An insurer on Monday lost its fight to dismiss the bankruptcy of Imerys Talc America Inc., which sought protection from creditors three years ago, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Manchester, N.H.-based RiverStone insurers said Imerys sold all of its mining operations in early 2021, leaving the company with virtually no business. The insurance company said Imerys has no valid reorganization prospects and that its bankruptcy should be thrown out for bad faith. Imerys filed for bankruptcy in 2019 over more than 14,000 personal-injury claims mostly related to talc it mined that supplied Johnson & Johnson’s baby-powder products, which allegedly cause cancer. Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Wilmington, Del., denied the insurer’s request to dismiss the bankruptcy on Monday. The judge said the insurer failed to show that it is in any immediate harm since Imerys doesn’t currently have a bankruptcy plan before the court. The judge said that RiverStone isn’t currently a creditor, but she left it open for the insurer to raise any harm from a future plan. Last year, Judge Silverstein ruled to disqualify decisive ballots cast in favor of a cancer-victim compensation plan, saying that most of the asbestos-injury clients represented by one law firm had no basis to vote.
