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

Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy

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.).
May 06, 2024
Receiver’s Asbestos Claims Process Survives Benzene Defendant’s Objection

MONROE, N.C. — A receiver’s proposal of how to handle thousands of asbestos and benzene claims of the now defunct Radiator Specialty Co. Inc. survived challenges by a sometime co-defendant claiming that the arrangement might leave it holding the bag in Pennsylvania litigation and where joint and several liability applies when a judge in North Carolina turned away the objections and adopted the suggested process.
May 03, 2024
Appeal Of Bestwall Asbestos Claimants’ Discovery Sanctions Dismissed By Split Panel

RICHMOND, Va. — A Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel in a divided opinion dismissed an appeal by asbestos personal injury claimants and their law firm in the Chapter 11 case of Georgia-Pacific spinoff Bestwall LLC of the dismissal of their challenges to a bankruptcy judge’s contempt finding and sanctions against them for not providing complete information to the debtor in a discovery questionnaire.
May 02, 2024
Judge Denies Spoliation Sanctions, Stays Trial Pending Appeal

MISSOULA, Mont. — A federal judge overseeing a case involving BNSF Railway Co.’s handling of asbestos at the Libby, Mont., vermiculite mine denied the railway’s renewed motion for sanctions related to the failure to preserve the plaintiff’s remains and partially granted its request for bifurcated trial after a jury awarded $8 million to two individuals in a similar suit. On May 1, the judge stayed the May 6 trial pending an appeal of that verdict.
May 02, 2024
Johnson & Johnson Has New $6.5B Plan To Resolve Asbestos Talc Claims

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson (J&J) announced May 1 that it will pay nearly $6.5 billion to resolve all ovarian cancer claims through a prepackaged plan of reorganization for another subsidiary that will file for bankruptcy in Texas if the plan is accepted by asbestos talc claimants.
May 01, 2024
Judge Finds No Jurisdiction Over J&J Spinoff’s Talc Study Fraud Claims

TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey courts lack jurisdiction over Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) former bankrupt affiliate LTL Management LLC’s fraud claims against three experts involving a study of mesothelioma patients allegedly exposed to asbestos in talc because even assuming that the article targeted the company without naming it, sending a computer file to a publisher and working as an expert in the state are too tenuous to establish jurisdiction, a federal judge in New Jersey said April 30 in dismissing the case.
May 01, 2024
9th Circuit Panel Affirms Dismissal With Prejudice Of UCL Asbestos-Talc Claims

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Plaintiffs in a class action “littered” a fifth amended complaint with descriptions of advertisements, but many appear unrelated to the asbestos-talc claims underpinning the California unfair competition law (UCL) allegations or lack the necessary evidence of reliance, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in an unpublished memorandum affirming summary judgment for the defendants.
April 29, 2024
Claims Against Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Successors Stayed, Bankruptcy Judge Says

TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey federal bankruptcy on April 26 enforced a temporary restraining order (TRO) and stayed a state court asbestos talc liability suit against a nondebtor affiliate of talc debtor Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Inc. (WCD) in an adversary proceeding over successor liability claims.
April 25, 2024
Magistrate Judge Won’t Exclude Moline’s Supplemental Report In Asbestos-Talc Spat

NEW YORK — While disclosure of Jacqueline Moline’s 2023 study and her dose-calculation opinion were untimely, they were harmless because there is no evidence that her opinion changed, that the defendants were unaware of her opinions or that any prejudice the defendants would face cannot be remedied, a federal magistrate judge in New York said April 24 in denying a motion to exclude reliance on the supplemental material.
April 25, 2024
Judge Denies Spoliation Sanction, Will Bifurcate Montana Asbestos Trial

MISSOULA, Mont. — A federal judge overseeing a case involving BNSF Railway Co.’s handling of asbestos at the Libby, Mont., vermiculite mine denied the railway’s renewed motion for sanctions related to the failure to preserve the plaintiff’s remains and partially granted its request for bifurcated trial after a jury earlier this month awarded $8 million to two individuals in a similar suit.
April 25, 2024
Divided 4th Circuit Panel Shuts Down Appeals Of Denial Of Chapter 11 Dismissal

RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has turned down requests by asbestos claimants in the joint Chapter 11 case of Ingersoll-Rand and Trane spinoffs Aldrich Pump LLC and Murray Boiler LLC to appeal a North Carolina bankruptcy court’s decision not to dismiss the case.
April 24, 2024
Montana Jury Awards $8M In Pair Of Lawsuits Against BNSF

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A federal jury in Montana found that BNSF Railway Co.’s handling of asbestos at the Libby, Mont., vermiculite mine fell outside its duties as a common carrier and awarded $4 million to each of two plaintiffs who died as a result of their resulting exposures to asbestos.
April 23, 2024
Florida Jury Returns Defense Verdict In Asbestos-Talc Trial

SARASOTA, Fla. — A Florida jury returned a defense verdict for Johnson & Johnson (J&J) on April 18, rejecting claims that its consumer talc contained asbestos that caused a woman’s fatal ovarian cancer, sources told Mealey Publications.
April 19, 2024
Punitive Damages, Strict Liability Claims Survive In Libby, Mont., Asbestos Case

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Evidence at an asbestos trial over exposures arising from a railway’s actions at the Libby, Mont., vermiculite mine creates a prima facie case for the railway’s strict liability for engaging in abnormally dangerous activities, and the company can face punitive damages for the conduct of its predecessors under Montana law because there was sufficient evidence at trial that they knew the risks of asbestos for the claim to go to the jury, a federal judge said in denying two motions for a directed verdict on April 18 and April 17.
April 19, 2024
Bar Date For Asbestos Claims Set In New Chapter 11 Case Of Niche Cosmetics Company

LOS ANGELES — A California federal bankruptcy judge has set a bar date for holders of asbestos claims to file proofs of claim in the new Chapter 11 case of professional cosmetics maker Ben Nye Co. Inc. over the objections of asbestos personal injury law firms and their clients in suits naming the debtor as a defendant.
April 18, 2024
Court: Positive Outlook Doesn’t Outweigh Disclosures In Asbestos Securities Class

NEW YORK — Even while putting a positive spin on Garrett Motion Inc.’s future, the company repeatedly warned investors about the dire financial situation posed by the asbestos-related liabilities it acquired in its spinoff from Honeywell International Inc., and the company was unlikely to believe it could mislead the market given the public nature of its information, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said April 17 in affirming dismissal of a securities class action.