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

Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy

June 06, 2024
Supreme Court Reverses, Says Asbestos Debtor’s Insurer Can Challenge Reorganization

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Because the primary insurer of Chapter 11 asbestos debtors Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. is on the hook for most of the debtors’ asbestos liabilities under their reorganization plan, it is a party in interest that has standing to object to the plan, the U.S. Supreme Court held June 6 in a unanimous decision.
June 05, 2024
Judge Upholds Denial Of Bid To Dismiss Talc Supplier’s Chapter 11 Case

TRENTON, N.J. — A bankruptcy court correctly declined to dismiss the Chapter 11 case of defunct talc supplier Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Inc. (WCD) because the company’s board and not its receiver was authorized to place WCD into bankruptcy, a New Jersey federal judge ruled in affirming rejection of the receiver and asbestos claimants’ bid to dismiss the case and dismissing their appeal.
June 05, 2024
Railway, Plaintiffs Brief Viability Of $8M Verdict In Libby, Mont., Case

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Whether federal law preempts strict liability claims against a railway and whether its failure to remediate asbestos contamination at its Libby, Mont., railyard constitutes an affirmative act or inactivity not subject to strict liability came before a Montana federal judge in briefing on judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV).
June 03, 2024
Asbestos Law Firms Seek Discovery In Subchapter V Bankruptcy Of Cosmetics Company

LOS ANGELES — Five asbestos personal injury law firms and their clients want representatives for new Chapter 11 debtor Ben Nye Co. Inc. and the company’s financial advisers to submit to an examination under oath and present documents about the debtor’s financial affairs, the use of talc in its products and other topics, according to a motion the firms filed in California federal bankruptcy court.
May 30, 2024
Judge Awards $1.4M In Fees In Libby, Mont., Asbestos Claims Fraud Case

MISSOULA, Mont. — A railway that obtained some of the relief it sought in a suit claiming that an asbestos-disease scanner in Libby, Mont., submitted false claims under a special program involving the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) may recover attorney fees, but the award must be reduced by 25% because its submission never ties the hours worked and associated rates to specific tasks, a federal judge in Montana said in awarding $1,423,936.58.
May 29, 2024
California Jury Finds For Automotive Parts Defendant In Asbestos Case

ALAMEDA, Calif. — A jury in California returned a defense verdict for an automotive parts distributor in an asbestos friction case, finding that the company did not act negligently and that while the brakes and clutches in question failed to perform as an ordinary consumer would expect, they were not a substantial factor in the man’s mesothelioma.
May 28, 2024
Navy Asbestos Case Nets Defense Verdict In Massachusetts Federal Court

BOSTON — A federal jury in Massachusetts hearing a U.S. Navy asbestos exposure case returned a defense verdict for John Crane Inc., finding that the plaintiff failed to show that the company substantially caused injury to the decedent through negligent design or failure to adequately warn.
May 24, 2024
Magistrate Judge Denies J&J’s Effort At Expedited Response To Subpoena To Law Firm

TRENTON, N.J. — In a docket text order, a federal magistrate judge in New Jersey denied a request by Johnson & Johnson and its bankrupt affiliate to expedite a response to a subpoena they issued to the Beasley Allen Law Firm in the asbestos talc multidistrict litigation seeking evidence of “egregious behavior” suggesting that the firm no longer advocates in the best interests of asbestos plaintiffs.
May 23, 2024
4th Circuit Rejects Rehearing In Asbestos Claimants’ Bids For Direct Appeal

RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has denied rehearing of a panel’s rejection of direct appeals by asbestos claimants seeking review of the denial of their bids to dismiss the joint Chapter 11 case of Ingersoll-Rand and Trane spinoffs Aldrich Pump LLC and Murray Boiler LLC.
May 23, 2024
Cancer Sufferers Say J&J, LTL Divisive Merger, Transfers Were Fraudulent

TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson and its various subsidiaries hoped to avoid liability or delay a day of reckoning through a divisive merger under Texas law and a series of fraudulent transfers of assets and liabilities, women who allegedly contracted ovarian cancer or mesothelioma as a result of exposure to asbestos in the company’s talc claim in a May 22 putative class action.
May 23, 2024
Appeal Of Dismissal Denial In Georgia-Pacific Debtor’s Case Debated In 4th Circuit

RICHMOND, Va. — A petition for a direct appeal to the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of a bankruptcy court’s denial of a bid by the Official Committee of Asbestos Claimants to dismiss the Chapter 11 case of Georgia-Pacific spinoff Bestwall LLC should be rejected because it “merely dresses up already-rejected arguments,” the debtor tells the appellate court in its opposition to the petition.
May 22, 2024
J&J Seeks Expedited Responses On Subpoenas To Asbestos-Talc Law Firm

TRENTON, N.J. — Two Johnson & Johnson entities asked the federal court in New Jersey overseeing the talc multidistrict litigation to expedite responses to a subpoena issued to the Beasley Allen Law Firm, saying recent revelations of “egregious behavior” suggest that the firm no longer advocates in the best interests of its clients and uses the media in hopes of sinking a potential global settlement of the asbestos-talc claims.
May 22, 2024
CertainTeed Debtor DBMP Can Subpoena Asbestos Claimants, Bankruptcy Judge Rules

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — CertainTeed Corp. debtor DBMP LLC can subpoena asbestos claimants in two other asbestos bankruptcy cases who settled their claims against CertainTeed before the DBMP Chapter 11 case was filed, a North Carolina federal bankruptcy judge ruled in denying a motion by the Official Committee of Asbestos Personal Injury Claimants to strike the subpoenas.
May 21, 2024
La. Panel Affirms Ruling In Asbestos Liability Case Involving Insolvent Insurers

NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana appellate court affirmed a lower court ruling that denied summary judgment to the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA), as statutory obligor for an employer’s insolvent workers’ compensation and liability insurers, in a suit alleging that a former employee’s workplace exposure to asbestos resulted in his diagnosis of mesothelioma, finding that LIGA failed to show “the existence and applicability” of policy exclusions.
May 20, 2024
Talc Debtors Imerys, Cyprus’ Settlement With Insurer Nets $6.25M For Asbestos Trust

WILMINGTON, Del. — A liability insurer for the parent of Chapter 11 asbestos talc debtor Cyprus Mines Corp. will pay $6.25 million to a planned trust to pay asbestos claims after the debtor and affiliates reorganize, according to a settlement agreement that was approved by a Delaware federal bankruptcy judge.
May 17, 2024
Kaiser/Hanson Permanente Trust Reports 1st Payments Made To Claimants In 2023

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Kaiser Gypsum Asbestos Personal Injury Trust, established in 2021, began paying claims last year after the payment percentages for each disease category were approved by claimants’ representatives, according to the trust’s annual report filed in North Carolina federal bankruptcy court.
May 17, 2024
Connecticut Asbestos Jury Awards $15M; Vanderbilt Faces Punitive Damages

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Talc company R.T. Vanderbilt Holding Co. Inc. faces a court decision on punitive damages after a Connecticut jury on May 16 found it liable for a man’s mesothelioma and awarded his widow $15 million in compensatory damages. Under Connecticut law the judge determines the punitive damages award.
May 17, 2024
New Jersey Judge Invites Amici In Dispute Over Mesothelioma Genetic Testing

TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey judge invited amicus curiae briefs on a motion to compel testing seeking genetic markers for mesothelioma in an asbestos case and laid out the questions she has about how such a process works and its potential impact.
May 13, 2024
Plaintiff Firm Fabricates Asbestos Cases, Company Says In RICO Suit

CHICAGO — Simmons Hanley Conroy LLP crafts asbestos exposure stories involving J-M Manufacturing Company Inc. products through “perjured testimony, falsified sworn statements, untrue discovery responses, asbestos bankruptcy claims that were not disclosed, and sham lawsuits,” the company alleges in a Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) lawsuit filed May 10 in Illinois federal court.
May 13, 2024
Man Says J&J Entities’ Motion To Strike Asbestos Allegations Misses The Point

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — That various Johnson & Johnson entities underwent a merger in Texas doesn’t change allegations of post-merger conduct elsewhere or alter the Connecticut successor liability analysis, a man tells a judge in Connecticut in objecting to a motion to strike asbestos liability allegations.
May 13, 2024
Cert Denied For Injunction Row In Chapter 11 Case Of Georgia-Pacific Spinoff

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 13 denied two petitions for certiorari filed by asbestos claimants’ representatives in the Chapter 11 case of Georgia-Pacific spinoff Bestwall LLC seeking to overturn a bankruptcy injunction barring asbestos personal injury claims against Georgia-Pacific and other nondebtor affiliates.
May 10, 2024
Florida Supreme Court: Spousal Damages Available In Post-Mesothelioma Marriage

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Because a wrongful death claim arises at death, a woman who married her longtime boyfriend after his mesothelioma diagnosis qualifies as a surviving spouse under state law, the Florida Supreme Court said May 9 while recognizing that the outcome could lead to recovery for damages unavailable had the man survived.
May 09, 2024
Wisconsin Court: Punitive Cap Is Double Total Compensatory Asbestos Award

MILWAUKEE — Evidence at trial supported a $26.45 million asbestos verdict and the cap on punitive damages applies to an entire jury award and not just a liable party’s portion of the award, a Wisconsin appeals court found in rejecting an appellant’s challenge to the verdict and partially affirming entry of judgment, saying the resulting award should be $13,419.295.79 against a premises owner defendant.
May 08, 2024
Suits Against Asbestos Trust Don’t Challenge Plan Terms, May Proceed, Judge Says

MISSOULA, Mont. — Lawsuits against the W.R. Grace & Co. asbestos trust follow procedures in the plan for such tort actions and are not collateral attacks on the plan procedures themselves, a federal judge in Montana said in a pair of orders rejecting a magistrate judge’s findings and recommendations and denying dismissal.
May 07, 2024
Asbestos Claimants Seek Rehearing To Appeal Denial Of Chapter 11 Dismissal

RICHMOND, Va. — Rehearing by the full Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of a panel’s rejection of direct appeals by asbestos claimants of denial of their bids to dismiss the joint Chapter 11 case of Ingersoll-Rand and Trane spinoffs Aldrich Pump LLC and Murray Boiler LLC is needed because the panel decision conflicts with U.S. Supreme Court and Third Circuit precedent and the “case involves questions of exceptional importance,” the claimants tell the Fourth Circuit in two petitions for rehearing (Official Committee of Asbestos Personal Injury Claimants v. Aldrich Pump LLC, et al., No. 24-128, Robert Semian, et al. v. Aldrich Pump LLC, et al., No. 24-129, 4th Cir.).