Talc supplier Barretts Minerals is challenging an effort by creditors, including tort claimants, to move its chapter 11 bankruptcy case from Texas to Montana, where the business is based, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Facing hundreds of personal-injury lawsuits, the former Pfizer minerals business filed for bankruptcy protection in October in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston. Barretts supplied talc for cosmetic products alleged to have caused injuries primarily from exposure to asbestos supposedly contained in the products. Pfizer spun off Barretts in 1992, when the health care business wanted to divest itself of its minerals businesses. Minerals Technologies became an independent company that included Barretts, taking over the specialty minerals businesses. Earlier this month, the official unsecured creditors’ committee said the Barretts bankruptcy case should be heard in Montana, noting that the company’s primary business of talc mining had occurred in Dillon, Mont., a few miles from its headquarters. The committee said Barretts is trying to justify its “blatant forum shopping” in Texas by becoming a landlord to two restaurants there, a McDonald’s in San Antonio and a Whataburger in San Angelo. In a response filed on Monday, Barretts Chief Restructuring Officer David Gordon said that of the more than 550 pending talc lawsuits against the business, he isn’t aware of any in Montana. In contrast, he said that he is aware of at least six lawsuits against Barretts in Texas.
