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

Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.”
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.
May 10, 2023
Mandamus Denied By 3rd Circuit In Challenge To 2nd Bankruptcy Of J&J Unit

PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 9 declined to dismiss the second Chapter 11 case of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC at the request of a committee of asbestos-talc claimants, saying the “drastic and extraordinary remedy” of a writ of mandamus is not warranted at this time.
May 11, 2023
Judgment Issued For Guaranty Association In Late Filed Asbestos Exposure Case

NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge granted the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association’s (LIGA) summary judgment motion in a suit filed against it and a shipyard where a man says his exposure to asbestos there caused his mesothelioma, finding that the claim is not a covered claim as to LIGA because it was filed after the statutory claims filing period.
May 11, 2023
Judge Denies Attempt To Quash U.S. Agency Subpoenas In Asbestos Case

MISSOULA, Mont. — Two government agencies must produce witnesses for trial testimony after a federal judge overseeing a false claims act case alleging submission of fraudulent asbestos claims under a special Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicare pilot program denied motions to quash subpoenas.
May 09, 2023
Kaiser Insurer Petitions For Review Of 4th Circuit’s Ruling On Lack Of Standing

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred in veering from the “plain text” of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, which allows a “‘party in interest’” to “‘appear and be heard on any issue’” in a Chapter 11 case, the primary insurer for debtors Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a petition challenging the Fourth Circuit’s finding that it lacks standing to oppose the debtors’ confirmed plan of reorganization.
May 09, 2023
Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Debtors Nominate Retired Bankruptcy Judge As FCR

TRENTON, N.J. — Former talc supplier and current Chapter 11 debtor Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Inc. (WCD) and three bankrupt affiliates are asking a New Jersey federal bankruptcy court to appoint a former federal bankruptcy judge as the future claimants’ representative (FCR) for asbestos disease sufferers.
May 08, 2023
Receiver Seeks Dismissal Of Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Bankruptcy Case

TRENTON, N.J. — The receiver appointed by a South Carolina court to administer the assets of defunct talc supplier Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Inc. (WCD) filed a motion in New Jersey federal bankruptcy court seeking to have the company’s recent Chapter 11 case dismissed, saying he is the only person with the authority to declare bankruptcy for the company.
May 03, 2023
Widow, Defendants Battle Over $20M Verdict, Potential Punitive Damages

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A judge should award $40 million in punitive damages because of both the egregious attempts to hide or ignore the dangers of asbestos in an asbestos window glazing compound case and the defendants’ apparent net worths, a widow told a Connecticut judge. But in their own post-trial motions, one defendant argues that there was insufficient evidence that it knew of the product’s danger and another said it could not be liable for a predecessor’s conduct.
May 02, 2023
ACA Asbestos Program Suit Parties Parry Bid To Quash Subpoenas To U.S. Agencies

MISSOULA, Mont. — The United States says in a motion to quash that an agency already produced almost all the information two subpoenas seek and that further searches into whether a medical facility meets the criteria for “qualified physicians” under a special Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act program involving Libby, Mont., asbestos exposures “will simply waste time while yielding ever diminishing returns.” But in a joint response, the parties in the federal litigation in Montana say the subpoenas are not burdensome and that to the extent the answers to the subpoena questions are self-evident, the questions should be easy to answer.