May 21, 2007

A New Jersey court absolved insurers from liability for asbestos claims from a collusive prepackaged bankruptcy. Nathan Koppel in today's WSJ:

Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Stroumtsos Jr. concluded that the agreement was the result of collusion between Congoleum's former bankruptcy lawyers and lawyers representing asbestos claimants. The agreement "contains no meaningful provisions to ferret out fraudulent claims," he wrote.

See also the WSJ Law Blog (with additional links), the decision, and the Mass Tort Litigation Blog. Our earlier coverage: Feb. 13, Jun. 7, and other articles. Roger Parloff did a comprehensive expose in 2004 for Fortune ("Welcome to the New Asbestos Scandal", Sep. 6, 2004), which we had previously reported as subscriber-only.