Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy
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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.
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February 15, 2024
Barretts Minerals Seeks More Time To File Reorganization Plan
HOUSTON — With mediation on a plan of reorganization and “robust marketing” of assets ongoing, Chapter 11 debtor talc mining company Barretts Minerals Inc. (BMI) seeks 90 more days to file a plan and solicit votes on it from asbestos personal injury claimants in Texas federal bankruptcy court.
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February 14, 2024
Claims Against LIGA Tossed In Asbestos Coverage Suit Involving Insolvent Insurer
NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge granted summary judgment to the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA) and dismissed an asbestos liability suit against it, finding that the claims for asbestos-related lung cancer against LIGA, as the statutory obligor for a now-insolvent insurer, are not covered claims.
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February 13, 2024
Hospital Says Burden, Third-Party Status Warranted Quashing Asbestos Subpoena
RICHMOND, Va. — Third-party subpoenas fall under a higher standard that an asbestos defendant cannot meet given the evidence’s marginal relationship to the case, a hospital told the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 12, also arguing that the burden that disclosing anonymous study participants would impose supports a trial court’s decision to quash the subpoena.
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February 08, 2024
Dismissal Granted In Asbestos Liability Case Involving Guaranty Association
NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge on Feb. 7 granted a motion for voluntary dismissal of a man’s claim that he was exposed to asbestos through contact with a specific worker at a shipyard but keeping other claims regarding exposure against the shipyard, related parties, multiple insurers and the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA).
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February 07, 2024
4th Circuit Defers Ruling On Sanctions In Asbestos Case Referral Appeal
RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals will defer any ruling on a separate motion for sanctions pending review of the merits of an appeal involving whether a trial court properly imposed sanctions for conduct in an asbestos bankruptcy trust referral fee dispute.
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February 07, 2024
5th Circuit Grants Summary Reversal Of Longshore Asbestos Case
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a joint motion for summary reversal in a Longshore Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA) preemption “twilight zone” asbestos case.
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February 05, 2024
Rail Company Defends Need For Testimony Of Former Libby, Mont., Clinic Director
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A railway tells a federal judge in Montana in opposition to a motion to quash the railway’s subpoena that trial preservation testimony is the best way to secure potentially admissible evidence from an asbestos clinic’s former medical director and that his status as a former employee doesn’t matter since he can testify about how a clinic patient described her exposures to asbestos.
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February 02, 2024
1st Circuit Agrees To Decide, Expedites Widow’s Asbestos Damages Case
BOSTON — The First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a motion to dismiss an appeal over the types of damages available in an asbestos maritime case and, in addressing a motion to expedite, gave the appellee 30 days to file a response to a widow’s pre-filed opening brief.
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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.