Three years ago, Sen. Joe Biden and other Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee argued against an asbestos trust fund Congress was planning because the estimated claims would exceed the total funds and wipe it out, resulting in more lawsuits in state courts and more bankruptcies.
W.R. Grace and Company asked U.S. bankruptcy judge Judith Fitzgerald to calculate the value of asbestos suits against it. At trial in January, epidemiologist Howard Ory testified that among 380,000 plaintiffs who filed asbestos claims from 1989 to 2001, about 27,000 presented valid claims.
Plaintiff lawyers subsequently settled claims on terms so favorable to Grace that the value of its stock multiplied by 15.
Now the banks who provided W.R. Grace with low interest bankruptcy loans say they should collect back interest because Grace never was bankrupt. They declared bankruptcy despite possessing great assets, because the cost of asbestos claims appeared to exceed their assets.
Kind of makes you wonder.
[...] W.R. Grace with low interest bankruptcy loans say they should collect back interest because Grace never was bankrupt. They declared bankruptcy despite possessing great assets, because the cost of asbestos claims [...]