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

Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy

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.
October 06, 2022
Asbestos Claimants Agree To Extend Plan Deadline For Hess Debtor HONX

HOUSTON — With mediation on a consensual plan of reorganization unsuccessful, asbestos claimants in the Chapter 11 case of Hess Corp. affiliate HONX Inc. agreed to give the debtor more time to file a plan in Texas federal bankruptcy on its own.
October 05, 2022
J&J Says Asbestos-Talc Fraud Class Untimely, Too Unwieldy

TRENTON, N.J. — A class action’s fraud claims are untimely as even the plaintiffs concede that all the evidence on which they rely was disclosed in 2017, and the proposed class is not ascertainable as it would require investigation into the specifics of each individual exposure to asbestos, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) argues in motions to dismiss and deny class certification.
October 05, 2022
Hess And Debtor Unit HONX Face Dismissal, Delay Bids By Asbestos Claimants

HOUSTON — A committee of asbestos claimants on Oct. 4 asked a Texas federal bankruptcy court to hold off on litigating the amount of asbestos liability for Hess Corp. affiliate HONX Inc. until the court first decides whether to grant the committee’s recent motion to dismiss HONX’s Chapter 11 case for being filed in bad faith.
September 27, 2022
Judge: No Scheduling Conference Until J&J Answers Asbestos-Talc Fraud Claims

TRENTON, N.J. — The federal judge overseeing a class action accusing Johnson & Johnson (J&J) of withholding vital information about the presence of asbestos in talc found that setting a scheduling conference would be premature since the company has not yet filed an answer
September 22, 2022
Asbestos Trust Correctly Rejected Claims Based On Prior Release, Calif. Judge Says

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge on Sept. 21 upheld a bankruptcy court’s ruling that a 2017 claim against an asbestos trust for a man’s mesothelioma is barred by a release he signed 31 years earlier when settling a state court suit against one of the companies that eventually established the trust through its bankruptcy case.
September 22, 2022
Judge Grants Reinstatement Of Reinsurer As Defendant In Asbestos Coverage Row

OMAHA, Neb. — Granting a stipulated motion to reinstate a reinsurer as a defendant in the suit National Indemnity Co. (NICO) filed over its $157.2 million settlement with the state of Montana regarding alleged asbestos exposures, a Nebraska federal judge ruled that the circumstances warrant granting relief from a recent order of dismissal and allowing what he said is effectively an amendment to the complaint.
September 21, 2022
Injunction Protecting Parent Rejected In Case Of 3M Debtor, Bestwall Claimants Say

RICHMOND, Va. — A bankruptcy court’s rejection of an injunction protecting corporate parent 3M and its spinoff debtor company from multidistrict litigation claims is evidence that a funding agreement between companies involved in a restructuring is not grounds for injunctive relief, asbestos claimants’ representatives in the Chapter 11 case of Georgia-Pacific bankrupt unit Bestwall LLC say in a notice of supplemental authority in the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
September 20, 2022
3rd Circuit Hears Arguments On Validity Of J&J Unit’s Chapter 11 Case

PHILADELPHIA — Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC and asbestos claimants debated before the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 19 whether LTL Management’s Chapter 11 case was filed in good faith to resolve asbestos-talc personal injury claims and whether a bankruptcy court properly enjoined such claims against nondebtors, including J&J.
September 20, 2022
Hess And Debtor Unit HONX Unsuccessful In Mediation To Resolve Asbestos Claims

HOUSTON — It’s back to the bankruptcy drawing board for Hess Corp. affiliate HONX Inc. after Hess, the debtor and representatives for asbestos claimants failed to reach an agreement on several issues during mediation in the Chapter 11 case, the parties told a Texas federal bankruptcy court in a Sept. 15 notice.
September 19, 2022
Trustee To Mull Deal With Insurers In Reinstated Asbestos Bankruptcy Case

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A Connecticut federal bankruptcy judge on Sept. 15 gave the trustee in the recently revived Chapter 7 case of The Nash Engineering Co. more time to decide whether assuming a settlement with two insurers for asbestos claims will benefit the debtor’s estate.
September 16, 2022
2nd Circuit Applies Zeig, Upholds Follow-The-Settlements Ruling In Allocation Row

NEW YORK — Applying Zeig v. Mass. Bonding & Ins. Co. in a reinsurance dispute over allocation of an asbestos claims settlement, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Sept. 15 upheld a ruling that an excess insurance policy’s exhaustion requirement “was ambiguous and could be satisfied by a below-limits settlement of the underlying policies.”
September 15, 2022
Parties Stipulate To Dismissal Of 2 Reinsurers’ Suits In Asbestos Coverage Row

Sept. 14 filings in New York and Pennsylvania federal courts stipulate to the dismissal of two suits that reinsurers filed against insurer National Indemnity Co. (NICO) over its $157.2 million settlement with the state of Montana regarding alleged asbestos exposures; the same day, filings in Nebraska federal court sought to reinstate one of those reinsurers as a party to NICO’s action there and to withdraw another of the reinsurer’s motions to dismiss that case.
September 13, 2022
Asbestos Plaintiff Dismisses John Crane With Post-Trial Motions Pending

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — With post-trial motions pending after a jury awarded $18 million to a United Kingdom resident’s widow for his exposure to asbestos in Florida, the man’s widow on Aug. 26 voluntarily dismissed the defendant with prejudice, according to the court’s docket.
September 12, 2022
Judge Orders Production Of Social Security Records In Medicare-Asbestos Fraud Case

MISSOULA, Mont. — A Montana federal judge on Aug. 16 granted a motion seeking production of Medicare and Social Security records in a False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuit against a screening company that allegedly created a unique asbestos-related disease entitling Libby, Mont., residents to a special program under Medicare.
September 12, 2022
$16M Loss Of Consortium Award Excessive, Asbestos Verdict Otherwise OK, Judge Says

LOS ANGELES — While a man destined to become an asbestos widower testified compellingly about his love for his wife, a jury’s loss of consortium award must be reduced to $5 million from $16 million, a California judge said Aug. 16 while otherwise affirming noneconomic damages including compensation for shortened life expectancy.
September 09, 2022
South Carolina High Court Will Review $300,000 Asbestos Trial Sanction

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Supreme Court on Sept. 8 agreed to review a case in which a judge hit a company handed a defense verdict in an asbestos case with a $300,000 sanction for its in-trial production of evidence.
September 08, 2022
3rd Circuit Rejects Corrective Disclosures In Asbestos-Talc Securities Case

PHILADELPHIA — A class’s generalized economic theory that earlier disclosure of news that Johnson & Johnson talc potentially contains asbestos — a point the company contests to this day — does not meet the standard for imposing a duty to make corrective disclosures on Employee Retirement Income Security Act fiduciaries, and while keeping the retirement funds in cash might at times be prudent, it is not a solution in this case, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said in affirming dismissal of the class action on Sept. 7.
September 08, 2022
Remand Of Asbestos Claims Against Debtor’s Insurers Denied By Federal Judge

NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge on Sept. 2 denied a request by an asbestos disease sufferer to remand her fraud and bad faith claims against two liability insurers of longtime Chapter 7 debtor Reilly-Benton Co. Inc. to state court after finding that the claims are “related to” the bankruptcy case, giving the federal court jurisdiction.
September 07, 2022
Federal Judge Stays Appeal By Securities Plaintiff To Await 3rd Circuit Ruling

TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge on Aug. 23 stayed an appeal by the lead plaintiff in a securities class action against Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and its officers of a bankruptcy court ruling that the automatic stay in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of J&J spinoff LTL Management LLC applies to the securities case, saying a pending case in the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on the reach of a protective injunction in the bankruptcy case should be decided first.
September 07, 2022
Hess Debtor HONX Seeks Plan Extension To Concentrate On Mediation

HOUSTON — Debtor HONX Inc. on Aug. 25 told a Texas federal bankruptcy judge that it needs more time to file a plan of reorganization “to allow the Debtor and all parties to focus on” ongoing mediation with affiliate Hess Corp. and representatives for asbestos disease claimants on a consensual resolution to the Chapter 11 case with the establishment of an asbestos trust.
September 07, 2022
Epidemiologist’s Data Stays With Debtor For Estimation Proceeding, Judge Rules

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — An epidemiologist cannot “claw back” a data file he produced for Chapter 11 debtor Bestwall LLC to use in its asbestos liability bankruptcy proceeding because he failed to show that the file is privileged or protected against disclosure, a California federal judge held Sept. 6 in a miscellaneous case filed by Bestwall.
September 06, 2022
California Federal Jury Returns Defense Verdict In Foster Wheeler Asbestos Case

SAN DIEGO — A federal jury in California on Aug. 26 found for a defendant in an asbestos case, finding Foster Wheeler LLC not negligent, that its product performed as an ordinary consumer would expect and that while its product required the use of an integrated part, the company had no reason to know its use would be hazardous.
August 31, 2022
1 Venue Ruling Issued In Cases Over Reinsurers’ Asbestos Coverage Liabilities

As venue disputes play out in several lawsuits in various federal jurisdictions between insurer National Indemnity Co. (NICO) and reinsurers over NICO’s $157.2 million settlement with the state of Montana regarding alleged asbestos exposures, NICO filed an Aug. 26 answer and counterclaim after a New York federal judge on Aug. 16 issued an order denying its motion to dismiss that complaint for lack of personal jurisdiction or transfer the suit.
August 31, 2022
Imerys Bankruptcy Judge Permits Pursuit Of J&J Asbestos-Talc Fraud Class

WILMINGTON, Del. — The federal judge overseeing the bankruptcy of Imerys Talc America Inc. told plaintiffs at an Aug. 29 hearing that the case’s stay does not apply to a class action claiming that Johnson & Johnson withheld evidence of asbestos in its talc. The plaintiffs submitted a letter and proposed order on Aug. 30 in compliance with the judge’s on-the-record ruling.