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

Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy

October 04, 2023
New Jersey Court Faults Asbestos-Talc Expert Admissions, Topples $224M Award

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Given the apparent defects in expert opinions a trial judge improperly admitted three asbestos experts in a talc case without first holding a hearing on whether their methodologies and opinions were reliable, a New Jersey appeals court said Oct. 3 in reversing a $223.8 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson and remanding for a new trial.
October 03, 2023
Talc Mining Company Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Over Asbestos Claims

HOUSTON — Talc mining company Barretts Minerals Inc. (BMI) filed a Chapter 11 petition on Oct. 2 in Texas federal bankruptcy court looking to sell the business and use the proceeds to help fund a trust to pay asbestos claims, saying the business can no longer afford to litigate an increasing number of lawsuits alleging personal injuries caused by exposure to talc purportedly contaminated with asbestos.
October 02, 2023
Kaiser Gypsum Insurer Says Cert Needed For Dispute Over Standing

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that the primary insurer of Chapter 11 asbestos debtors Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. lacks standing to challenge the debtors’ reorganization plan “exacerbates a conflict among the [U.S. circuit courts] and defies the straightforward text of the Bankruptcy Code,” the insurer says in a reply brief in support of its petition for certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court.
September 29, 2023
Ford Stuck With $20M Asbestos Verdict After Court Finds No Error

ST. LOUIS — None of the nine issues Ford Motor Co. raised in an appeal of a $20 million asbestos verdict demonstrate an error, a Missouri appeals court said in affirming the verdict without a written opinion.
September 21, 2023
Talc Study Authors Move To Dismiss Suit By Johnson & Johnson Spinoff

TRENTON, N.J. — Fraud claims leveled by Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) former bankrupt affiliate LTL Management LLC against three pathologists over their study of mesothelioma patients and their use of talcum powder should be tossed because the allegations “are not only implausible, but frivolous,” the doctors say in a motion to dismiss in New Jersey federal court.
September 20, 2023
Asbestos Talc Study Author Seeks Dismissal Of Suit By J&J Former Debtor

TRENTON, N.J. — Claims for trade libel, fraud and federal trademark law violations asserted by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC against the author of an asbestos talc study should be dismissed because they are all meritless, the author says in a motion in New Jersey federal court.
September 20, 2023
J&J: Asbestos-Talc Verdict Tagged Wrong Party, Lacked Causation Evidence

LOS ANGELES — In post-trial briefing after an $18.8 million verdict, Johnson & Johnson told a California judge that it wasn’t the party responsible for the talcum powder in question and that there is insufficient evidence that asbestos can cause pericardial mesothelioma.
September 19, 2023
Johnson & Johnson Debtor, Supporting Counsel Appeal Dismissal Of 2nd Bankruptcy

TRENTON, N.J. — Attorneys who support continuing the second Chapter 11 case of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC on Sept. 18 filed a statement of issues on appeal joining the debtor’s issues on appeal of a New Jersey federal bankruptcy judge’s dismissal of the case for failure to show that the company was in “imminent” or “immediate” financial distress.
September 19, 2023
Receiver, Claimants Say Talc Supplier’s Chapter 11 Case Should Have Been Dismissed

TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey federal bankruptcy judge used a “flawed interpretation” of a state court order appointing a receiver for defunct talc supplier Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Inc. (WCD) in refusing to dismiss the company’s Chapter 11 case, the receiver and a committee of asbestos claimants say in their appeal of the ruling to a district court.
September 18, 2023
Former Talc Supplier Sues Successors To Halt Continued Tort Litigation

TRENTON, N.J. — Defunct talc supplier Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Inc. (WCD) seeks summary judgment and injunctive relief on its allegations in an adversary action in New Jersey federal bankruptcy court that its Chapter 11 estate should be protected from successor liability claims being litigated in the tort system by its corporate inheritors.
September 15, 2023
Reorganization Plan Of Hess Unit HONX Draws Objections

HOUSTON — The Chapter 11 reorganization plan of Hess Corp. affiliate HONX Inc. should be rejected because it discriminates against people who will file asbestos personal injury claims in the future in favor of current claimants, the future claimants’ representative (FCR) says in an objection to the plan.
September 14, 2023
Asbestos Firms Appeal Denial Of Standing To Oppose Bankruptcy Settlement

NEW ORLEANS — Two asbestos law firms have appealed a Louisiana federal bankruptcy judge’s finding that they lack standing to oppose a $3.5 million settlement between the Chapter 7 trustee for a bankrupt insulation supplier and two asbestos insurers; it is the second insurance settlement appeal the firms have filed in the case.
September 08, 2023
Illinois Jury Returns $40.75M Verdict In Asbestos Gasket Case

CHICAGO — An Illinois jury returned a $40.75 million verdict in favor of the family of a man who contracted mesothelioma and died after exposure to asbestos in John Crane Inc. products.
September 08, 2023
1 Of Insurer’s 4 Suits Seeking Asbestos Settlement Reimbursement Is Dismissed

OMAHA, Neb. — One suit that National Indemnity Co. (NICO) filed against reinsurers in Nebraska federal court over the insurer’s $157.2 million settlement with Montana regarding alleged asbestos exposures has been dismissed with prejudice because no defendants remain after a wave of stipulations.
September 08, 2023
Kaiser Gypsum, Asbestos Claimant Reps Say Insurer’s Cert Bid Should Be Denied

WASHINGTON, D.C. — There is no divide among the federal circuit courts when deciding who is a party in interest with standing to object to a bankruptcy plan, so review of the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that the primary insurer of Chapter 11 asbestos debtors Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. lacks standing to challenge the debtors’ reorganization plan is not needed, the debtors tell the U.S. Supreme Court in an opposition brief that was filed at the request of the court.
September 08, 2023
World Trade Center Asbestos Case Jury Awards $28.5M

NEW YORK — A New York jury awarded a lung cancer sufferer $28.5 million and apportioned various levels of liability to the last three remaining defendants in a case alleging that the former cigarette smoker suffered asbestos exposure while working at the World Trade Center.
September 08, 2023
Latest Bids To Dismiss Chapter 11 Case Of Georgia-Pacific Debtor Denied

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Two asbestos claimants in the Chapter 11 case of Georgia-Pacific spinoff Bestwall LLC want an update on the proceedings from a North Carolina federal bankruptcy judge after he denied motions to dismiss the case filed by the claimants and the Official Committee of Asbestos Personal Injury Claimants.
September 07, 2023
1960s Asbestos Exposure Claims Discharged By 1983 Bankruptcy, Judge Says

AUSTIN, Texas — While the destruction of court records complicates the matter, a 2016 mesothelioma lawsuit alleging exposure to asbestos in the 1960s constitutes a pre-petition claim discharged in the former employer’s 1983 bankruptcy, a federal judge in Texas said in affirming a bankruptcy court ruling.
September 05, 2023
Asbestos Talc Debtor Settles Truck Driver’s Personal Injury Suit

WILMINGTON, Del. — An affiliate codebtor of talc mining company Cyprus Mines Corp. and talc supplier Imerys Talc America Inc. has settled a personal injury action brought by a truck driver in Vermont for $85,000, according to a motion for approval of the deal that the debtors filed in Delaware federal bankruptcy court.
August 30, 2023
3M, Aearo, Settle Combat Arms Litigation For $6 Billion

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Aearo Technologies LLC parent company 3M Occupational Safety LLC reached a $6 billion settlement resolving Combat Arms earplugs litigation, resolving the largest multidistrict litigation in U.S. history and relieving the entities of tort claims at the heart of a bankruptcy that was dismissed based on the logic of a similar ruling in the asbestos talc bankruptcy case of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC, the companies announced in an Aug. 29 press release.
August 29, 2023
Delaware High Court Says Cognizable Injury Must Manifest In Physical Illness

WILMINGTON, Del. — The Delaware Supreme Court has ruled that with regard to a chemical injury lawsuit, the increased risk of harm constitutes a cognizable injury only when manifested by physical illness.
August 25, 2023
Asbestos Bankruptcy Tort Claims Untimely, Pennsylvania Court Says

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Three plaintiffs’ lawsuits against an asbestos trust filed four years after they received letters allowing such tort actions are barred by the two-year statute of limitations, the Pennsylvania Superior Court said.
August 24, 2023
Judge Orders Claimants To Give Names, Comply With CertainTeed Debtor’s Subpoena

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Thousands of people who settled mesothelioma claims with CertainTeed Corp. or its spinoff debtor DBMP LLC must identify themselves and comply with the debtor’s subpoena seeking information they submitted to asbestos trusts because they did not show that there are “exceptional circumstances” allowing them to proceed anonymously, a North Carolina federal judge held in affirming a bankruptcy judge’s decision.
August 23, 2023
Dismissal Motion Ordered For J&J Former Debtor’s Suit Over Asbestos Talc Study

TRENTON, N.J. — The author of an asbestos talc study who is accused of fraud by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC must file her proposed motion to dismiss the case by Sept. 8, according to a docket entry by a New Jersey federal judge, who also rejected a pre-motion conference.
August 22, 2023
Judge Denies Motions Seeking To Upend $9.7M Asbestos Verdict

MILWAUKEE — A judge in Milwaukee denied post-trial motions seeking to undo a $9.7 million asbestos verdict, and the defendant indicated that it would move for reconsideration of a third ruling imposing sanctions.