OAKLAND, Calif. — Plaintiffs filed a pair of asbestos-talc tort actions naming Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and various retailers June 16 in a California court after the judge overseeing the LTL Management LLC bankruptcy granted a limited lift of a preliminary injunction and stay enjoining asbestos actions against the debtor, J&J and other affiliates.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As part of the process to estimate the liability of CertainTeed LLC affiliate and Chapter 11 debtor DBMP LLC for mesothelioma claims, a North Carolina federal bankruptcy judge on June 7 set a deadline for filing proofs of claim and directed claimants to complete a personal injury questionnaire (PIQ).
NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana jury on May 23 awarded a former pipe fitter $36.7 million for mesothelioma, found negligence on the part of 20 defendants in addition to the defendant at trial and returned a defense verdict for a second trial defendant.
WILMINGTON, Del. — Talc mining company and Chapter 11 debtor Cyprus Mines Corp. filed an adversary action and motion June 7 in Delaware federal bankruptcy court seeking to enjoin all asbestos cases against the debtor and its parent company, saying the relief is paramount to a global resolution of asbestos claims in the Cyprus bankruptcy and in the Chapter 11 case of affiliate talc supplier Imerys Talc America Inc.
WILMINGTON, Del. — Owens-Illinois Inc. spinoff and Chapter 11 asbestos debtor Paddock Enterprises LLC told a Delaware federal court on June 15 that with no appeals or objections filed over the recent confirmation of the debtor’s plan of reorganization, the court should affirm the bankruptcy court’s findings and order.
PITTSBURGH — A Pennsylvania federal bankruptcy judge should grant an asbestos trust judgment on the remainder of mismanagement claims leveled by former trust affiliate Honeywell International Inc., just as he awarded the trust judgment as a matter of law on two claims and partial judgment on a third claim after a trial in Honeywell’s adversary case, the trust says in a June 14 post-trial brief.
ALBANY, N.Y. — A New York state bill expanding who can recover wrongful death damages and the types of damages available and extending the statute of limitations for such suits to 3-1/2 years from two years awaits the governor’s signature after passage by the Senate and Assembly June 2.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A Connecticut federal judge in June 2 docket entries granted requests by the Chapter 7 trustee and two insurers to stay a bankruptcy court’s dismissal of The Nash Engineering Co.’s asbestos bankruptcy case pending their appeals of the dismissal decision.
BATON ROUGE, La. — A Louisiana federal magistrate judge on June 13 denied a motion to compel responses to discovery filed by the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA), the statutory obliger for an insolvent insurer in an asbestos exposure suit filed against the insurer, finding that plaintiffs lack the information requested and that LIGA’s settlement-related request is “premature.”
HOUSTON — The unsecured creditors’ committee in the Chapter 11 case of Hess Corp. subsidiary HONX Inc. asked a Texas federal court on June 2 to allow it to intervene in two appeals of bankruptcy court adversary proceeding orders filed by hundreds of asbestos disease sufferers whose claims in the tort system are prohibited by the automatic stay pursuant to one of the orders.
Noting that a court recently approved its $157.2 million settlement with the state of Montana regarding alleged asbestos exposures, National Indemnity Co. (NICO) on June 6 filed two suits in Nebraska federal court seeking declaratory judgment against reinsurers it said it had just billed for their portions of the loss; on June 7, NICO moved in Pennsylvania federal court to dismiss or transfer a declaratory judgment suit that one of the reinsurers had filed there over the same issue.
MISSOULA, Mont. — Briefing continued May 20 on whether former Sen. Max Baucus was timely produced as a witness and can testify about his role in and the purpose behind a Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provision at a forthcoming trial over a railway’s action claiming that a medical screener in Libby, Mont., fraudulently submitted claims under the program.
LOS ANGELES — A California jury on May 20 awarded $43.79 million in a take-home asbestos exposure case and found the door manufacturing defendant 50% liable for the woman’s mesothelioma.
LOS ANGELES — At the conclusion of a bifurcated trial in California, a jury on May 23 returned a defense verdict for an industrial oven manufacturer, finding that asbestos exposure is not a contributing factor to colon cancer.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal law enacted by Congress in 2017 increasing the amount of quarterly bankruptcy fees paid by debtors in all but two states to maintain the U.S. trustee program violates the uniformity requirement of the U.S. Constitution’s bankruptcy clause, the U.S. Supreme Court held June 6 in a unanimous decision.
HOUSTON — A hearing is scheduled in Texas federal bankruptcy court for a request by Hess Corp. subsidiary and Chapter 11 debtor HONX Inc. for an order authorizing the estimation of the debtor’s aggregate liability for current and future asbestos personal injury claims, according to a June 1 court notice.
BALTIMORE — A reasonable juror could conclude that sealed talc bottles obtained from various locations through the internet are original products, and the plaintiff need not have established a chain of custody dating to their creation, the Maryland Court of Appeals said May 31 in affirming a lower court’s reversal of exclusion of the bottles as evidence.
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — More than 1,600 asbestos personal injury claims are headed back to the tort system after a Connecticut federal bankruptcy judge on May 25 dismissed the Chapter 7 case of The Nash Engineering Co., saying the Chapter 7 trustee has no authority under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code to liquidate or estimate the asbestos claims.
WILMINGTON, Del. — Mediation with asbestos insurers on a global resolution to the Chapter 11 cases of talc mining company Cyprus Mines Corp. and affiliate talc supplier Imerys Talc America Inc. will continue through at least June 30, according to a stipulation by the parties approved May 23 by a Delaware federal bankruptcy judge.
PITTSBURGH — Chapter 11 debtor ON Marine Services Co. LLC and asbestos claimants have reached an agreement in principle on the amount of money insurers should pay to fund a post-reorganization asbestos trust established by the debtor, according to minutes from a May 5 conference on the status of bankruptcy court-approved mediation.