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Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy

  • April 02, 2020

    Debtor, Administrator Oppose Asbestos Committee’s Bid To Hire 3 Law Firms

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. — New Chapter 11 debtor DBMP LLC took issue March 31 with the Official Committee of Asbestos Personal Injury Claimants’ requests to appoint not one, not two but three law firms to represent the committee in the case, saying in an objection to both requests in North Carolina federal bankruptcy court that duplication of work will waste the estate’s resources (In re DBMP LLC, No. 3:20-bk-30080, W.D. N.C. Bkcy.).

  • March 30, 2020

    U.S. Trustee Opposes Counsel Hiring, Proposes FCR Candidates For Paddock

    WILMINGTON, Del. — The Delaware federal bankruptcy court should hold off on appointing special litigation and corporate counsel for the asbestos claimants’ committee in the new Chapter 11 case of Owens-Illinois’ spinoff Paddock Enterprises LLC until it decides whether to appoint an examiner to investigate the companies’ prebankruptcy restructuring, the U.S. trustee, who is pushing for the examiner, says in a March 27 limited objection (In re Paddock Enterprises, LLC, No. 20-10028, D. Del. Bkcy.).

  • March 25, 2020

    Coronavirus Pandemic Delays Confirmation Hearing For Kaiser Gypsum Debtors

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The confirmation hearing for Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc.’s plan of reorganization has been pushed back to July due to the worldwide new coronavirus pandemic, according to a notice filed by the debtor March 24 in North Carolina federal bankruptcy court (In re Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc., et al., No. 16-31602, W.D. N.C. Bkcy.).

  • March 25, 2020

    Bestwall, Georgia-Pacific, Asbestos Claimants Get OK To Extend Mediation

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Mediation among Chapter 11 debtor Bestwall LLC, affiliate Georgia-Pacific LLC and asbestos claimants’ representatives to resolve disputes over a plan for the debtor to reorganize was extended March 24 by a North Carolina federal bankruptcy judge at the request of all parties (In re Bestwall LLC, No. 17-31795, W.D. N.C. Bkcy.).

  • March 23, 2020

    Johnson & Johnson Looks To File Plan In Talc Suppliers’ Bankruptcy

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Health care products conglomerate Johnson & Johnson on March 20 sought to take over the Chapter 11 case of its longtime talc suppliers, saying in two filings in Delaware federal bankruptcy court that the debtors should not be given more time to propose a reorganization plan and the automatic stay should be lifted to allow Johnson & Johnson to assume defense to thousands of talc asbestos personal injury claims (In re:  Imerys Talc America, Inc., et al., No. 19-10289, D. Del. Bkcy.).

  • March 20, 2020

    Kaiser Gypsum Insurers To Pay $50.6 Million For Superfund Site Cleanup Costs

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Ten settlements with insurers of Chapter 11 debtor Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. that will bring more than $50 million to an escrow fund to pay for the cleanup of two polluted sites in Washington state received approval March 12, according to a North Carolina federal bankruptcy court docket entry (In re Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc., et al., No. 16-31602, W.D. N.C. Bkcy.).

  • March 19, 2020

    Bestwall Opposes Appeals By Asbestos Claimants Of Injunction Orders

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Asbestos claimants’ “charged rhetoric and misstatements” about the 2017 corporate restructuring of Georgia-Pacific that resulted in the bankruptcy of affiliate Bestwall LLC have no place in appeals of orders enjoining asbestos claims against the debtor, Georgia-Pacific and others, the debtor says in a Feb. 28 response in North Carolina federal court (Official Committee of Asbestos Claimants of Bestwall LLC v. Bestwall LLC, No. 3:20-cv-103, Sander L. Esserman v. Bestwall LLC, No. 3:20-cv-105,W.D. N.C.).

  • March 19, 2020

    On Remand From Delaware High Court, Judge Affirms $40.62M Asbestos Verdict

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Evidence of the suffering mesothelioma victims undergo and the pain a man’s family felt watching the process supports a jury’s $40,625,000 award in an asbestos case against Ford Motor Co., a Delaware judge held March 3 (In re: Asbestos Litigation, Paula Knecht, et al. v. Ford Motor Co., No N14C-08-164 ASB, Del. Super., New Castle Co., 2020 Del. Super. LEXIS 132).

  • March 17, 2020

    Asbestos Claimant’s Firm Seeks Rehearing In Effort To Hold Manville Broker Liable

    NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel could not have possibly determined whether published notice of Johns-Manville Corp.’s bankruptcy afforded adequate due process to future asbestos claimants of the company’s insurance broker because a copy of the actual notice was never entered into evidence, a claimant’s law firm says in a March 5 petition for rehearing (In re Johns-Manville Corp., Marsh USA, Inc. v. The Bogdan Law Firm, No. 18-2531, 2nd Cir.).

  • March 13, 2020

    Montana High Court:  BNSF Must Face Asbestos-Tainted Vermiculite Transport Claims

    HELENA, Mont. — Plaintiffs’ claims against a railway that hauled asbestos-tainted vermiculite from Libby, Mont., are not preempted, and the company can be strictly liable for abnormally dangerous activity performed outside its statutory public duty and may not refute causation by assigning blame to W.R. Grace & Co., the Montana Supreme Court held March 11 (BNSF Railway Co. v. The Asbestos Claims Court of the State of Montana, et al., Nos. OP 19-0085, Mont. Sup.).

  • March 13, 2020

    Asbestos Claimant Reps Slam Trustee’s Request For Examiner In Paddock Case

    WILMINGTON, Del. — The Official Committee of Asbestos Personal Injury Claimants and the proposed future claimants’ representative (FCR) in the new Chapter 11 case of Owens-Illinois affiliate Paddock Enterprises LLC joined with the debtor March 11 in Delaware federal bankruptcy court filings in objecting to a request by the U.S. trustee to appoint an examiner, with the committee calling the trustee’s reasoning “absurd” (In re Paddock Enterprises, LLC, No. 20-10028, D. Del. Bkcy.).

  • March 11, 2020

    Debtor Opposes, United States Backs Probe Of Owens-Illinois’ Corporate Restructuring

    WILMINGTON, Del. — An examiner is not needed to investigate the corporate restructuring of Owens-Illinois and resulting Chapter 11 filing of an affiliate to deal with all asbestos and environmental liabilities because the debtor’s asbestos disease creditors are already looking into the transactions, making another probe a waste of time and money, the debtor argues in a March 9 objection in Delaware federal bankruptcy court (In re Paddock Enterprises, LLC, No. 20-10028, D. Del. Bkcy.).

  • March 10, 2020

    New York Jury Clears 2 In World Trade Center Asbestos Case

    NEW YORK — A New York jury hearing a case of alleged exposure to asbestos during the construction of the World Trade Center returned a verdict for the two remaining defendants on March 6, sources told Mealey Publications (Sharon Epstein, et al. v. Atlas Turner Inc., et al., No. 190065/2017, N.Y. Sup., New York Co.).

  • March 10, 2020

    Kaiser Gypsum Debtors, Asbestos Reps Seek To Exclude Expert Testimony

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. — An expert for insurers should not be allowed to testify at the confirmation hearing for Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. debtors’ plan of reorganization because the insurers don’t have standing to assert objections to the plan and the expert’s opinions are irrelevant, the debtors argue in a Feb. 27 motion in limine in North Carolina federal bankruptcy court (In re Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc., et al., No. 16-31602, W.D. N.C. Bkcy.).

  • March 09, 2020

    FDA Issues Final Report On Asbestos In Cosmetic Talc Products

    SILVER SPRING, Md. — Testing showed that nine out of 52 talc-containing cosmetics contained asbestos, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced in a March 9 press release summarizing a yearlong investigation.

  • March 09, 2020

    Oregon Jury Awards $6.2M In Asbestos Case Against Kaiser Gypsum

    PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon jury on Feb. 7 awarded nearly $6.22 million in an asbestos case against Kaiser Gypsum Co. (Donald E. Miller, et al. v. Kaiser Gypsum Company Inc., No. 19CV08509, Ore. Cir., Multnomah Co.).

  • March 09, 2020

    Study Links Airborne Asbestos From J&J Talc To Ovarian Cancer

    PHILADELPHIA — Johnson & Johnson’s cosmetic talcum powder products contain asbestos, and airborne exposure can lead to ovarian cancer, according to an abstract of a study of 10 mesothelioma sufferers performed by well-known plaintiffs’ experts.

  • March 09, 2020

    U.S. Trustee Says FCR Hiring, Other Actions Should Await Restructuring Probe

    WILMINGTON, Del. — The U.S. trustee filed six objections March 4-6 in Delaware federal bankruptcy court in the new Chapter 11 case of Owens-Illinois’ spinoff Paddock Enterprises LLC, opposing debtor proposals ranging from the appointment of a future claimants’ representative (FCR) to the hiring of bankruptcy counsel for the debtor (In re Paddock Enterprises, LLC, No. 20-10028, D. Del. Bkcy.).

  • March 06, 2020

    Judge Dismisses Insurer’s Asbestos Coverage Dispute Against Individuals, Trustee

    NEW ORLEANS — In two orders issued March 4, a federal judge in Louisiana granted individual defendants and a trustee’s motions to dismiss an insurer’s lawsuit seeking both a declaration that it has no further duty to pay asbestos-related claims arising out of its insured’s acts or omissions and reimbursement from the trust for any fees and costs incurred in connection with the underlying claims (Liberty Mutual Insurance Company v. Daniel Joseph Boullion, et al., No. 19-9845, E.D. La., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 37261).

  • March 03, 2020

    Mediation Session Extended For Insurer Row With Imerys, Claimants

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Mediation to possibly settle disputes among Chapter 11 debtor Imerys Talc America Inc., one of its insurers and tort claimants’ representatives was extended by a day Feb. 26 under an amended mediation order filed by a Delaware federal bankruptcy judge (In re:  Imerys Talc America, Inc., et al., No. 19-10289, D. Del. Bkcy.).