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Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy

  • April 15, 2025

    Nonparty Hospital Operator Wants Rule 45 Sanction Ruling In Dismissed Asbestos Case

    NEW YORK — An asbestos case’s dismissal with prejudice does not strip a federal court in New York of jurisdiction over a motion seeking attorney fees as a sanction for repeated subpoenas and litigation against a third party, a hospital operator tells the court in a motion for sanctions against a defendant company.

  • April 14, 2025

    Attorneys General Urge Asbestos Trusts To Hold Off On Claim Document Destruction

    Attorneys general from 15 states in an April 11 letter to 10 asbestos bankruptcy trusts express their concern that the trusts’ document retention policies would result in the destruction of data detailing compensation payments and other documents about past claims that could be discoverable and relevant to ongoing and future litigation.

  • April 10, 2025

    In Dismissal Bid, Asbestos Claimants Decry Chapter 11 Plan With 2 Trust Options

    HOUSTON — A recent Chapter 11 plan of reorganization filed by talc mining company BMI Oldco Inc. and an affiliate that proposes two options for an asbestos trust does not save the debtors from having their case dismissed because both options “are patently unconfirmable,” a committee of asbestos personal injury claimants says in a reply brief in a Texas federal bankruptcy court in support of their motion to dismiss.

  • April 09, 2025

    Meso Claimants Fight Injunction In Asbestos Debtor’s Insurance Settlement

    RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia federal bankruptcy judge wrongly approved an injunction that bars asbestos claims as part of an $18 million settlement between Chapter 11 debtor Hopeman Brothers Inc. and excess insurers because the settlement’s “nonconsensual third party release and non-debtor discharge and corresponding injunction . . . violate recent Supreme Court precedent,” mesothelioma claimants argue in their opening brief on appeal of the settlement to a federal district court.

  • April 09, 2025

    4th Circuit Wants Response To Motion To Dismiss Expert Subpoena Appeal

    RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals asked for a response to a motion to dismiss an appeal of a ruling quashing a subpoena targeting an asbestos expert after the target of that subpoena said dismissal of the underlying action mooted the issue.

  • April 04, 2025

    J&J Fraudulent Transfer Case Back On After Bankruptcy Dismissal

    TRENTON, N.J. — A federal judge in New Jersey entered a docket-only order on April 3 lifting a stay in the wake of the dismissal of the Chapter 11 case of Johnson & Johnson spinoff Red River Talc LLC and ordered parties in a class action accusing Johnson & Johnson of fraudulent transfers in an attempt to hide consumer talc liabilities to meet and confer and file a joint status report.

  • April 04, 2025

    Judge Lifts Stay Of Consumer Talc Medical Monitoring Class

    TRENTON, N.J. — A consumer talc medical monitoring class action will resume after a federal judge in New Jersey in an April 3 docket order lifted a stay in the wake of the dismissal of Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Red River Talc LLC’s bankruptcy case.

  • April 01, 2025

    U.S. Bankruptcy Judge In Texas Dismisses Chapter 11 Case Of J&J’s Latest Debtor

    HOUSTON — A Texas federal bankruptcy judge on March 31 dismissed the Chapter 11 case of the latest Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff, Red River Talc LLC, after finding that the debtor’s plan of reorganization, which included a $9 billion asbestos trust, cannot be confirmed because voting on the plan cannot be certified due to irregularities and that the plan “contains impermissible nonconsensual third-party releases.”

  • March 26, 2025

    Chapter 11 Debtor Barretts Minerals Says Bankruptcy Case ‘Legitimate’

    HOUSTON — A motion by a committee of asbestos personal injury claimants to dismiss the Chapter 11 cases of talc mining company Barretts Minerals Inc. (BMI) and an affiliate should be denied because “there can be no legitimate dispute that the Chapter 11 Cases were filed with, and continue to serve, a legitimate bankruptcy purpose,” the debtors argue in an objection filed in Texas federal bankruptcy court.

  • March 27, 2025

    New York Justice: Asbestos Study Subpoena Challenge Wasn’t Contempt

    NEW YORK — An asbestos expert’s and hospital’s delay in producing the identities of asbestos-talc study participants while they challenged a ruling requiring compliance with the subpoena constitutes zealous advocacy rather than clear disobedience, a New York justice said in declining to find contempt on the grounds that doing so would “chill such advocacy” and that attorney fees weren’t appropriate.

  • March 24, 2025

    Subcontractor’s Chapter 11 Exclusive Periods Extended Over Objections Of Insurers

    RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia federal bankruptcy judge has given defunct ship subcontractor and Chapter 11 debtor Hopeman Brothers Inc. more time to file its bankruptcy plan despite objections by two of the company’s insurers, which say Hopeman’s new proposal to ditch its plan of liquidation in favor of a reorganization plan with an asbestos trust is unworkable and would be a waste of the estate’s limited funds.

  • March 21, 2025

    Florida Jury Awards $18M In Asbestos Case Against Brake Grinding Manufacturer

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida jury awarded $18 million to a woman suffering from malignant epithelioid mesothelioma, finding that brake grinding machine manufacturer Hennessy Industries Inc.’s negligence caused her take-home exposures and apportioning it 15% of the liability. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.

  • March 21, 2025

    Federal Judge Dismisses RICO Case Against Asbestos Plaintiffs’ Firm

    CHICAGO — Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) claims brought against an asbestos plaintiffs’ law firm never adequately identify the enterprise in question or how the entities operated, a federal judge in Illinois said in dismissing the federal claims and declining to exercise jurisdiction over the remaining state law claims.

  • March 20, 2025

    New York Court Affirms Causation, Punitive Damages In Asbestos Boiler Case

    NEW YORK — Testimony from an industrial hygienist and thoracic surgeon satisfied the specific causation standard in New York, and there was no error in not precluding a boiler company from cross-examining the surgeon about exposures for which it had not established liability, a New York appellate court said while finding punitive damages appropriate and the damages not beyond what a reasonable person would expect.

  • March 20, 2025

    Discovery Violations Lead To Default, $16.2M Verdict In Washington Asbestos Case

    TACOMA, Wash. — A Washington judge hit Canadian mining outfit Asbestos Corp. Ltd. (ACL) with a $16.2 million verdict after entering default judgment against the company for failure to comply with discovery rulings.

  • March 19, 2025

    Canadian Asbestos Miner Seeks Judge’s Removal After $1,000 Discovery Sanction

    LOS ANGELES — Asbestos Corp. Ltd. (ACL) filed a brief in a California court arguing that its peremptory challenge to the judge overseeing an asbestos case was timely after informing the court that it could not receive a fair hearing from the judge, who previously found that it “willfully and intentionally” failed to comply with court-ordered discovery.

  • March 18, 2025

    BNSF: Common Carrier, Federal Law Preclude Liability, $8M Asbestos Verdict

    SAN FRANCISCO — Railways carrying material under federal law are common carriers and can’t be held strictly liable, and federal law preempts state laws attempting to do so, BNSF Railway Co. tells a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel in a March 17 brief, hoping to erase an $8 million asbestos verdict stemming from its handling of asbestos-tainted vermiculite at the Libby, Mont., mine.

  • March 18, 2025

    Bankrupt Company Says Asbestos Suit Against Receiver Belongs In State Court

    COLUMBIA, S.C. — A bankrupt company tells a federal judge in South Carolina that a February ruling supports limiting precedent on federal jurisdiction to bankruptcy cases and instances where a removing entity was an actual party to the case, while urging the court to reject insurers’ attempts to remove an asbestos action against a receiver for Canadian-based Asbestos Corp. Ltd. (ACL).

  • March 17, 2025

    Avon Affiliates Seek Approval Of Disclosures For Chapter 11 Liquidation Plan

    WILMINGTON, Del. — The U.S. divisions of cosmetics giant Avon seek approval from a Delaware federal bankruptcy judge of the disclosure statement for their Chapter 11 liquidation plan, saying they are optimistic that negotiations with asbestos talc claimants will produce an agreement on how money for allowed talc claims will be distributed from a bankruptcy trust under the plan.

  • March 18, 2025

    Panel Says Underlying Asbestos Suits Are Covered Under Premises-Operations Policies

    FORT WORTH, Texas — The Second District Texas Court of Appeals affirmed a trial court’s ruling that an insurer has a continued duty to defend its insured against underlying asbestos bodily injury lawsuits because the trial court properly found that the underlying allegations fall within the policies’ premises-operations coverage and the insurer failed to show that its policies have been exhausted.

  • March 17, 2025

    Asbestos Company Can’t Get Costs, Access To Expert In Voluntarily Dismissed Case

    NEW YORK — A mesothelioma sufferer cannot be required to continue litigating a five-year-old asbestos case against the lone remaining defendant in his case so that the company can depose an expert and avoid litigation costs in other cases against it, a federal judge in New York said in adopting a magistrate judge’s ruling and granting the plaintiff’s motion to dismiss the case with prejudice.

  • March 11, 2025

    Montana Senate Considers Relocating Asbestos Claims To New Court

    HELENA, Mont. — Legislation in the Montana Senate seeking creation of a three-judge government claims court that would have jurisdiction over constitutional and asbestos-related claims was passed on a second read after moving out of the Judiciary Committee.

  • March 10, 2025

    Talc Law Firm’s Action Belongs With First-Filed Case, Federal Judge Says

    JACKSON, Miss. — A federal judge in Mississippi said the advantages inherent in avoiding overlapping discovery and different rulings in different courts warranted transferring one law firm’s suit targeting a second law firm over asbestos-talc negotiations with Johnson & Johnson.

  • March 10, 2025

    Company Defends Claim As Parties Set Discovery Rules In Asbestos Expert Dispute

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A Johnson & Johnson subsidiary opposed reconsideration of a ruling allowing a single claim to proceed against three experts it accuses in a lawsuit of disparagement and false advertising based on their article linking mesothelioma to exposure to talc, while the parties asked a federal judge in Virginia to permit bifurcated discovery, with the first phase involving fact questions and the second involving damages, which the subsidiary also opposed.

  • March 05, 2025

    J&J Subsidiary, Experts Move For Bifurcated Discovery In Asbestos Study Suit

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A Johnson & Johnson subsidiary and three experts it accuses of disparagement and false advertising based on an article they published linking mesothelioma to exposure to talc asked a federal judge in Virginia to bifurcate discovery, with the first phase involving fact questions and the second involving damages.