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

Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy

September 25, 2025
Talc Asbestos Claimants Decry Absence Of Section 524(g) Measures In Reorganization

NEW YORK — All three “erroneous holdings” made by a New York federal bankruptcy judge in approving a Chapter 11 reorganization plan for cosmetics icon Revlon Inc. and affiliates without mandating the establishment of an asbestos personal injury trust “require[] reversal,” 42 individuals who developed an asbestos disease after the bankruptcy petition was filed say in their appellants’ reply brief in the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
September 23, 2025
Massachusetts Jury Awards $80 Million For Asbestos-Clay Exposures

MIDDLESEX, Mass. — A Massachusetts jury found American Art Clay Co. Inc. liable for exposing a woman to asbestos in talc-based clay products and awarded her widower $80 million, including $60 million in punitive damages.
September 23, 2025
Insurer, Reinsurer File Joint Dismissal Motion In Mine Coverage Dispute

OMAHA, Neb. — National Indemnity Co. (NICO) and a reinsurer it sued for breach of contract and declaratory judgment jointly moved in Nebraska federal court to dismiss the reinsurer with prejudice as part of NICO’s suit to enforce its reinsurers’ obligations for incurred liabilities related to asbestos exposure stemming from a Montana mine.
September 22, 2025
Insurers Appeal Subrogation Ruling In Bankruptcies Of Imerys Asbestos Talc Parties

WILMINGTON, Del. — An appeal by a group of insurers of asbestos talc debtors Imerys Talc America Inc. and Cyprus Mines Corp. who say they have subrogation rights to the proceeds of the debtors’ $280 million settlement with other insurers was docketed in the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
September 19, 2025
Pipe Maker’s RICO Case Against Asbestos Counsel Reopened By Judge

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois reinstated a pipe maker’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO)case against counsel for asbestos plaintiffs, finding that proposed amendments could potentially cure defects that led to dismissal of the complaint.
September 19, 2025
Claimants Seek Rehearing In Georgia-Pacific Debtor’s Bankruptcy Dismissal Row

RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals directed Georgia-Pacific spinoff and debtor Bestwall LLC to respond to a petition for rehearing en banc in which the asbestos claimants’ committee in the Chapter 11 case argues that the court’s decision affirming denial of the committee’s bid to dismiss the case goes against U.S. Supreme Court precedent.
September 18, 2025
J&J Wants Causation Experts, Longo’s Testing Excluded From Coordinated Talc Cases

LOS ANGELES — Following a partial win on upcoming bellwether trials, Johnson & Johnson entities asked the Los Angeles judge overseeing coordinated asbestos-talc ovarian cancer proceedings to exclude the plaintiffs’ general causation experts and expert William Longo’s testing and opinions, saying the experts twist and misreport findings and are not reliable.
September 18, 2025
Bankruptcy Judge Reopens Chapter 11 Case Of Kaiser Debtors Due To ‘Clerical Error’

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A North Carolina federal bankruptcy judge rescinded his final decree and reopened the joint Chapter 11 case of Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc., saying only that he entered the decree “as a result of a clerical error.”
September 16, 2025
‘Problematic’ Talc Securities-Class Ruling Requires Rehearing, J&J Warns

PHILADELPHIA — A panel opinion allowing courts to put aside the rigorous analysis traditionally required for class certification and creating a new standard for price impact disclosures in securities actions will have a “problematic” influence in district court cases involving billions of dollars, Johnson & Johnson entities defending claims that they hid the presence of asbestos in talc from shareholders tell the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
September 16, 2025
Oregon Jury Awards $33 Million In Shipyard Laborer’s Asbestos Gaskets Case

PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon jury awarded a former shipyard laborer $33 million after he developed mesothelioma from exposure to asbestos in John Crane Inc. gaskets and packing, attributing 30% of the liability to the company after finding that the conduct of four of 15 nonparties was also a substantial factor in causing the disease.
September 12, 2025
Dental, Drywall Companies Hit With $29M Asbestos Verdict By California Jury

LOS ANGELES — A California jury on Sept. 11 awarded $29 million to a man with mesothelioma, finding that joint compound and dental supply companies were liable and that the dental supplier acted with malice.
September 12, 2025
Denial Of Dismissal Of Talc Supplier’s Bankruptcy Proper, 3rd Circuit Says

PHILADELPHIA — A South Carolina state court order appointing a receiver for defunct talc supplier Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Inc. did not bar the company’s board of directors from filing a bankruptcy petition for the company, a unanimous Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held in affirming a New Jersey federal bankruptcy judge’s denial of a bid by the receiver and asbestos claimants to dismiss Whittaker’s Chapter 11 case.
September 09, 2025
N.Y. Jury Awards $12.25M In Environmental Asbestos Case Against Vanderbilt

CANTON, N.Y. — A New York jury awarded a woman more than $12 million for mesothelioma she developed after she was exposed to asbestos while living in the vicinity of Vanderbilt Minerals LLC’s talc mine, sources told Mealey Publications.
September 05, 2025
Talc Bankruptcy Parties Debate Having District Court Decide Presence Of Asbestos

HOUSTON — Parties for and against a Texas federal bankruptcy judge’s ruling that a federal district court should decide whether any of the talc sold by debtor BMI Oldco Inc. contained asbestos before the talc mining company’s Chapter 11 case can proceed filed supplemental briefs in support of their positions at the invitation of the district court.
September 03, 2025
California Panel Publishes Sophisticated User Ruling In Asbestos Pipe Case

LOS ANGELES — A California appellate court granted a request to publish a recent decision in which the court upheld a jury verdict finding a pipelayer qualified as a sophisticated user of asbestos-containing pipe and that the manufacturer was not negligent.
September 02, 2025
Ramona Elliott Is New Acting Director Of U.S. Trustee Program

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi announced Aug. 29 that she has selected longtime federal service official Ramona D. Elliott to serve as the acting director of the Department of Justice’s U.S. Trustee Program (USTP).
August 26, 2025
Bankruptcy Judge Says Avon Entities’ Liquidation Plan Can Be Confirmed

WILMINGTON, Del. — The Chapter 11 liquidation plan of the U.S. divisions of cosmetics giant Avon was proposed in good faith and can be confirmed once various minor revisions are made, a Delaware federal bankruptcy judge held in a memorandum opinion following the plan confirmation hearing.
August 26, 2025
Asbestos Trusts, Defendants Brief Court’s Power To Preserve Claims Data

WILMINGTON, Del. — Asbestos bankruptcy trusts and key defendants in litigation over trust documents filed supplemental briefs detailing whether the Delaware Chancery Court’s equitable powers enable it to order preservation of claims data.
August 26, 2025
J&J Fails In Bid To Exclude Beasley Allen Attorneys From N.J. Talc Litigation

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — A New Jersey judge admitted two attorneys pro hac vice over the objections of Johnson & Johnson entities that claimed that the duo acted inappropriately in a former bankruptcy.
August 25, 2025
Congoleum Creditor’s Claim For Pollution Liability Barred, Split 3rd Circuit Says

PHILADELPHIA — In a divided opinion on rehearing, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 22 held that the bankruptcy court overseeing the decades-old Chapter 11 case of asbestos debtor Congoleum Corp. correctly reopened the case and found that a former affiliate of the debtor is not liable to pay for cleanup at a polluted site in New Jersey.
August 25, 2025
New York Justice Orders New Trial On Apportionment After Trust Disclosures

NEW YORK — Two years after a jury awarded a man $28 million for asbestos exposures suffered at the World Trade Center, a New York justice ordered a new trial on apportionment, saying newly produced asbestos trust and settlement evidence likely would have altered the course of the trial. On Aug. 22, one of the defendants filed a notice of appeal from the decision.
August 21, 2025
Revlon Debtors Tell 2nd Circuit Plaintiffs’ Claims Properly Discharged

NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should affirm a bankruptcy judge’s finding that the discharge and injunction provisions of the confirmed Chapter 11 reorganization plan for cosmetics icon Revlon and affiliates bar the claims of 42 individuals who developed an asbestos disease after the bankruptcy case ended because the plan’s injunction was correctly enforced against the claimants, the debtors argue in their appellee brief.
August 20, 2025
Bankruptcy Judge Issues Decree Closing Chapter 11 Case Of Kaiser Debtors

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A North Carolina federal bankruptcy judge entered a final decree closing the joint Chapter 11 case of Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. following the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ finding on remand from the U.S. Supreme Court that the case was proposed in good faith and satisfied the asbestos bankruptcy requirements of Section 524(g) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
August 15, 2025
Man: J&J Can’t Revoke Talc Documents’ Authenticity Agreement After Discovery

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Johnson & Johnson entities avoided formal discovery by agreeing to acknowledge the authenticity of produced business records in more than 40 asbestos cases and should not now be allowed to revoke that admission after the close of discovery in one of the cases, a man tells a judge in Connecticut in an Aug. 14 motion.
August 15, 2025
Judge Won’t Limit Asbestos Trial By Ruling On Expert Pathology Issues

LOS ANGELES — An asbestos coordinating judge said he would not tie a trial court’s hands by precluding a family from objecting if Johnson & Johnson entities cite tissue digestion studies in an asbestos-talc case and the trial court can determine whether a second expert’s deposition testimony can be shown to a jury, a California judge said in denying a motion.