Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy
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January 09, 2023
Mesothelioma Plaintiff: Totality Of Evidence Warrants Claim Against Employer
HARTFORD, Conn. — A former employer’s strategy of viewing individual facts in isolation to avoid facing the substantially certain injury that would result from its conduct falls apart when one looks at how it deceived employees and customers about asbestos, a plaintiff told a Connecticut appeals court.
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January 03, 2023
Judge Admits Testimony Of Former Montana Senator In Asbestos-Screening Fight
MISSOULA, Mont. — Former Sen. Max Baucus was timely disclosed as an expert and, to ensure that there is no prejudice to a railway prosecuting a False Claims Act (FCA) suit, it may depose him, but disclosure of a hybrid-expert witness after the close for fact witnesses requires excluding a second expert, a federal judge in Montana said.
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December 23, 2022
Jury Awards $40.8M In Asbestos Case Damages, Adds $11.3M In Punitives
LOS ANGELES — A California judge entered judgment on a $52.1 million verdict after a jury awarded a mesothelioma sufferer and her husband $11.3 million in punitive damages in a combined asbestos-talc and take-home exposure case.
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December 21, 2022
Indemnification Row Between Trust, Debtors Settles For $350,000
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A defunct boiler manufacturer’s asbestos personal injury trust will pay a bankrupt spinoff of Ingersoll-Rand Co. and Trane U.S. Inc. $350,000 to settle the spinoff’s claim against the trust for more than $25 million in unreimbursed expenses relating to the resolution of asbestos personal injury claims, with the settlement winning approval in North Carolina federal bankruptcy court.
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December 20, 2022
J&J Debtor Sues Expert, Claiming Her Asbestos-Talc Study Is Fraudulent
TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson’s bankrupt affiliate LTL Management LLC has sued the occupational disease expert who conducted the landmark study on the connection between asbestos in talcum powder and mesothelioma, asserting that the study is a fraud because the expert knew that some participants were exposed to asbestos by sources other than talc.
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December 20, 2022
Discovery Rule Cannot Save Asbestos Injury FELA Claim, Judge Says
NEW ORLEANS — A man knew either when he settled a prior Federal Employers’ Liability Act toxic tort action involving asbestos or at the very latest when he was diagnosed with colorectal cancer of his claim, and he never explains why it took him six years to file suit, a federal judge in Louisiana said in finding his action untimely.
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December 20, 2022
J&J Faults Standing, Size And Scope Of Asbestos-Talc Fraud Class
TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson told a federal judge in New Jersey that it had no duty to preserve evidence stemming from an industrial asbestos-talc case in which it was not named as a defendant and that the proposed class is overly broad and not ascertainable.
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December 16, 2022
Mediation Ordered To Resolve Bankruptcies Of Ingersoll-Rand, Trane Units
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Debtors Aldrich Pump LLC and Murray Boiler LLC, affiliates Ingersoll-Rand and Trane and representatives for asbestos personal injury claimants will negotiate for a global resolution to the Chapter 11 cases and creation of a post-bankruptcy asbestos trust, with a North Carolina federal bankruptcy judge approving a request to compel mediation.
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December 16, 2022
Judge Largely Denies Summary Judgments In Asbestos Screening Fight
MISSOULA, Mont. — There is no evidence that an asbestos screening company falsely obtained a federal grant related to a Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) program intended for Libby, Mont., residents suffering from an asbestos-related disease, but questions remain about whether it falsely submitted information and the extent of the government’s knowledge, a federal judge held in granting summary judgment on the former issue and denying motions on all other issues.
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December 16, 2022
New Mexico, Mississippi Granted Direct Appeal Of Injunction Barring J&J Suits
TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey federal bankruptcy judge has allowed New Mexico and Mississippi to appeal directly to the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals an order enjoining their consumer protection lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson (J&J) over its sale of allegedly asbestos-laden talcum powder.
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December 14, 2022
Law Firm Says It Will Drop Virgin Islands Asbestos Claims Against Hess Debtor HONX
HOUSTON — A law firm representing asbestos personal injury claimants filed a notice Dec. 13 in Texas federal bankruptcy court informing the parties in the Chapter 11 case of Hess Corp. affiliate HONX Inc. that it intends to dismiss hundreds of asbestos claims against HONX pending before courts in the U.S. Virgin Islands due to the bankruptcy case.
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December 13, 2022
Judge In Asbestos Case Finds Stay Doesn’t Bar Remand, Hess Merger Collusive
ST. CROIX, V.I. — The failure of a settlement and resulting new litigation precipitated an oil company’s interest in merging its entities, a federal judge in the Virgin Islands said Dec. 12 in finding that a bankruptcy stay does not prevent a ruling on remand and that the merger was a collusive attempt at securing federal jurisdiction.
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December 12, 2022
Bankruptcy Judge OKs Honeywell’s $1.32B Buyout Deal With NARCO Asbestos Trust
PITTSBURGH — A Pennsylvania federal bankruptcy judge approved a buyout settlement agreement under which Honeywell International Inc. will pay $1.32 billion to the asbestos trust of affiliate North American Refractories Co. (NARCO) to bring an end to its commitment to fund the trust, which was created in NARCO’s Chapter 11 case.
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December 06, 2022
New York Court Dismisses Causation Appeal In Asbestos-Talc Case
NEW YORK — A New York appellate court granted a stipulated motion to withdraw an appeal challenging a justice’s conclusion in denying summary judgment to an asbestos-talc defendant company that the evidence created genuine issues of material fact on both specific and general causation and that potential exposure from using tobacco products does not eliminate the potential for other liability
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December 05, 2022
Joint Mediation Extended In Imerys Talc, Cyprus Mines Asbestos Talc Bankruptcies
WILMINGTON, Del. — Mediation aimed at a global resolution to the Chapter 11 asbestos bankruptcy cases of talc mining company Cyprus Mines Corp. and affiliate talc supplier Imerys Talc America Inc. will continue through at least Dec. 31, according to a stipulation by the parties approved by a Delaware federal bankruptcy judge.
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December 05, 2022
Judge: Asbestos Defendant Can’t Access Communications With Proposed Receiver
WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware chancery court judge denied a motion seeking to compel production of any communications between a petitioner and a proposed receiver for a dissolved subsidiary of DCo LLC, finding the request to be based on “circular speculation” about an alleged connection between the two and saying the request was likely a “fishing expedition.”
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December 01, 2022
2 Plaintiffs, John Crane Resolve Asbestos Cases Before Damages Trial
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Plaintiffs in two asbestos actions resolved their differences with John Crane Inc. (JCI) after a judge in one of the cases found for the company on a motion to dismiss but eventually concluded that it failed to properly answer an amended complaint and ruled against it on the issue of liability, leaving an upcoming jury trial on damages.
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December 01, 2022
Dissolved Asbestos Defendant Doesn’t Need Attorneys, Judge Says
BOSTON — A dissolved Delaware corporation is no longer an entity and does not require counsel to represent it in an asbestos action, a federal judge in Massachusetts said in granting an attorney’s motion to withdraw.
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November 23, 2022
2nd Circuit Rejects Rehearing For Asbestos Action Against Johns-Manville Affiliate
NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has denied a request by the widower of a woman who died from mesothelioma for rehearing of a panel ruling that he is barred from pursuing claims in Louisiana state court against an affiliate of former Chapter 11 debtor Johns-Manville Corp.
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November 23, 2022
Debtor ON Marine’s Plan, $29M Asbestos Trust Win Preliminary Approval
PITTSBURGH — A Pennsylvania federal bankruptcy judge has conditionally approved a plan of liquidation for Chapter 11 debtor ON Marine Services Co. LLC that will result in a $29 million trust to pay asbestos personal injury claims.
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November 23, 2022
New Mexico, Mississippi Seek 3rd Circuit Appeal Of Injunction Barring J&J Suits
TRENTON, N.J. — New Mexico and Mississippi asked a New Jersey federal bankruptcy court to allow them to appeal directly to the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals an order enjoining their consumer protection lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson (J&J) over its sale of allegedly asbestos-laden talcum powder.
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November 22, 2022
Honeywell To Pay $1.32B To End Funding Obligation For NARCO Asbestos Trust
PITTSBURGH — Honeywell International Inc. said in recent Securities and Exchange Commission filings that it will pay $1.32 billion to the asbestos trust of affiliate North American Refractories Co. (NARCO) to bring an end to its commitment to fund the trust, which was created in NARCO’s Chapter 11 case in Pennsylvania federal bankruptcy court.
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November 22, 2022
Pennsylvania Jury Returns $400,000 Verdict In Asbestos-Talc Case
PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania jury returned a $400,000 verdict for a woman allegedly exposed to asbestos in consumer talc products, sources told Mealey Publications.
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November 21, 2022
Asbestos Pipe Maker Escapes Punitive Damages After Court Reverses
NEW YORK — Even assuming they are true, allegations that a pipe manufacturer committed gross negligence by not labeling every length of asbestos-containing pipe with a warning still does not show the type of malice required for a punitive damages claim, a New York appeals court said.
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November 21, 2022
Trustee Says Insurers’ Asbestos Coverage Suit Still Stayed By Nash Chapter 7 Case
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A declaratory judgment action by insurers seeking a ruling on available coverage for asbestos claims against Chapter 7 debtor The Nash Engineering Co. remains barred by the bankruptcy automatic stay and should stay that way to give the trustee the chance to investigate the coverage and then negotiate with the insurers for a settlement, the trustee said in a status report in Connecticut federal court.