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

Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy

April 13, 2023
Stay Relief Denied In Chapter 11 Case Of Ingersoll-Rand, Trane Debtors

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A North Carolina federal bankruptcy judge denied a request by a man who suffers from testicular mesothelioma for relief from the automatic stay in the Chapter 11 case of Ingersoll-Rand affiliates Aldrich Pump LLC and Murray Boiler LLC to add Murray as a defendant in a state court asbestos suit.
April 13, 2023
California Court Rejects Petitions Challenging Expert’s Talc-Mesothelioma Opinions

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Supreme Court on April 12 denied two petitions from asbestos-talc defendants seeking review of the admission of expert testimony regarding fibrous talc as a cause of mesothelioma, an opinion one of the parties called “preposterous.”
April 12, 2023
4th Circuit Affirms Vanderbilt’s Win In Ceramic Studio Asbestos Case

RALEIGH, N.C. — A judge properly granted a talc supplier summary judgment on a mother’s wrongful death claims because while the evidence allows for the conclusion that her daughter suffered exposure to asbestos at a college ceramics studio, evidence of class attendance does not establish a sufficient length of exposure, a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said April 11 in an unpublished per curiam opinion.
April 12, 2023
Asbestos-Talc Claimants Group Says 2nd Bankruptcy Of J&J Unit Should Be Tossed

TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey federal bankruptcy court should take no actions in the second Chapter 11 case of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) subsidiary LTL Management LLC — other than sua sponte dismissal — until it names an official committee of asbestos-talc claimants, an ad hoc claimants’ committee says in an informational brief.
April 12, 2023
Hess, Chapter 11 Unit HONX Working With FCR On Reorganization Plan

HOUSTON — Hess Corp., its Chapter 11 debtor affiliate HONX Inc. and asbestos claimants have agreed to extend the time to file a consensual plan of reorganization for HONX so they can continue to negotiate with the future claimants’ representative (FCR) to “reach agreement on a fair and equitable treatment” of people who later develop asbestos diseases, according to a status update filed by the debtor in Texas federal bankruptcy court.
April 07, 2023
Ohio Court Reverses Sanctions, Says Asbestos Firm’s Suits Were Not Frivolous

CLEVELAND — An Illinois court’s ruling on a company’s successor status does not bind Ohio courts, and an asbestos law firm’s repeated naming and dismissal of the company was not frivolous or unreasonable, evidenced by the fact that other attorneys filed similar suits, an Ohio court said April 6 in reversing an award of sanctions against the firm.
April 06, 2023
Missouri Judge Denies Motions Challenging $6M Asbestos Verdict

ST. LOUIS — A judge in Missouri denied Ford Motor Co.’s post-trial motions seeking to upend a jury’s $6 million award for a woman’s fatal mesothelioma.
April 05, 2023
J&J Vows $8.9B For Asbestos Claimants In Spinoff’s New Chapter 11 Filing

TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson (J&J) subsidiary LTL Management LLC filed a new Chapter 11 petition April 4 in New Jersey federal bankruptcy court after the dismissal of its first case for being filed in bad faith, saying it has reached an agreement with more than 60,000 asbestos-talc claimants on a bankruptcy plan that includes an $8.9 billion trust to pay their claims.
April 03, 2023
Judge Dismisses Garrett Motion Securities Class Without Leave To Amend

NEW YORK — Evidence that a company saddled with Bendix-associated asbestos debts and its directors investigated bankruptcy as one possible way forward and that at least one director’s compensation was tied to company success does do not meet the scienter requirement and does not make positive statements about corporate flexibility false, a federal judge in New York said March 31 in dismissing a third amended complaint without leave to amend.
March 30, 2023
Plaintiffs Reiterate Need For Receiver Overseeing Whittaker Clark Assets

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Plaintiffs awarded in excess of $29 million in an asbestos-talc case told a South Carolina judge that Whittaker Clark & Daniels Inc.’s (WCD) motion seeking reconsideration of the court’s appointment of a receiver over it ignores state law and legal precedent, as well as the reality that the more than 800 lawsuits it faces outstrip its dwindling assets.
March 24, 2023
Parties To Libby, Mont., Asbestos Case Call Government Testimony Critical

MISSOULA, Mont. — Agents of the United States are the only ones capable of answering questions critical to a False Claims Act (FCA) case involving asbestos-related Medicare claims created under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), parties to the suit told a federal judge in Montana, urging him to affirm a decision that the government must produce witnesses and to ignore a motion for reconsideration.
March 23, 2023
J&J Debtor Appealing Dismissal Of Bankruptcy Case To Supreme Court

PHILADELPHIA — Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC said March 22 that it will petition the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ dismissal of its Chapter 11 case after the circuit court that day denied the debtor’s request for rehearing or rehearing en banc.
March 23, 2023
Georgia-Pacific Debtor Says LTL Management Ruling Does Not Support Claimants

RICHMOND, Va. — Nothing in the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ recent bad faith dismissal of the Chapter 11 case of Johnson & Johnson spinoff LTL Management LLC supports asbestos claimants’ arguments in their Fourth Circuit appeal of injunctions protecting Georgia-Pacific in the bankruptcy of its spinoff, Bestwall LLC, according to Bestwall’s response to the claimants’ notice of supplemental authority (Bestwall LLC, et al. v. Official Committee of Asbestos Claimants, et al., Nos. 22-1127, 22-1135, 4th Cir.).
March 22, 2023
Ingersoll-Rand, Trane Debtors Oppose Lifting Stay For Asbestos Suit In Pa. Court

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — With no “new developments or unique circumstances” since Ingersoll-Rand affiliates Aldrich Pump LLC and Murray Boiler LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, lifting the automatic stay to allow Murray to be added as a defendant in a state court asbestos suit is not called for, the debtors contend in an opposition brief filed in North Carolina federal bankruptcy court.
March 22, 2023
Delaware Judge Agrees To Appoint Receiver Over Enstar’s Dissolved Reinz Entity

WILMINGTON, Del. — A judge in the Delaware Chancery Court found that although a woman with asbestos claims is not a creditor of a dissolved company, she has standing to seek appointment of a receiver because she demonstrated that insurance assets likely remained when the company dissolved.
March 21, 2023
Stay Altered So Former Officers Of Debtor Nash Can Get Defense Costs Paid

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Three former officers and directors of debtor The Nash Engineering Co. were granted relief from the automatic stay by a Connecticut federal bankruptcy judge so one of the company’s insurers can pay their defense costs for claims leveled by the Chapter 7 trustee that they breached their fiduciary duties when negotiating settlements with asbestos insurers.
March 21, 2023
Boiler Company Must Face Punitive Damages In New York Asbestos Case

NEW YORK — An expert’s single study involving asbestos, untethered from the boilers in question and in the face of corporate representative testimony that the company never placed warnings on its products, does not preclude punitive damages, a New York justice said.
March 17, 2023
Justice: Asbestos-Talc Award Of $15M In Drywall Case Survives Post-Trial Motions

NEW YORK — The historical and real-life evidence relied on by experts at an asbestos trial differs from “glove box” testing rejected in a recent appellate case and sufficiently established both exposure and causation, a New York justice said in denying both a new trial and judgment notwithstanding the verdict.
March 17, 2023
Claimants: Another Look At Dismissal Needed For Bestwall Chapter 11 Case

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Even though a judge in North Carolina federal bankruptcy court rejected a dismissal bid for the Chapter 11 case of Georgia-Pacific spinoff Bestwall LLC nearly four years ago, he still has “both the authority and the obligation to re-examine the question of good faith and financial distress” in filing the case after a corporate restructuring, asbestos claimants say in a reply in support of their motion to dismiss.
March 17, 2023
As Receiver Seeks Information, Asbestos-Talc Defendant Wants Appointment Nixed

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The receiver appointed by a South Carolina court to oversee the assets of Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Inc. (WCD) asked the court to clarify its ruling and order the company and its counsel to comply, while on March 16 the company asked for reconsideration of the ruling.
March 16, 2023
Asbestos-Talc Defendants Face Punitive Damages After $20M Verdict

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A federal judge set briefing on the issue of punitive damages after a Connecticut jury found against both asbestos defendants and awarded $20 million in compensatory damages to a woman.
March 15, 2023
Washington Court Rejects Causation, Exposure Challenges To $16.67M Asbestos Verdict

SEATTLE — Evidence that a company supplied more than 140 asbestos-containing dryer felts to a facility during the time of a man’s alleged exposure and evidence regarding the work done at the facility established exposure and causation, and any error in a curative instruction was harmless, a Washington appeals court said in affirming a $16.67 million plaintiff verdict.
March 15, 2023
Bestwall Asbestos Claimants Get Discovery Sanctions Appeal Put On Hold

RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has placed in abeyance an appeal by asbestos personal injury claimants in the Chapter 11 case of Georgia-Pacific spinoff Bestwall LLC of the dismissal of their challenges to a bankruptcy judge’s contempt finding against them for not providing complete information to the debtor in a discovery questionnaire, pending a decision in two similar appeals that were consolidated.
March 14, 2023
Oregon Jury Awards $18.5M In Asbestos Case Against Talc Supplier

PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon jury awarded $18.5 million on negligence and product liability claims stemming from a woman’s death from mesothelioma after exposure to Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Inc. (WCD) talc.
March 13, 2023
Claimants Oppose Rehearing For 3rd Circuit’s Dismissal Of J&J Debtor’s Bankruptcy

PHILADELPHIA — Rehearing of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that the Chapter 11 case of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC should be dismissed is not needed because the panel correctly held that the debtor was not in financial distress, which is “an ordinary requirement for bankruptcy,” the committee of asbestos claimants in the case tells the court in a brief in opposition to the debtor’s rehearing bid.