Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy
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June 20, 2023
Bankruptcy Court Closes Chapter 11 Case Of Asbestos Debtor ON Marine Services
PITTSBURGH — A Pennsylvania federal bankruptcy court has issued a final decree and order closing the Chapter 11 case of ON Marine Services Co. LLC, which filed for bankruptcy in 2020 due to thousands of asbestos personal injury claims and used the case to establish a $29 million asbestos trust.
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June 19, 2023
Ingersoll-Rand, Trane Debtors Say Joint Chapter 11 Case Is Not ‘Futile’
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A bid by a committee of asbestos claimants to dismiss the joint Chapter 11 case of Ingersoll-Rand and Trane spinoffs Aldrich Pump LLC and Murray Boiler LLC should be denied because it was filed “inexcusably late” in a bankruptcy case that is “neither objectively futile, nor . . . filed in subjective bad faith,” the debtors and the future claimants’ representative (FCR) tell a North Carolina bankruptcy court in their objections to the dismissal motion.
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June 19, 2023
Professors Call For Review Of Insurer Standing Ruling In Asbestos Bankruptcy Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A request for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether the primary insurer for asbestos debtors Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. has standing to challenge the debtors’ reorganization plan should be granted “to resolve an entrenched circuit split and restore uniformity to bankruptcy proceedings,” eight law professors say in an amicus curiae brief in support of the insurer.
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June 15, 2023
Railway: Plaintiff Delayed Asbestos Trust Claim, Didn’t Disclose Efforts
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — An asbestos plaintiff in Montana federal court intentionally delayed an asbestos trust claim for “strategic reasons” and failed to disclose related filings requested in discovery, a railway argues in a June 14 supplement to its response in support of a stay of a trial and opposition to summary judgment.
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June 13, 2023
3M Earplug Subsidiary Appeals Dismissal Of Bankruptcy Case
INDIANAPOLIS — Aearo Technologies LLC and related companies on June 12 appealed dismissal of their Chapter 11 case in which a federal bankruptcy judge found that while the companies face asbestos claims and the largest multidistrict litigation ever in United States, they do not face sufficient financial stress, much like Johnson & Johnson’s spinoff debtor whose case was dismissed in In re LTL Management, Inc., 64 F.4th 84 (3rd Cir. 2023).
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June 09, 2023
Punitive Damages, Post-Trial Motions Briefed After $20M Asbestos Verdict
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A plaintiff awarded $20 million in an asbestos action urged a Connecticut judge in a June 8 reply to impose $40 million in punitive damages and said a successor talc company can be held liable because after it purchased its predecessor, it continued with the same reckless conduct.
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June 06, 2023
Claimants’ Committee Appeals FCR Appointment For LTL Management Bankruptcy
TRENTON, N.J. — The Official Committee of Talc Claimants in the second Chapter 11 case of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC has appealed the appointment of a future claimants’ representative (FCR) for the case after objecting to the debtor’s motion to appoint the same person who served as FCR in the first Chapter 11 case, which was dismissed for being filed in bad faith.
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June 06, 2023
Company Wants Clarity On Promise About Offensive Use Of Asbestos-Talc Study
NEW YORK — A talc defendant asked a federal court in New York for clarity on whether and when an asbestos expert, other witnesses and counsel can reference a now withdrawn study on causation, saying the promise to not use it “offensively” provides no real limitations.
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June 06, 2023
Missouri Jury Awards $9.7M For 39-Year-Old Woman’s Household Asbestos Exposures
ST. LOUIS — A Missouri jury awarded a widower and an estate $9.7 million for a woman’s take-home exposure to asbestos and resulting death from mesothelioma after the judge in the case said the plaintiff was entitled to sanctions for discovery violations.
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June 05, 2023
New J&J Entity Cites Talc Liability Risks In Regulatory Filing
SKILLMAN, N.J. — Kenvue Inc. said in a June 2 regulatory filing it faces the risk that its parent company, Johnson & Johnson, will ultimately not be able to honor its obligation to indemnify the company from the “significant” talc-related litigation in the United States and Canada.
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June 02, 2023
Talc Debtor Says Bankruptcy Court Should Set Process To Select Claimants’ Rep
TRENTON, N.J. — The New Jersey federal bankruptcy court should allow all parties in the Chapter 11 case of former talc supplier Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Inc. (WCD) to nominate candidates for future claimants’ representative (FCR), rather than just appoint the person chosen by the debtor, the U.S. trustee says in a May 30 objection to WCD’s motion to appoint an FCR.
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June 01, 2023
Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Says Receiver Lacks Authority To Seek Dismissal
TRENTON, N.J. — A bid by the court-appointed receiver for defunct talc supplier Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Inc. (WCD) to dismiss the company’s Chapter 11 case should be denied because his authority does not extend to WCD’s board of directors, which properly filed the bankruptcy petition, the debtor says in an objection filed in New Jersey federal bankruptcy court.
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May 31, 2023
Hess Unit HONX Unveils Chapter 11 Plan With $116 Million Trust
HOUSTON — Hess Corp. Chapter 11 debtor affiliate HONX Inc. seeks to reorganize and establish a $116 million trust to pay asbestos personal injury claims, even though the representative for future asbestos claimants is not on board with the plan, the debtor says in a status report filed in Texas federal bankruptcy court.
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May 25, 2023
Asbestos Firms Appeal Reilly-Benton’s Settlement With Insurance Association
NEW ORLEANS — Two asbestos law firms have appealed a Louisiana federal bankruptcy judge’s approval of a $1 million settlement between the Chapter 7 trustee for a bankrupt insulation supplier and the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA), which is obligated to pay covered claims for an insolvent insurer.
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May 24, 2023
Magistrate Judge Imposes $1M Sanction For Asbestos Fee Case Conduct
BALTIMORE — Defendants’ knowing failure to produce evidence and comply with court orders and a “lame attempt” to have a state court enjoin a federal court, all of which extended litigation over asbestos referral fees and wasted the court’s time, warrants more than $1 million as a sanction, a federal magistrate judge in Maryland said.
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May 24, 2023
Judge Extends Document Protections In Asbestos Trust Auditor Case
JACKSON, Miss. — Various documents associated with experts and briefing in a dispute between a B-reader and a company hired to audit asbestos bankruptcy trust submissions are entitled to ongoing protections, a federal judge in Mississippi said.
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May 24, 2023
First Claimants Of Owens-Illinois Debtor Paid By Trust
WILMINGTON, Del. — The asbestos trust established in the Chapter 11 case of Owens-Illinois Inc. spinoff Paddock Enterprises LLC paid nearly $60 million to settle 439 claims of asbestos disease sufferers in the last three months of 2022, according to the trust’s annual report filed in Delaware federal bankruptcy court.
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May 23, 2023
No Claims Paid In 2022, Kaiser/Hanson Permanente Trust Reports
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Although the Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. asbestos trust was created nearly two years ago, it had yet to make a payment to a claimant by the end of 2022 because the claimants’ representatives were still conducting due diligence to determine the payment percentages for each disease category, according to the trust’s annual report filed in North Carolina federal bankruptcy court.
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May 23, 2023
Judge: Claims System, Not Tort System Handles Asbestos Trust Complaints
DALLAS — Complaints about an asbestos bankruptcy trust payment process belong in the bankruptcy court and before the claim resolution process, not a federal district court, a federal judge said in dismissing a case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
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May 19, 2023
Judge Enters Take-Nothing Judgment In Asbestos Trust Auditor Case
JACKSON, Miss. — A federal judge in Mississippi denied a motion to amend and entered a take-nothing judgment in an asbestos bankruptcy trust expert’s action against a consulting company he claimed cherry-picked evidence to ensure that his readings would no longer be accepted by the trusts and plaintiffs’ law firms.
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May 19, 2023
With Asbestos Trust Established, Debtor ON Marine Seeks To End Chapter 11 Case
PITTSBURGH — Debtor ON Marine Services Co. LLC, which filed for bankruptcy in 2020 due to thousands of asbestos personal injury claims, is ready to end its Chapter 11 case, telling a Pennsylvania federal bankruptcy court in a motion for entry of a final decree that the case has been “fully administered.”
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May 18, 2023
Louisiana Court Affirms $35.75M Asbestos General Damages Verdict, Virile Share
NEW ORLEANS — A jury did not abuse its discretion in awarding a man $35.75 million in general damages for his mesothelioma in light of the evidence while noting that verdicts will naturally rise, especially during “particularly rampant inflation,” and that the court did not err in assigning liability, a Louisiana appeals court said in affirming the verdict.
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May 18, 2023
Official Committee Says Ingersoll-Rand, Trane Units’ Bankruptcies Should Be Tossed
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The joint Chapter 11 case of Ingersoll-Rand and Trane spinoffs Aldrich Pump LLC and Murray Boiler LLC should be dismissed because the debtors are not in financial distress and the bankruptcy proceeding leaves asbestos claimants “trapped in a process for years and denied compensation while they suffer and die,” a committee of claimants says in a motion filed in North Carolina federal bankruptcy court.
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May 16, 2023
Johnson & Johnson Unit Proposes $12 Billion Asbestos Trust In Chapter 11 Plan
TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC on May 15 filed a plan of reorganization in its second Chapter 11 case in New Jersey federal bankruptcy court that, if approved by asbestos claimants, would create a $12 billion asbestos trust, which the debtor says is “unprecedented.”
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May 15, 2023
Judge Remands Asbestos Exposure Case Against Insolvent Insurer, Others
NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge granted a decedent’s daughter’s motion to remand in an asbestos exposure case filed against a shipyard, related parties and a now-insolvent insurer, finding that because the federal claims have been dismissed or settled, case law and common law support remand.