Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy

November 17, 2022
J&J Asbestos-Talc Fraud Plaintiffs Defend Class, Concealment Claims

TRENTON, N.J. — A putative class alleging that Johnson & Johnson withheld or destroyed evidence that its industrial talc contained asbestos told a federal judge in New Jersey that they meet all the requirements of a fraudulent concealment claim and that the alleged scheme and presumed reliance on public statements warrant denying a motion to dismiss and a motion to deny class certification.
November 16, 2022
Judge Denies Motion To Appeal Order In Dispute With Insurance Guaranty Association

NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge denied creditors’ motion to file an appeal of a Louisiana federal bankruptcy court’s interlocutory order in a bankruptcy suit involving the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA) and alleged insurers of an insulation supplier that was also a defendant in separate personal injury asbestos suits, finding that the creditors failed to show “that the bankruptcy court’s order limiting the scope of the corporate deposition presents an issue of law, let alone a controlling issue of law.”
November 10, 2022
Hess Debtor HONX Says Claimants’ Appeal Of IME Order Should Be Tossed

HOUSTON — Hess Corp. Chapter 11 debtor HONX Inc. has asked a Texas federal court to dismiss an appeal by asbestos claimants over the appointment of an independent medical examiner (IME), calling the appeal “a deeply misguided effort to challenge an order by the bankruptcy court that is not even close to immediately reviewable.”
November 10, 2022
Mark Lanier Launches U.K. Firm, Files 1st Asbestos-Talc Claim

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, United Kingdom — The U.S. attorney behind a $4.7 billion verdict against Johnson & Johnson recently partnered with barristers in the United Kingdom and on Nov. 9 filed their first claim against talcum powder manufacturers for allegedly failing to disclose the presence of asbestos in its talc, according to a press release.
November 09, 2022
New York Jury’s $2M Award Stands As Judge Denies Asbestos Post-Trial Motion

BUFFALO, N.Y. — After a New York jury awarded a couple $2 million for the man’s mesothelioma, a justice denied a post-trial motion, saying that the plaintiffs properly established causation and that the record didn’t support a superseding cause instruction.
November 04, 2022
Judge Finds For Plaintiff On Asbestos Liability, Orders Trial On Damages

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A defendant’s deficient response to an amended complaint leaves no genuine issue of material fact regarding liability and an upcoming trial will focus only on damages, a federal judge in Virginia said in ruling on a plaintiff’s motion for judgment on the pleadings.
November 03, 2022
Missouri Jury Awards Family $6M For Woman’s Fatal Mesothelioma

ST. LOUIS — A Missouri jury found Ford Motor Co. liable for a woman’s fatal mesothelioma, awarding her family $6 million, sources told Mealey Publications.
November 03, 2022
Bankruptcy Court Sets Deadlines For Non-Asbestos Claims Against Hess Debtor

HOUSTON — A Texas federal bankruptcy judge on Nov. 2 gave non-asbestos claimants in the Chapter 11 case of Hess Corp. affiliate HONX Inc. until Jan. 20 to file proofs of claims that arose before the debtor filed its bankruptcy petition.
November 03, 2022
1 Dismissal Stipulated, Counterclaim Disputed In Reinsurance Coverage Row

OMAHA, Neb. — After one reinsurer entered an answer asserting affirmative defenses in National Indemnity Co. (NICO)’s suit in Nebraska federal court over the insurer’s $157.2 million settlement with the state of Montana regarding alleged asbestos exposures, NICO and the reinsurer stipulated to the reinsurer’s dismissal.
November 02, 2022
Asbestos Claimants’ Info Stays Redacted, Bankruptcy Judge In NARCO Trust Row Says

PITTSBURGH — A Pennsylvania federal bankruptcy judge denied a request by asbestos insurers to have 28 trial exhibits in a dispute over the operation of an asbestos trust unredacted because the exhibits were never actually filed with the court and are not judicial records for purposes of the common-law presumption of a right of public access.
November 01, 2022
Asbestos Defendant: $300,000 Asbestos Discovery Sanction Is ‘Historic Injustice’

COLUMBIA, S.C. — After a trial featuring a defense verdict in an asbestos case, a trial court imposed a “historic injustice” in the form of a more than $300,000 in sanctions for a typographic error and failure to produce documents the plaintiffs never requested, a company tells a South Carolina appeals court.
October 25, 2022
Asbestos Reps Sue To Halt CertainTeed’s ‘Fraudulent’ Restructuring

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Asbestos claimants’ representatives in the Chapter 11 case of CertainTeed Corp. debtor DBMP LLC filed an adversary action in North Carolina federal bankruptcy court seeking to undo the corporate restructuring that created the debtor company and left it holding all of CertainTeed’s liabilities for asbestos personal injury claims.
October 24, 2022
Woman: Exposure Evidence, Expert Support Florida Joint Compound Asbestos Verdict

MIAMI — A man specifically identified the joint compound he and his father primarily used and the evidence established that it contained asbestos during the period in question, all of which supports an expert’s opinions, a woman argues in defending a $14 million award in the third appeal of a verdict in the case.
October 24, 2022
Justice: Punitive Damages Among Claims Moving Forward In N.Y. Asbestos Case

NEW YORK — To prevail on summary judgment, an asbestos defendant must eliminate the possibility of exposure, it cannot simply demonstrate holes in a woman’s case, and genuine issues of fact remain on the issue of punitive damages, a justice in New York said in denying the relief.
October 21, 2022
Delaware Judge Affirms Evidence Exclusion, Denial Of Mesothelioma Benefits

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware judge affirmed a denial of workers’ compensation benefits for mesothelioma, finding that the board did not improperly exclude shipping records, that while it did improperly exclude deposition testimony the error was harmless and that nothing in the record established exposure to asbestos as required under the last injurious exposure rule.
October 21, 2022
La. Federal Judge Stays Wrongful Death Claims Against Chapter 7 Debtor’s Insurers

BATON ROUGE, La. — A Louisiana federal judge on Oct. 20 stayed a family’s wrongful death claims against two insurers of longtime Chapter 7 debtor Reilly-Benton Co. Inc. pending resolution of the bankruptcy case, finding that the proceeds of the insurers’ policies are property of the bankruptcy estate.
October 21, 2022
Automaker Wants Washington Supreme Court To Review Asbestos Sanction Reversal

SEATTLE — An appeals court ruling reversing sanctions ignores that an asbestos plaintiff told one exposure story to bankruptcy trusts and another to a trial court and condones the destruction of a mesothelioma victim’s pathology materials and lying about whether an autopsy ever occurred, an automaker tells the Washington Supreme Court in a petition for review.
October 19, 2022
Widower Requests Rehearing By Full 2nd Circuit For Wife’s Mesothelioma Claims

NEW YORK — The widower of a woman who died from mesothelioma seeks rehearing en banc of a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ recent ruling affirming an order enjoining him from pursuing claims in Louisiana state court against an affiliate of former Chapter 11 debtor Johns-Manville Corp.
October 19, 2022
Judge: Government Immunity Defense Doesn’t Immunize Asbestos Warning Claims

NEW ORLEANS — A company directed to use asbestos by U.S. Navy contracts cannot rely on government contractor immunity or sovereign derivative immunity as a shield against claims that it failed to warn about the resulting dangers to workers or failed to properly handle the products, a federal judge in Louisiana said in granting summary judgment to the plaintiff on the issues.
October 18, 2022
Ruling In 3M Debtor’s Case Does Not Support Asbestos Claimants, Bestwall Says

RICHMOND, Va. — Asbestos claimants’ representatives in the Chapter 11 case of Georgia-Pacific bankrupt unit Bestwall LLC fail in their reliance on a nonasbestos bankruptcy ruling denying an injunction protecting corporate parent 3M and its spinoff debtor company from multidistrict litigation claims because the cited ruling actually supports injunctive relief for Georgia-Pacific, Bestwall says in a response to a notice of supplemental authority in the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
October 17, 2022
Conn. Briefs Explore Intentional Injury Standard, Scope Of Asbestos Bankruptcy

HARTFORD, Conn. — Asbestos regulatory violations are not evidence of the type of egregious employer misconduct required for an intentional injury exception to the workers’ compensation exclusivity statute, one defendant tells a Connecticut appeals court, while a second argues that its unique asbestos bankruptcy plan permitted corporate dissolution and urges the court to reject the plaintiff’s “zombie movie plot.”
October 14, 2022
7th Circuit Grants Direct Appeal In 3M Earplug Bankruptcy Stay Case

INDIANAPOLIS — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted earplug manufacturer Aearo Technologies LLC’s petition for direct appeal of a bankruptcy court ruling that the automatic stay does not apply to its parent company, 3M Occupational Safety LLC.
October 14, 2022
Johnson & Johnson Unit’s Chapter 11 Case Filed In Bad Faith, 3rd Circuit Told

PHILADELPHIA — Allowing Johnson & Johnson (J&J) to create an affiliate company and place it into bankruptcy to free itself of liability for asbestos-talc claims is a perversion of the guiding principles of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel was told during oral argument in appeals of a bankruptcy court’s refusal to dismiss the Chapter 11 case of the affiliate for being filed in bad faith.
October 12, 2022
Asbestos Defendant Challenges Propriety Of Judgment After $10M Verdict

SAN FRANCISCO — A court conditioned judgment on an asbestos verdict subject to reduction for credits and improperly awarded interest on interest in violation of California law, an asbestos defendant argues in a motion seeking to set aside or vacate the ruling.
October 07, 2022
Bankruptcy Judge Enjoins State Consumer Protection Suits Against Johnson & Johnson

TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey federal bankruptcy judge has halted consumer protection lawsuits filed by New Mexico and Mississippi against Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and others seeking civil penalties for allegedly defrauding customers by selling talcum powder products containing asbestos, finding that allowing the state’s actions to continue will jeopardize the ability of J&J spinoff and Chapter 11 debtor LTL Management LLC to successfully reorganize.