Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy

  • March 26, 2024

    4th Circuit Says No Rehearing In Asbestos Coverage Row With Guaranty Association

    RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied an insurer’s request for rehearing and rehearing en banc of the court’s ruling dismissing the insurer’s appeal of a district court’s order remanding to state court a receiver’s asbestos coverage suit against insurers and the South Carolina Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association.

  • March 21, 2024

    Plaintiff, W.R. Grace Trust Debate Proper Place For Tort Claim

    MISSOULA, Mo. — W.R. Grace & Co.’s asbestos trust and a former nonbinding arbitration claimant briefed a Montana federal court on whether resolution of his tort claim simply seeks a declaration of the disease from which he suffers or would require interpretation of the bankruptcy trust’s distribution procedures and therefore falls under the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy court.

  • March 20, 2024

    Standing To Object To Chapter 11 Plan Argued In Supreme Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The question of who has standing to object to a Chapter 11 plan of reorganization was debated March 19 in the U.S. Supreme Court, with some justices questioning why asbestos debtors Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. are opposed to having their main liability insurer speak out against their bankruptcy plan.

  • March 19, 2024

    Talc Debtors Imerys, Cyprus Set Approval Process For Disclosure Statements

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Chapter 11 asbestos talc debtors Imerys Talc America Inc. and Cyprus Mines Corp. have extended the time to file objections to the disclosure statements for their plans of reorganization and announced the date for the Delaware federal bankruptcy court to hold a hearing on their motion to approve the statements.

  • March 18, 2024

    Supplier Seeks Judgment In Asbestos Liability Case Involving Insolvent Insurer

    NEW ORLEANS — A purported supplier of asbestos-containing products moved for partial summary judgment and filed a brief in support in an asbestos liability suit against it, the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA) and multiple other parties over a man’s exposure to asbestos resulting from his work at a shipyard, asserting that partial summary judgment should be granted because the purported supplier was not a “professional vendor.”

  • March 12, 2024

    Talc Study Evidence Crucial To Defending Case, Defendant Says

    RICHMOND, Va. — A talc defendant defended its need for a list of mesothelioma study participants from a third party, saying in a brief to the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the evidence is the only way it has of refuting asbestos-talc claims at trial and that the burden of showing otherwise lies with the party seeking to quash the subpoena.

  • March 11, 2024

    Justice Stays, Severs Claims Against Insolvent Insurer In Asbestos Coverage Row

    CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — A New York state court justice granted a stay and severed proceedings as to the insured of an insolvent insurer in an estate’s asbestos liability case filed against numerous parties involved in the manufacture and distribution of asbestos-containing products, finding that the claims against the other defendants may go forward without causing undue burden to the estate of the decedent.

  • March 11, 2024

    Asbestos Talc Debtors Seek To Delay Adversary Ruling Due To Ongoing Mediation

    TRENTON, N.J. — Defunct talc supplier Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Inc. (WCD) and affiliated debtors filed a stipulation on March 10 seeking entry of an agreed order by a New Jersey federal bankruptcy judge to have the judge hold off on issuing a decision on the debtors’ summary judgment motion in an adversary action for two months to allow mediation on a global resolution of all issues to continue.

  • March 08, 2024

    Mistrial Declared After Florida Jury Hangs In Ovarian Cancer Talc Trial

    MIAMI — A Florida asbestos trial ended in a hung jury after the jury twice told the judge that it could not reach a decision despite a day and a half of deliberations about Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) liability for the death of an anesthesiologist from ovarian cancer.

  • March 07, 2024

    LTL Management Says Appellee Arguments Backing Chapter 11 Dismissal Fail

    PHILADELPHIA — A New Jersey federal bankruptcy court wrongly imposed an insolvency requirement in dismissing the second Chapter 11 case of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC, and the U.S. trustee, asbestos claimants and other appellees “do little to defend the lower court’s misunderstanding,” the debtor says in its appeal to the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of the dismissal of its second attempt to reorganize through bankruptcy.

  • March 07, 2024

    New York Court: Evidence Behind $23M Asbestos Verdict Meets Causation Standard

    NEW YORK — A New York appeals court found that a man’s testimony about the work he performed with valves and expert testimony detailing the levels of resulting exposure and how that impacted his risk of mesothelioma satisfied Nemeth v. Brenntag N. Am. and affirmed asbestos jury awards of $13 million in past pain and suffering and $10 million for future pain and suffering.

  • March 05, 2024

    Asbestos Claimants Appeal Denial Of Chapter 11 Dismissal Directly To 4th Circuit

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Asbestos claimants in the joint Chapter 11 case of Ingersoll-Rand and Trane spinoffs Aldrich Pump LLC and Murray Boiler LLC have appealed a North Carolina bankruptcy court’s decision not to dismiss the case directly to the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • March 01, 2024

    Talc Special Master Quashes Subpoena Seeking Moline Study Participants

    TRENTON, N.J. — Because asbestos expert Jacqueline Moline will not testify at trial, and no other expert appears to rely on her study involving asbestos-talc exposure and mesothelioma, Johnson & Johnson’s subpoena seeking the names of individuals in the study is irrelevant, a special master in the federal talc multidistrict litigation said Feb. 29 in granting a motion to quash.

  • February 29, 2024

    In High Court, Kaiser Insurer Says It Has Standing ‘Twice Over’ In Chapter 11 Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The primary insurer of Chapter 11 asbestos debtors Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. is obligated to pay most of the debtors’ debts and is a creditor, giving it standing to object to the debtors’ reorganization plan, the insurer tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a reply brief on the merits.

  • February 29, 2024

    South Carolina Top Court Rejects Cumulative Exposure Argument, Affirms Verdict

    CHARLESTON, S.C. — Expert testimony and other evidence that led to an asbestos verdict did not constitute cumulative exposure theory, and lower court rulings did not run afoul of the state’s causation standard, the South Carolina Supreme Court said Feb. 28.

  • February 28, 2024

    Judge: Former Libby, Mont., Asbestos Clinic Director Must Sit For Deposition

    GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A federal judge in Montana overseeing an asbestos action against a railway denied two motions to quash a subpoena issued to the former director of a medical clinic in Libby, Mont., giving the parties two hours to depose the witness and circumscribing what may be asked at the deposition.

  • February 27, 2024

    4th Circuit Tosses Appeal Of Asbestos Coverage Row With S.C. Guaranty Association

    RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 26 dismissed an insurer’s appeal of a district court’s order remanding to state court a receiver’s asbestos coverage suit against insurers and the South Carolina Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association, finding that the court does not have jurisdiction over the remand order.

  • February 27, 2024

    New York Jury Finds For AII In Barbershop Asbestos-Talc Case

    NEW YORK — A New York jury returned a defense verdict for American International Inc. (AII) over claims that a woman suffered exposure to asbestos in talc used at the barbershop where her husband worked, sources told Mealey Publications.

  • February 23, 2024

    Bankruptcy Judge Again Denies Dismissal Of Georgia-Pacific Debtor’s Case

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The North Carolina federal bankruptcy judge in the Chapter 11 case of Georgia-Pacific spinoff Bestwall LLC issued a written decision for his denial of the two most recent motions by asbestos claimants to dismiss the case, saying most of the arguments were already decided in previous dismissal rulings and a challenge based on the debtor’s lack of financial distress fails.

  • February 22, 2024

    Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Granted More Time To File Chapter 11 Plan

    TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey federal bankruptcy judge has given defunct talc supplier Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Inc. (WCD) and affiliates more time to file a plan of reorganization in their Chapter 11 case, saying the extension “is in the best interests of the Debtors’ estates, their creditors, and other parties in interest.”

  • February 21, 2024

    Nash Chapter 7 Trustee Opposes Dismissal Of Fraudulent Transfer Action

    BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — In a Feb. 20 opposition to a motion to dismiss, the Chapter 7 trustee for asbestos debtor The Nash Engineering Co. says that he has standing to pursue his claims 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 and that the complaint contains enough facts to survive the dismissal bid.

  • February 20, 2024

    Parties In Appeal Over Asbestos Trust Expert’s Audit Finish Briefing

    NEW ORLEANS — Parties involved in a dispute between a B-reader and a company that performed an audit that eventually led to his exclusion from an asbestos trust claim submission process briefed the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on whether litigation privilege precluded the suit and whether there was any link between the audit and his exclusion that would give the trial court jurisdiction.

  • February 20, 2024

    Reorganization Plan, Asbestos Trust Of Hess Unit HONX Confirmed

    HOUSTON — The Chapter 11 plan of reorganization of Hess Corp. affiliate HONX Inc., which creates a trust with up to $187 million to resolve asbestos personal injury claims, was confirmed Feb. 16 in findings of fact and conclusions of law issued jointly by a federal judge and a federal bankruptcy judge in Texas after 99% of asbestos claimants voted to accept the plan.

  • February 16, 2024

    Talc Testing Claims Not Stayed By Barretts Minerals’ Bankruptcy, Judge Rules

    HOUSTON — Claims against two affiliates of Chapter 11 debtor Barretts Minerals Inc. (BMI) involving the testing of talc for asbestos remain viable in the tort system while all other claims are stayed by the bankruptcy case, according to a joint stipulation and an order filed in an adversary action in a Texas federal bankruptcy court.

  • February 16, 2024

    Turbine Seller, Installer Can’t Be Strictly Liable In Maryland Asbestos Case

    ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A company that “wore two hats” in both selling and then subcontracting the installation of an asbestos-containing turbine at a power station cannot be held strictly liable because the turbine never truly left its possession or control, a Maryland court said in affirming summary judgment.