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Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy

  • April 30, 2025

    On Remand From Supreme Court, 4th Circuit Approves Kaiser Debtors’ Reorganization

    RICHMOND, Va. — The plan of reorganization of Chapter 11 debtors Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. was proposed in good faith and satisfies the asbestos bankruptcy requirements of Section 524(g) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held April 29 in affirming the plan’s confirmation on remand from the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • April 30, 2025

    U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Will Not Reconsider Dismissal Of Red River Talc Case

    HOUSTON — A Texas federal bankruptcy judge refused several requests to reconsider his dismissal of the Chapter 11 case of the latest Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff, Red River Talc LLC, and denial of confirmation of the debtor’s plan of reorganization, saying in a two-page order that the requirements for reconsideration were not met.

  • April 24, 2025

    J&J Entity Wants Talc-Only Meso Study Participants Revealed

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Pecos River Talc LLC asked a federal judge to compel three asbestos experts to produce the identities of 75 study participants who reportedly developed mesothelioma solely after exposure to consumer talc products, saying the evidence is necessary to the prosecution of its injurious falsehood claim and that no privacy issue or law precludes identification.

  • April 23, 2025

    Judge Adopts Report And Settlements, Dismisses Insurers In Asbestos Coverage Row

    BUFFALO, N.Y. — A New York federal judge adopted a magistrate judge’s combined report and recommendation to settle estates’ claims with insurers and dismiss the claims against them in four similar suits filed by the estates of people who died purportedly from asbestos exposure, seeking payment of judgments entered against an asbestos mine, finding no error in the magistrate judge’s report and recommendation.

  • April 23, 2025

    Parties Agree Asbestos Subpoena Appeal Moot, Lay Out Paths For Sanction Ruling

    RICHMOND, Va. — A medical provider and an asbestos defendant in briefing agreed that dismissal of an asbestos case mooted the appeal of a ruling quashing a subpoena but offered the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeal different paths forward on the remaining issue of sanctions.

  • April 22, 2025

    Court Seeks Response To Nonparty’s Sanction Request In Dismissed Asbestos Case

    NEW YORK — Dismissal of an asbestos-talc action does not moot a request for attorney fees as a sanction for repeated subpoenas and litigation against a third party, a New York federal magistrate judge said in ordering asbestos-talc defendant American International Industries (AII) to respond to a hospital operator’s motion.

  • April 18, 2025

    Asbestos Tort Targets Ask Delaware Court To Enjoin Trust Document Destruction

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A CertainTeed LLC affiliate and various Johnson & Johnson entities asked a Delaware judge to enjoin the destruction of asbestos bankruptcy trust documents they say are relevant to current and future cases.  In the wake of the motion the Delaware Chancery Court on April 17 set a hearing on a motion to expedite consideration.

  • April 18, 2025

    California Supreme Court Grants Motion To Dismiss Genetic Testing Petition

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Supreme Court on April 17 granted an unopposed motion to dismiss a petition for review contending that a trial court improperly evaluated a motion to conduct simple and potentially conclusive genetic testing in a mesothelioma sufferer’s asbestos case under the standard for admissibility when it should have done so under the standard for relevance.

  • April 18, 2025

    Pipe Maker: ‘Insider’ Evidence Shows Asbestos Trust Fraud, Attorney Bounty Programs

    CHICAGO — Newly revealed “insider” evidence of fraudulent claims, bounty programs, obstruction of justice and efforts at defrauding asbestos bankruptcy trusts warrants amending a judgment dismissing Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) claims against a law firm and attorneys, pipe manufacturer J-M Manufacturing Co. Inc. told a federal judge in Illinois.

  • April 18, 2025

    Evidence, Expert Rulings Led To $18M Asbestos Verdict, Brake Machine Firm Says

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida circuit court judge’s improper admission of an unauthenticated video the plaintiff found online titled “Don’t Blow It” that included references to uncited studies and articles by actors and was hearsay, and other rulings involving experts, jury instructions and attempts to cure comments made during closing arguments led to an $18 million asbestos verdict, a brake grinding machine manufacturer tells the court in a motion for a new trial. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.

  • April 18, 2025

    Judge Dismisses Cosmetics Firm From Asbestos-Talc Suit, Won’t Sanction Plaintiff

    NEW YORK — While ultimately unsuccessful, a woman’s attempt to link one company under the umbrella of others through evidence recently revealed in an asbestos bankruptcy gives at least some grounds for adding an otherwise untimely defendant, a New York justice said in granting one defendant’s motion to dismiss but denying sanctions.

  • April 15, 2025

    Nonparty Hospital Operator Wants Rule 45 Sanction Ruling In Dismissed Asbestos Case

    NEW YORK — An asbestos case’s dismissal with prejudice does not strip a federal court in New York of jurisdiction over a motion seeking attorney fees as a sanction for repeated subpoenas and litigation against a third party, a hospital operator tells the court in a motion for sanctions against a defendant company.

  • April 14, 2025

    Attorneys General Urge Asbestos Trusts To Hold Off On Claim Document Destruction

    Attorneys general from 15 states in an April 11 letter to 10 asbestos bankruptcy trusts express their concern that the trusts’ document retention policies would result in the destruction of data detailing compensation payments and other documents about past claims that could be discoverable and relevant to ongoing and future litigation.

  • April 10, 2025

    In Dismissal Bid, Asbestos Claimants Decry Chapter 11 Plan With 2 Trust Options

    HOUSTON — A recent Chapter 11 plan of reorganization filed by talc mining company BMI Oldco Inc. and an affiliate that proposes two options for an asbestos trust does not save the debtors from having their case dismissed because both options “are patently unconfirmable,” a committee of asbestos personal injury claimants says in a reply brief in a Texas federal bankruptcy court in support of their motion to dismiss.

  • April 10, 2025

    Asbestos Ban Rule Stay Remains In Place, 5th Circuit Says

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals declined to reconsider its decision imposing a 120-day stay of various challenges to the Environmental Protection Agency’s ban on the use of chrysotile asbestos while the government determines what steps it must take to comply with an executive order requiring review of all rules issued in the past four years.

  • April 09, 2025

    Meso Claimants Fight Injunction In Asbestos Debtor’s Insurance Settlement

    RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia federal bankruptcy judge wrongly approved an injunction that bars asbestos claims as part of an $18 million settlement between Chapter 11 debtor Hopeman Brothers Inc. and excess insurers because the settlement’s “nonconsensual third party release and non-debtor discharge and corresponding injunction . . . violate recent Supreme Court precedent,” mesothelioma claimants argue in their opening brief on appeal of the settlement to a federal district court.

  • April 09, 2025

    4th Circuit Wants Response To Motion To Dismiss Expert Subpoena Appeal

    RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals asked for a response to a motion to dismiss an appeal of a ruling quashing a subpoena targeting an asbestos expert after the target of that subpoena said dismissal of the underlying action mooted the issue.

  • April 04, 2025

    J&J Fraudulent Transfer Case Back On After Bankruptcy Dismissal

    TRENTON, N.J. — A federal judge in New Jersey entered a docket-only order on April 3 lifting a stay in the wake of the dismissal of the Chapter 11 case of Johnson & Johnson spinoff Red River Talc LLC and ordered parties in a class action accusing Johnson & Johnson of fraudulent transfers in an attempt to hide consumer talc liabilities to meet and confer and file a joint status report.

  • April 04, 2025

    Judge Lifts Stay Of Consumer Talc Medical Monitoring Class

    TRENTON, N.J. — A consumer talc medical monitoring class action will resume after a federal judge in New Jersey in an April 3 docket order lifted a stay in the wake of the dismissal of Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Red River Talc LLC’s bankruptcy case.

  • April 01, 2025

    U.S. Bankruptcy Judge In Texas Dismisses Chapter 11 Case Of J&J’s Latest Debtor

    HOUSTON — A Texas federal bankruptcy judge on March 31 dismissed the Chapter 11 case of the latest Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff, Red River Talc LLC, after finding that the debtor’s plan of reorganization, which included a $9 billion asbestos trust, cannot be confirmed because voting on the plan cannot be certified due to irregularities and that the plan “contains impermissible nonconsensual third-party releases.”

  • March 26, 2025

    Chapter 11 Debtor Barretts Minerals Says Bankruptcy Case ‘Legitimate’

    HOUSTON — A motion by a committee of asbestos personal injury claimants to dismiss the Chapter 11 cases of talc mining company Barretts Minerals Inc. (BMI) and an affiliate should be denied because “there can be no legitimate dispute that the Chapter 11 Cases were filed with, and continue to serve, a legitimate bankruptcy purpose,” the debtors argue in an objection filed in Texas federal bankruptcy court.

  • March 27, 2025

    New York Justice: Asbestos Study Subpoena Challenge Wasn’t Contempt

    NEW YORK — An asbestos expert’s and hospital’s delay in producing the identities of asbestos-talc study participants while they challenged a ruling requiring compliance with the subpoena constitutes zealous advocacy rather than clear disobedience, a New York justice said in declining to find contempt on the grounds that doing so would “chill such advocacy” and that attorney fees weren’t appropriate.

  • March 26, 2025

    Justice: J&J Successors Can’t Escape Rhode Island Asbestos-Talc Suit

    PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Island law governs successor liability issues in an asbestos-talc case against Johnson & Johnson entities and precludes dismissing the case, a justice in the state said in denying the motion.

  • March 24, 2025

    Subcontractor’s Chapter 11 Exclusive Periods Extended Over Objections Of Insurers

    RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia federal bankruptcy judge has given defunct ship subcontractor and Chapter 11 debtor Hopeman Brothers Inc. more time to file its bankruptcy plan despite objections by two of the company’s insurers, which say Hopeman’s new proposal to ditch its plan of liquidation in favor of a reorganization plan with an asbestos trust is unworkable and would be a waste of the estate’s limited funds.

  • March 21, 2025

    Florida Jury Awards $18M In Asbestos Case Against Brake Grinding Manufacturer

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida jury awarded $18 million to a woman suffering from malignant epithelioid mesothelioma, finding that brake grinding machine manufacturer Hennessy Industries Inc.’s negligence caused her take-home exposures and apportioning it 15% of the liability. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.