Ford Motor Co. has filed a motion to unseal the records in the Garlock bankruptcy case, hoping to obtain evidence it needs to derail asbestos lawsuits against itself, Forbes.com reported yesterday. In a motion and accompanying memorandum of law filed with the federal bankruptcy court in Charlotte, N.C. late on Friday, Ford is seeking access to sealed testimony and exhibits that Bankruptcy Judge George R. Hodges relied upon to conclude that plaintiff lawyers had withheld evidence their clients had made conflicting statements about their asbestos exposure to different courts and bankruptcy trusts set up to pay claimants. In his January ruling slashing Garlock’s asbestos-related liabilities to $125 million, Judge Hodges cited the results of an examination of 15 plaintiff files which found that lawyers had withheld potentially important evidence of asbestos exposure from each of them. The judge stopped just short of calling the activity fraudulent, but said that the process “was infected by the manipulation of exposure evidence by plaintiffs and their lawyers.”
