundered her former husband’s clothing; the trial is the first time an asbestos case in the state has gone to jury in nearly 40 years, sources told Mealey Publications.
December 02, 2024
Connecticut Judge Adds $7.5 Million To Vanderbilt Asbestos-Talc Award

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A judge in Connecticut added $7.5 million in punitive damages to an asbestos verdict, turning away attempts to relitigate successor liability and saying the conduct in question and jury’s findings support the award. The amount represents half the compensatory damages granted by a jury earlier this year.
November 27, 2024
Chapter 11 Asbestos Debtor’s Settlement Protections Too Broad, U.S. Trustee Says

RICHMOND, Va. — Two settlements among new Chapter 11 debtor Hopeman Brothers Inc. and its insurers to help fund a trust to pay asbestos personal injury claims cannot be approved because the agreements purport to protect nondebtor third parties in violation of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code and U.S. Supreme Court precedent, the U.S. trustee tells a Virginia federal bankruptcy court in his objection to the deals.
November 27, 2024
J&J’s Latest Debtor Fends Off Claimants’ Bid For Venue Reconsideration

HOUSTON — A request by certain asbestos talc claimants’ counsel for reconsideration of an order denying their motion to transfer venue for the Chapter 11 case of the latest Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff, Red River Talc LLC, was denied by a Texas federal bankruptcy judge.
November 25, 2024
Missouri Jury Returns Defense Verdict For Employer In Asbestos Case

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri jury found for a defendant in an asbestos case after the state’s appellate court allowed the suit to proceed against the woman’s employer after concluding that it didn’t comply with the state’s special mesothelioma insurance provision and the Missouri Supreme Court declined to step in.
November 25, 2024
Oregon Judge Reduces $200M Asbestos-Talc Punitive Damages Award

PORTLAND, Ore. — After finding a $200 million punitive damages award constitutional in an asbestos case, an Oregon judge reduced that award to $120 million, citing evidence that Johnson & Johnson already ceased production of the talc-based baby powder at issue in the case and previously paid punitive damages for the conduct. J&J moved to stay enforcement of the judgment.
November 22, 2024
COMMENTARY: 2024 Key Insurance Decisions, Trends & Developments & A Look Ahead To 2025

By Scott M. Seaman, Pedro E. Hernandez and Lisa M. Roccanova