Hess Corp. put a subsidiary into bankruptcy to try to avoid litigating hundreds of asbestos lawsuits tied to an oil refinery it no longer owns. Now workers from that unit are focusing on suing Hess instead, Bloomberg News reported. The legal team for over 600 plaintiffs who say they developed lung disease after working at a U.S. Virgin Islands refinery said in a filing Tuesday it would withdraw pending litigation against the now-bankrupt subsidiary, Honx Inc. It plans to instead proceed with lawsuits against Hess Corp directly for its role in the workers’ asbestos exposure, plaintiffs’ attorney Warren Burns told Bloomberg. Lawyers previously said Honx filed its bankruptcy petition in April “in bad faith,” in order to dodge the up to $1 billion in liabilities it faced. Using bankruptcy to quickly and cheaply settle piles of liability lawsuits has become an increasingly favored tactic in recent years for corporations facing mass litigation. Johnson & Johnson, lumber giant Georgia-Pacific and 3M Co. have tried the maneuver, with varying degrees of success. The refinery in the Virgin Islands used asbestos to insulate boilers, heaters and pipelines. Workers say they were exposed to, and sickened by, the carcinogen during maintenance and turnaround processes at the refinery.
