Travelers $500 Million asbestos settlement overturned.
Travelers Cos. Inc. announced Tuesday that the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals has overturned a bankruptcy court’s approval of a $500 million asbestos-related insurance settlement. The decision, made late Friday, would reverse a $500 million settlement in March 2006 of certain insurance claims arising from a suit by Denver-based Johns-Manville Corp. The case has been remanded to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for reconsideration. In its decision, the New York-based federal appeals court said the bankruptcy court that approved the settlement had no legal jurisdiction to do so.
Travelers, Manville’s longtime primary insurer, agreed in 2004 to settle three groups of “direct action” lawsuits filed against it by claimants allegedly injured by products made by Manville. The plaintiffs argued that Travelers violated state and common law in handling the claims and did not disclose what it knew of the asbestos hazards.
