News & Events

On August 15, the Firm achieved a significant victory for Travelers Casualty and Surety Company ("Travelers"), during a hearing in the Skinner asbestos bankruptcy case on the issue of whether Skinner's insurers have standing to object to a plan of reorganization jointly proposed by Skinner and an asbestos claimants' representative pursuant to Section 524(g) of the Bankruptcy Code. Ruling from the bench, Judge Bruce McCullough of the Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania held that Travelers and Skinner's other insurers clearly have standing to object to Skinner's plan of reorganization. Judge McCullough went on to state that the Skinner plan appeared to him to be a "scam," particularly insofar as the plan: (i) establishes an asbestos trust, controlled by a conflicted trustee, which may provide for the payment of 30,000 asbestos claims that were administratively dismissed by a federal court judge in 1996; and (ii) provides for no ongoing business to be undertaken by the reorganized debtor, triggering a significant issue under Section 1143(d)(3) of the Bankruptcy Code. The Court concluded the hearing by directing the parties to brief Section 1141(d)(3), with the implication that there may be a sufficient basis to dismiss the Skinner bankruptcy case in its entirety. The Simpson Thacher team consists of Andrew Amer, Elisa Alcabes and Michael Hartmere (litigation), Richard Douglas and Todd Carpunky (bankruptcy) and Dominic Cutri (paralegal).