Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy
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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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A North Carolina federal bankruptcy judge rescinded his final decree and reopened the joint Chapter 11 case of Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc., saying only that he entered the decree “as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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.