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Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy

  • 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 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.

  • August 13, 2025

    9-Year Delay In Asbestos Case Warranted Dismissal, Court Affirms

    JACKSON, Miss. — A nine-year period where a plaintiff litigated asbestos bankruptcy issues in a separate court but took no substantive steps in her tort litigation in Mississippi warranted a trial court’s dismissal of the action in its entirety for lack of prosecution, the Mississippi Court of Appeals said Aug. 12 in affirming.

  • August 12, 2025

    Debtor Presperse Wins Approval Of Reorganization Plan, Asbestos Trust

    TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge has “adopted, affirmed, and approved in all respects” a bankruptcy judge’s confirmation of the plan of reorganization for raw materials supplier and Chapter 11 debtor Presperse Corp., authorizing the debtor “to proceed with the implementation of the Plan and the establishment of the Talc Personal Injury Trust in accordance with the Plan, Confirmation Order, and the Plan Documents.”

  • August 07, 2025

    Subcontractor Debtor Wants Appeal Of FCR Appointment Dismissed

    RICHMOND, Va. — Insurers of Chapter 11 debtor Hopeman Brothers Inc. are not allowed to appeal a Virginia federal bankruptcy court’s appointment of a legal representative for future asbestos claimants because they didn’t seek approval to file an interlocutory appeal and they lack standing to pursue the appeal, the company says in a motion to dismiss.

  • August 06, 2025

    After Failed Attempt To Resolve Asbestos-Talc Question, Case Set For State Trial

    SAN FRANCISCO — An asbestos case is back in California state court and set for a September trial after a winding road took it to a federal bankruptcy court in Texas where removal was found procedurally improper and then to a federal court in California, where the parties agreed to remand.

  • August 06, 2025

    Florida Judge Permits Whole Genome Testing In Consumer Talc Meso Case

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Two defendants may obtain a blood sample to perform whole genome genetic testing of a 33-year-old mesothelioma sufferer, a judge in Florida said in granting the request and overruling the plaintiffs’ objection.

  • August 04, 2025

    Split Panel Upholds Denial Of Dismissal Of Georgia-Pacific Spinoff’s Bankruptcy

    RICHMOND, Va. — A North Carolina federal bankruptcy court did not err in denying a motion by an asbestos claimants’ committee to dismiss the Chapter 11 case of Georgia-Pacific spinoff Bestwall LLC, a divided Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Aug. 1, finding that “federal courts have subject-matter jurisdiction over bankruptcy cases filed by debtors who may be able to pay their obligations.”

  • August 01, 2025

    3rd Circuit Affirms Class Certification In J&J Asbestos Stock Suit

    PHILADELPHIA — A judge properly certified an asbestos talc securities class after finding that each of six disclosures about the safety of talc or the presence of asbestos in Johnson & Johnson talc led to a drop in the company’s stock price, a divided Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in a divided nonprecedential opinion affirming class certification.

  • July 30, 2025

    Massachusetts Jury Awards $42 Million In Asbestos Case Against Johnson & Johnson

    BOSTON — A Massachusetts jury on July 29 found Johnson & Johnson negligent and that it breached the implied warranty of merchantability and awarded a couple $42,608,300 for the husband’s mesothelioma caused by exposure to asbestos in Johnson & Johnson consumer talc in what sources said is believed to be the largest asbestos verdict in state history.

  • July 30, 2025

    Divided New York Court Finds Asbestos Causation Evidence Supports $3.3M Verdict

    BUFFALO, N.Y. — A divided New York appellate court said expert testimony that chrysotile asbestos causes mesothelioma is sufficient and affirmed a $3.3 million friction products asbestos verdict in the face of specific and general causation challenges by Ford Motor Co.

  • July 29, 2025

    Delaware Jury Awards $9 Million In Asbestos Shotgun Shell Case

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware jury awarded $9 million to a farmer’s estate and family in what is believed to be the first asbestos-related shotgun shell mesothelioma case to go to a verdict.

  • July 29, 2025

    California Panel Affirms Verdict, Rulings In Asbestos Pipe Case

    LOS ANGELES — A pipelayer has not met the “extremely high” burden required to overturn a jury verdict that found he qualified as a sophisticated user, that a pipe manufacturer was not negligent and that the trial court’s nonsuit on a fraudulent concealment claim was incorrect, a California appeals court said in an unpublished opinion.

  • July 28, 2025

    Johnson & Johnson, Couple Battle Over Genetic Testing In Mesothelioma Case

    CHICAGO — A couple’s brief opposing a motion for genetic testing in a mesothelioma case as unfounded and unnecessary is “replete with mischaracterizations and fails to address the heart of the issue,” Johnson & Johnson told an Illinois judge in a reply brief in support of its motion for such testing.

  • July 23, 2025

    Judge Awards $98,280 In Attorney Fees For Asbestos Screening Appeal

    MISSOULA, Mont. —  BNSF Railway Co. is entitled to $98,280 in attorney fees on appeal after prevailing in its case alleging that a medical screening company submitted false claims to a Medicare program for Libby, Mont., residents diagnosed with asbestos-related disease, a Montana federal judge ruled.

  • July 22, 2025

    Judge Sends Appeal In J&J Spinoff’s Chapter 11 Case Back To Bankruptcy Court

    HOUSTON — A Texas federal judge in an appeal from the Chapter 11 case of the latest Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff, Red River Talc LLC, sua sponte remanded the appeal so the bankruptcy court can provide clarification for its rulings dismissing the case and denying rehearing of the dismissal decision without ruling on requests from the Official Committee of Talc Claimants to retain and pay attorneys.