Halliburton $1.5B Asbestos Settlement
Halliburton announced last week that it received judicial approval for a $1.5 billion settlement of asbestos claims against its subsidiaries involving more than 100 insurers.
The company said that the settlements approved Nov. 18 by Judge Judith Fitzgerald of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Pittsburgh, together with other previous agreements, would provide a global resolution to debtors insurance disputes.
Halliburton said the final order from the judge approved agreements between DII Industries, Kellogg Brown & Root, and other affected Halliburton subsidiaries in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and all appealing insurance carriers.
The Houston-based company said that the agreements covered more than 100 solvent and insolvent London-based insurance companies and over 50 domestic insurance companies and other companies with which DII Industries shares insurance coverage.
Halliburton explained that two of the settlement agreements involve Harbison-Walker Refractories Company and Federal-Mogul Products, which are debtors in their own bankruptcy proceedings.
Halliburton said in May that the proposed settlement would cover a $2.78 billion trust fund arrangement with litigants over asbestos and silica claims against the companies.
The agreement includes a $575 million settlement announced in January with Equitas, the Lloyds of London reinsurer set up to handle asbestos claims.
Several insurers had gone to court last year to have the prepackaged bankruptcy proceedings vacated, but this past February Judge Fitzgerald rejected their request.
Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, December 3, 2004. Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.
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