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Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy

  • May 27, 2025

    Asbestos Debtor Presperse Adds Insurer Information To Proposed Reorganization Plan

    TRENTON, N.J. — Raw materials supplier and Chapter 11 debtor Presperse Corp. has added substantial information about the coverage available from its historical asbestos insurers in redline versions of its proposed plan of reorganization and disclosure statement filed May 23 in New Jersey federal bankruptcy court.

  • May 21, 2025

    J&J Affiliate’s New Evidence Not Material, Talc Study Author Says

    TRENTON, N.J. — A motion filed by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff Pecos River Talc LLC in New Jersey federal court seeking to revive its dismissed trade libel and fraud action against the author of a scientific study should be rejected because the company’s new evidence is not material and will not change the disposition of the case, the study author argues in an opposition brief.

  • May 20, 2025

    Panel Finds No Error In Lower Court’s Coverage Determinations In Asbestos Suit

    COLUMBIA, S.C. — A trial court did not err in making coverage determinations based on two policies produced by a receiver who was appointed to manage asbestos bodily injury claims filed against an insured, because the insurer failed to submit any evidence to support its argument that some of the policies’ terms changed over the years and were not identical to the two policies produced by the receiver, the South Carolina Court of Appeals said.

  • May 20, 2025

    Parties To Libby, Mont., Fraudulent Claim Verdict Brief Attorney Fee Award

    MISSOULA, Mont. — Parties to Libby, Mont., fraudulent screening diagnosis case responded to a judge’s request for briefing on a pending motion for attorney fees in the wake of what the judge termed “significant developments” since the $1.4 million judgment against the medical provider for allegedly submitting fraudulent claims under a Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) program specifically designed for the asbestos-plagued town.

  • May 20, 2025

    Confirmation Hearing Paused For Talks Among Imerys Asbestos Talc Debtors

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal bankruptcy judge paused the confirmation hearings for the global reorganization plan of asbestos talc debtors Imerys Talc America Inc., Cyprus Mines Corp. and Imerys Talc Italy S.p.A. so the companies can “continue on a resolution of the ‘foreign claims’ issue” that was raised by the recent inclusion of their Italian affiliate in the joint Chapter 11 case.

  • May 16, 2025

    Meso Claimants, Asbestos Debtor Jointly Drop Appeal Due To Expected Settlement

    RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia federal judge on May 15 approved a joint stipulation to dismiss an appeal by mesothelioma claimants over a bankruptcy court’s approval of an injunction that bars asbestos claims as part of an $18 million settlement between Chapter 11 debtor Hopeman Brothers Inc. and excess insurers.

  • May 15, 2025

    Third-Party Hospital: Ignore Tactics In Asbestos Spat, Impose Sanctions

    NEW YORK — Calling an asbestos defendant’s argument in briefing a “desperation tactic” that is both “immature and unprofessional,” a third-party hospital says in a reply brief that a New York federal court should impose sanctions for the undue burden and expense the defendant’s voluntary actions caused.

  • May 15, 2025

    Bankruptcy Judge Asks District Court To Decide If Asbestos Was In Debtor’s Talc

    HOUSTON — A Texas federal district court should decide the threshold question of whether any of the talc sold by BMI Oldco Inc. actually contained asbestos, before the talc mining company’s Chapter 11 case can go any further, the U.S. bankruptcy judge overseeing the case said in a May 14 report and recommendation issued sua sponte.

  • May 13, 2025

    Insurers Seek Changes In Chapter 11 Liquidation Plan Of Avon Affiliates

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal bankruptcy judge should not approve the disclosure statement for the Chapter 11 plan of liquidation for the U.S. divisions of cosmetics giant Avon unless the debtors correct their proposed plan voting and solicitation procedures and confirmation schedule to allow more time for review of the plan, the debtors’ insurers say in a May 12 objection to the plan and two joinders.

  • May 13, 2025

    California Jury Returns Asbestos Verdict For Johnson & Johnson

    LOS ANGELES — A California state court jury returned a verdict for Johnson & Johnson on claims that its baby powder caused a man’s mesothelioma, mooting a trial issue about how the verdict form should list potentially liable nonparty entities.

  • May 12, 2025

    Louisiana Jury Returns $3M Verdict For Family Of Mesothelioma Sufferer

    NEW ORLEANS — After a judge excluded evidence of an expert’s altercation at a conference as providing “very little probative effect,” a Louisiana jury returned a verdict of just over $3 million to the family of a woman who died of mesothelioma after using Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder during her life.

  • May 09, 2025

    Old Asbestos Trust Claim Bars Claim Of Surviving Son, Bankruptcy Judge Says

    CINCINNATI — The son of a man who died from mesothelioma after receiving a payment in 2001 from an asbestos trust in settlement of a nonmalignancy claim cannot have a malignancy claim for his father’s mesothelioma reviewed by the trust because the father’s settlement released the trust from future liability and the son sought review too late, an Ohio federal bankruptcy judge ruled.

  • May 09, 2025

    Ship Subcontractor Seeks Approvals For Bankruptcy Plan, Disclosure Statement

    RICHMOND, Va. — Defunct ship subcontractor and Chapter 11 debtor Hopeman Brothers Inc. and an asbestos claimants’ committee filed a joint motion asking a Virginia federal bankruptcy judge to schedule a combined hearing to approve the disclosure statement for its proposed plan of reorganization and consider confirmation of the plan, which would establish a trust with insurance proceeds and cash “to allow for resolution of the thousands of asbestos claims against Hopeman.”

  • May 08, 2025

    Canadian Court Grants Asbestos Corp. Protection As It Attempts Restructuring

    THETFORD MINES, Quebec — A Canadian court on May 7 granted an application to apply legal protections to Asbestos Corp. Ltd. as the company filed a Chapter 15 bankruptcy in U.S. court in the hopes of restructuring.

  • May 07, 2025

    Asbestos Corp. Seeks Canadian Law Protections As It Attempts Restructuring

    THETFORD MINES, Quebec — Asbestos Corp. Ltd. and its parent company announced May 6 that they would ask a court for legal protection under Canadian law as they attempt to restructure.

  • May 06, 2025

    Defendant: New Discovery Shows Moline’s Talc-Only Study Was False

    NEW YORK — Recent revelations show the identities of participants in asbestos expert Jacqueline Moline’s study on causation were always relevant but were withheld in an effort to further a litigation scheme, and the court should deny a motion for sanctions and instead award costs and fees associated with attempts to obtain what is now clearly relevant and discoverable evidence, an asbestos-talc defendant told a federal judge in New York on May 5.

  • May 06, 2025

    Kaiser/Hanson Permanente Trust Reports 91 Asbestos Claims Settled In 2024

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Kaiser Gypsum Asbestos Personal Injury Trust, established in 2021 by the confirmed reorganization plan of Chapter 11 debtors Kaiser Gypsum and affiliate Hanson Permanente Cement Inc., settled 91 claims last year for a total of $248,400, according to the trust’s 2024 annual report filed in North Carolina federal bankruptcy court.

  • May 06, 2025

    Georgia Enacts Measure Changing Discovery, Damages In Injury, Death Actions

    ATLANTA — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law a wide-ranging bill substantially amending how the state’s courts handle civil practice, discovery and tort liability in the state; the measure stays discovery when a party moves for dismissal prior to filing an answer, limits the ability of injured parties to argue at trial about the amount of noneconomic damages in bodily injury and wrongful death cases and limits the recovery of attorney fees.

  • May 05, 2025

    Family Can’t Secure New Trial In Rhode Island Asbestos Case

    PROVIDENCE, R.I. — While the evidence could have supported a verdict in favor of a mesothelioma sufferer's family and there were some anomalies at trial, the plaintiffs largely failed to object, and the jury was not improperly influenced into finding for the a fiber supplier, a Rhode Island justice said in denying a new trial and judgment as a matter of law.

  • May 01, 2025

    J&J Affiliate Says New Evidence Shows Fraud By Asbestos Talc Study Author

    TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff Pecos River Talc LLC says in a motion filed in New Jersey federal court seeking to revive its dismissed trade libel and fraud action against the author of a scientific study that it now has ample evidence to prove that the study’s conclusion that the mesothelioma of each of the 33 participants had to be caused by their talc use is false.

  • May 01, 2025

    J&J Entity Seeks Study Participants; Judge Won’t Reconsider Dismissal Ruling

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A federal judge on April 30 denied a motion for reconsideration of his ruling that a Johnson & Johnson entity adequately alleged that experts’ study linking mesothelioma to consumer talc disparaged the company and its products.  In a separate development, Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Pecos River Talc LLC asked a federal judge to compel the three asbestos experts to produce the identities of 75 study participants who reportedly developed mesothelioma solely after exposure to consumer talc products, saying that the evidence is necessary to the prosecution of its injurious falsehood claim and that no privacy issue or law precludes identification.

  • 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.