Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy
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February 02, 2024
Talc Debtors Imerys, Cyprus Mines Propose Joint Trust To Resolve Asbestos Claims
WILMINGTON, Del. — The reorganizations of Chapter 11 debtors Imerys Talc America Inc. and Cyprus Mines Corp. will result in a joint trust containing more than $850 million to pay asbestos personal injury claims, according to separate reorganization plans and disclosure statements the debtors filed in Delaware federal bankruptcy court.
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February 01, 2024
W.R. Grace Insurer, Former Employees Resolve Dispute Over Asbestos Payments
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A W.R. Grace & Co. insurer and former workers resolved two cases accusing the insurer of profiting from the “float” created when it delays asbestos-related payments for which it was liable.
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February 01, 2024
Paint Manufacturer Halts Operations, Citing Years Of Asbestos Litigation
IRVING, Texas — A paint manufacturing company closed its 157 retail stores, furloughed all 700 employees and announced that it is ceasing operations, due in part to its historical litigation for thousands of asbestos personal injury claims.
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February 01, 2024
J&J Entities Want ‘Unhelpful’ Asbestos-Talc Complaint Allegations Stricken
SEATTLE — A Washington state complaint running nearly 100 pages is “replete with unnecessary and inappropriate accusations” immaterial to the asbestos-talc claims at issue in the action and prevents an accurate and fair response, two Johnson & Johnson entities argue in a motion seeking to strike the complaint in part.
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January 31, 2024
Sanctions Sought In Asbestos Appeal Over Sanctions In Referral Case
RICHMOND, Va. — An appeal before the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals over the appropriateness of sanctions in a case involving asbestos bankruptcy trust referral fees spawned its own briefing on sanctions, with the appellee calling the appeal frivolous and the appellant saying meritorious issues of first impression exist over whether a federal judge can sanction a party for conduct in a state court.
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January 30, 2024
CARD Doctor Says Asbestos Subpoena Likely Seeks ‘Highly Improper’ Testimony
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — The former medical director of a Libby, Mont., clinic told a federal judge in a motion to quash a subpoena that because he never saw a woman when she went to the clinic and her diagnosis at the time differs from the mesothelioma from which she now suffers, any testimony he could offer at trial would be duplicative of evidence a railway already has.
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January 29, 2024
Kaiser Debtors, Claimant Reps Agree Asbestos Insurer Not A Party In Interest
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court should affirm the finding by three courts that the primary insurer of Chapter 11 asbestos debtors Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. does not have standing to object to the debtors’ reorganization plan because none of the insurer’s prepetition interests is affected by the plan, the debtors and asbestos claimants’ representatives tell the high court in respondent briefs on the merits.
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January 24, 2024
Amici Senators Say Supreme Court Review Needed For ‘Texas 2-Step’ Bankruptcies
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Georgia-Pacific’s use of the “Texas Two-Step” to place all asbestos liabilities with spinoff Bestwall LLC and shield itself and other affiliates from asbestos claims by bankrupting the spinoff unit “radically expands the authority of bankruptcy courts and makes a mockery of congressional intent,” three members of the Senate Judiciary Committee tell the U.S. Supreme Court in an amicus curiae brief in support of high court review.
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January 24, 2024
Chapter 7 Trustee Amends Fraudulent Transfer Action Against Debtor’s Parent
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — The Chapter 7 trustee for asbestos debtor The Nash Engineering Co. filed an amended complaint in a fraudulent transfer adversary proceeding seeking the return of more than $59 million from a holding company and its members to the debtor’s estate after the defendants moved to dismiss the action.
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January 23, 2024
Dismissal Stipulated In Asbestos Coverage Dispute Involving Guaranty Association
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Remaining defendant insurers stipulated to dismissal in a South Carolina federal court of cross-claims by or against two defendant insurers that were previously dismissed from a receiver’s asbestos coverage suit against insurers and the South Carolina Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.