Asbestos Bankruptcies on the Decline

Reuters is reporting that bankruptcies caused by asbestos-related lawsuits are on the decline.

In 2006 alone, Owens Corning, Armstrong World Industries Inc., USG Corp., Federal-Mogul Corp., Babcock & Wilcox Co., Combustion Engineering Inc. and Kaiser Aluminum Corp. bolted from Chapter 11, freed from billions of dollars of liabilities.

However there are other companies like Congoleum and Pittsburgh Corning Company that aren’t so lucky. They have longer standing cases and money owed.

As one person said,

“Confirmability has been an issue in a number of mass tort cases,” says a veteran bankruptcy attorney not involved in the case, Sandra Mayerson of Squire Sanders & Dempsey LLP. “Many have gone through several iterations of a plan until they finally got it right. I am not aware of another plan, however, where the case was dismissed because it was unconfirmable. Usually, the plan proponents keep going back to the drawing board until they get it right.”