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Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy

January 23, 2024
Magistrate Judge Won’t Sanction Talc Defendant Over ‘Litigation Tactics’

NEW YORK — A dispute over an asbestos-talc defendant’s attempts to discover the identities of individuals in expert Jacqueline Moline’s study comes down to disagreement about litigation tactics and does not rise to the level required for sanctions, a magistrate judge in New York said Jan. 22 in denying a motion.
January 22, 2024
Talc Debtor Cyprus Mines Seeks Extension Of Bankruptcy Injunction

WILMINGTON, Del. — Extension of an injunction barring asbestos talc claims against an affiliate of Chapter 11 debtor Cyprus Mines Corp. is “critical” to the debtor’s ability to successfully reorganize and contribute to an asbestos trust, the debtor says in a brief in Delaware federal bankruptcy court in support of keeping the injunction in place for eight more months.
January 22, 2024
Florida Appeals Court Leaves Asbestos Product ID Ruling Undisturbed

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Florida appellate court denied an asbestos friction product defendant’s motion for rehearing and certification of a conflict, with one of the judges saying in a concurrence that the criminal rule on which the appellee relied had been rejected and was not applicable to an opinion on the standard for product identification.
January 19, 2024
Asbestos Claimants Seek 4th Circuit Review Of Denial Of Chapter 11 Dismissal Bids

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Official Committee of Asbestos Personal Injury Claimants in the joint Chapter 11 case of Ingersoll-Rand and Trane spinoffs Aldrich Pump LLC and Murray Boiler LLC has filed a request in North Carolina bankruptcy court for permission to appeal the court’s decision not to dismiss the cases directly to the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
January 18, 2024
Man Says Asbestos-Talc Case Doesn’t Require Inquiry Into His Company

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — No grounds exist for subpoenaing a man’s business records in a case alleging exposure to asbestos in talc where there is no allegation or evidence of workplace exposures and where other courts previously rejected a similar request by another defendant, the man tells a Connecticut judge in a reply seeking a protective order and quashing of the subpoena.
January 18, 2024
Montana Asbestos Plaintiffs: Railroad’s Late Subpoena Of CARD Doctor Is Personal

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Post-discovery attempts at deposing the retired medical director of a facility where a plaintiff last sought care five years ago and which has no connection to current mesothelioma diagnoses or treatments appear to be personal rather than legitimate efforts at producing evidence, two plaintiffs tell a federal judge in Montana in a Jan. 17 motion to quash a railroad’s subpoena.
January 16, 2024
J&J, Asbestos-Talc Fraud Plaintiffs Reach Settlement In Principle

TRENTON, N.J. — A class action claiming that Johnson & Johnson defrauded tort litigants by withholding information about the presence of asbestos in talc appears to have resolved after a federal judge in New Jersey on Jan. 12 entered a text order on the docket administratively terminating pending motions to dismiss or strike the class clams after being told that the parties reached a settlement in principle.
January 12, 2024
Punitive Damages Claim Survives Summary Judgment In California Asbestos Case

LOS ANGELES — A punitive damage claim in an asbestos-exposure case against Hajoca Corp. will proceed to trial after a judge in California denied summary judgment after crediting allegations that the defendant took no steps to ensure the safety of its products despite lawsuits reaching back to the 1970s that put it on notice about potential hazards.
January 11, 2024
Confirmation Hearing Set For Reorganization Plan Of Hess Unit HONX

HOUSTON — A Texas federal bankruptcy court has scheduled a confirmation hearing for the Chapter 11 reorganization plan of Hess Corp. affiliate HONX Inc., which proposes a $150 million trust to pay asbestos personal injury claims.
January 09, 2024
Asbestos Group Seeks Appeal Over Denial Of Venue Change For Chapter 11 Talc Debtor

HOUSTON — A Texas federal court should hear an interlocutory appeal by the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the Chapter 11 case of talc mining company Barretts Minerals Inc. (BMI) of a bankruptcy court’s refusal to transfer the case to Montana because the decision “raises a clear, discrete and important question of law based on undisputed facts,” the committee says in a motion for leave to appeal.
January 09, 2024
Illinois Jury Awards $30M In Household Asbestos Exposure Case

CHICAGO — An Illinois jury awarded $30 million to a widow whose husband experienced exposure to talc used at a tire manufacturing facility and who died of mesothelioma five weeks after his diagnosis, sources told Mealey Publications.
January 09, 2024
Illinois Court Reverses Live Witness Testimony Requirement After Asbestos Verdict

CHICAGO — A trial court improperly required in-person testimony from a witness whose testimony regarding work conditions at a facility appears crucial to the case when a remote appearance could just as easily have been accommodated, an Illinois appeals court said in partly reversing and granting a new trial.
January 04, 2024
Barretts Minerals Agrees To Mediation For Chapter 11 Reorganization Plan

HOUSTON — Chapter 11 debtor talc mining company Barretts Minerals Inc. (BMI) will negotiate with asbestos claimants “to comprehensively resolve BMI’s talc liabilities” through a plan of reorganization that creates a trust to pay their claims, according to a joint stipulation filed Jan. 3 in Texas federal bankruptcy court.
January 03, 2024
United States Backs Kaiser Gypsum Asbestos Insurer In Supreme Court Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Because the policies of the primary insurer of Chapter 11 asbestos debtors Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. are property of the bankruptcy estates and the insurer is a creditor of the debtors, the insurer has standing as a “party in interest” to challenge the debtors’ reorganization plan, the United States tells the U.S. Supreme Court in an amicus curiae brief.
December 22, 2023
Asbestos Plaintiffs Urge Court To Reject Pipe Maker’s Disparaging Of Jury Foreman

LOS ANGELES — Two companies hit with an $8.8 million asbestos verdict demonize the jury foreperson in a motion for reconsideration after the judge found that there was jury misconduct but that the conduct was not prejudicial, asbestos plaintiffs tell a Los Angeles judge in an opposition.
December 19, 2023
Asbestos Firms, Insolvent Insurer Group Drop Appeal Over Settlement

NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge dismissed an appeal by two asbestos law firms of a federal bankruptcy court’s approval of a $1 million settlement between the Chapter 7 trustee for a bankrupt insulation supplier and the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA) after the parties said in a joint motion to dismiss that they have “resolved their differences.”
December 19, 2023
Judge: Jury’s $107M Award In Asbestos Case Unsupported, Tainted By Misconduct

LOS ANGELES — A California judge granted post-trial motions, eliminating a $107 million asbestos verdict after finding jury and attorney misconduct in the case and that the evidence of causation against all of the three defendants fell short.
December 18, 2023
LTL Management To 3rd Circuit: Dismissal Of 2nd Bankruptcy Should Be Reversed

PHILADELPHIA — Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC proved that its financial resources will probably be wiped out by asbestos lawsuits, so its second Chapter 11 case is valid, the debtor says in its appeal to the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of a bankruptcy judge’s dismissal of its second attempt to reorganize through bankruptcy.
December 18, 2023
Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Wants TRO Extended Due To Mediation

TRENTON, N.J. — A temporary restraining order (TRO) halting asbestos talc liability litigation in 15 lawsuits against nondebtor affiliates of debtor Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Inc. (WCD) should be extended while mediation is conducted to negotiate a global resolution of the Chapter 11 case, WCD says in a request in New Jersey federal bankruptcy court.
December 15, 2023
Asbestos-Talc Company: With Little Burden, Crucial Third-Party Subpoena Allowable

RICHMOND, Va. — Producing a single document listing the 75 participants in a study on asbestos-talc causation imposes essentially no burden on a third-party medical provider, but the resulting information could provide “critical” evidence rebutting a man’s case, a talc company tells the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an opening brief.
December 13, 2023
In Tentative Ruling, Judge Denies Sanctions After Asbestos Defense Verdict

LOS ANGELES — In the wake of a jury finding Foster Wheeler Energy Corp. and Foster Wheeler LLC not negligent in a maritime asbestos case, a federal judge in California issued a tentative ruling on Dec. 12 preliminarily finding no sanctionable conduct on the part of a trio of attorneys, one accused of stalling in seeking a trial continuance, one accused of misrepresenting whether a client countered a settlement offer and one accused of causing confusion over whether an expert could testify live.
December 13, 2023
Federal Jury In Massachusetts Finds For Asbestos Boiler Company

BOSTON — A federal judge in Massachusetts entered judgment in an asbestos case after the jury found that the plaintiff had not shown that the defendant breached the implied warranty of merchantability by selling boilers without adequate warnings or that it was negligent for not providing such warnings in a case in which the judge found that maritime law permitted loss of consortium, punitive and survival damages.
December 07, 2023
COMMENTARY: Fire & Rain: 2023 Key Decisions & Developments Impacting The Wide World Of Insurance

By Scott M. Seaman, Pedro E. Hernandez and Lisa M. Roccanova
December 08, 2023
Kaiser Gypsum Asbestos Insurer Seeks Supreme Court Reversal Of Ruling On Standing

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ finding that the primary insurer of Chapter 11 asbestos debtors Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. does not have standing to challenge the debtors’ reorganization plan because the plan is insurance neutral is wrong and should be reversed, the insurer tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a Dec. 7 brief on the merits.
December 07, 2023
J&J: Former Attorney Improperly Working With Talc MDL Lawyer, Firm

TRENTON, N.J. — One of the attorneys responsible for crafting talc-related liability strategies for defendant companies flipped and formed an alliance with counsel for plaintiffs, Johnson & Johnson and spinoff LTL Management LLC say in a motion filed in federal multidistrict litigation in New Jersey seeking disqualification of a plaintiffs’ attorney and his firm or their removal from the steering committee.