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A Hess Corp. unit filed for bankruptcy to resolve asbestos-injury claims stemming from an oil refinery the company used to own in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Honx Inc., previously known as Hess Oil New York Corp., filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy to drive a settlement of personal-injury lawsuits stemming from alleged exposure to asbestos, silica and other toxic substances, court papers say. There are roughly 580 cases pending, including a potentially consequential trial set to begin next week. The energy company has faced asbestos litigation for decades from contractors and employees who worked at the St. Croix oil refinery, known from its 1966 opening through 1998 as Hovic, when it was owned solely by Hess, and later as Hovensa and then Limetree Bay. The lawsuits had been “relatively dormant, with no trials scheduled” in the Virgin Islands until July 2021, when lawmakers there allowed people older than 65 to request an expedited trial date within 180 days, according to court papers filed by the Honx subsidiary. The first of these preference trials is scheduled to begin next week, court papers say.

Hertz Corp. faces more complaints that customers were arrested at gunpoint because of disputed reports that they stole the cars they’d rented, a problem the company’s new chief executive has been vowing to eradicate, Bloomberg News reported. Lawyers suing Hertz say they’re preparing to file about 100 new claims, a move that would boost the total of false arrest allegations to more than 300 and complicate efforts to resolve a legal fight playing out in federal court. The new claims are an early challenge for Chief Executive Officer Stephen Scherr, who took over in February and pledged this month that Hertz would change its practices to protect customers who’ve done nothing wrong from false arrests. Currently, at least 230 customers say in court papers that Hertz improperly called in police, mostly while the company was haggling with them about overdue rentals. A small number of cases, including two new claims, allege errors by Hertz employees caused police to pull over innocent customers on suspicion of driving stolen cars. The lead attorney for customers is Francis Alexander Malofiy, a Philadelphia lawyer who has spent years fighting Hertz in court. He says many new clients have come to him in the months since news about the false arrest lawsuits became public. The new claims will be filed in the next few weeks, Malofiy said. Most will land in front of a federal judge in Wilmington, Delaware where the company reorganized in bankruptcy as the pandemic began to hurt the economy in 2020. Hertz left bankruptcy protection in June, but a shell company remained behind to resolve disputed debts, including false arrest claims.

Families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre have asked a judge to throw out InfoWars' bankruptcy, saying it was filed to avoid upcoming trials to determine damages in defamation cases the families have won against the right-wing website, Reuters reported. The families filed their motion on Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, where InfoWars founder Alex Jones placed three holding companies into chapter 11 on April 17. The bankruptcy came in the wake of court judgments that found conspiracy theorist Jones and his media businesses liable in multiple defamation lawsuits after he falsely claimed that the 2012 shooting in Newtown, Conn. that left 20 children and six school employees dead was a hoax. The families said in Tuesday's filing that the bankruptcy is "not typical chapter 11" and that the case has "no valid bankruptcy purpose" and should be dismissed with prejudice as a bad-faith filing. InfoWars attorney Kyung Lee of Parkins Lee & Rubio previously rejected attacks on the legitimacy of the case and argued that the bankruptcy is necessary to preserve the means to eventually pay damages in the defamation cases. The chapter 11 case was filed shortly before a trial to determine how much the families were owed in one of the lawsuits was scheduled to begin in Texas. It was put on hold as a result of the bankruptcy.

The top executive at McKinsey & Company, appearing on Wednesday for the first time before Congress to answer for the consulting firm’s role in fanning the opioid crisis, came under sharp criticism from Democratic lawmakers, the New York Times reported. Bob Sternfels, McKinsey’s managing partner, testifying remotely to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, apologized for McKinsey’s work in helping drive sales at opioid makers. He said that the firm “failed to recognize the broader context of what was going on in society around us.” But Mr. Sternfels did not cede ground on the main topic of the hearing: whether McKinsey’s simultaneously advising opioid makers and their regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, posed a conflict of interest. On that front, he insisted, McKinsey had been “transparent.” “McKinsey did not — did not — serve both the F.D.A. and Purdue on opioid-related matters,” Mr. Sternfels told the committee. “As both McKinsey and the F.D.A. have made clear, our work for the F.D.A. focused on administrative and operational topics including improvements to organizational structure, business processes and technology.” To some Democratic members, Mr. Sternfels’ words rang hollow. “Your apologies feel empty and insincere,” said Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.). McKinsey had worked with Purdue, Johnson & Johnson and other opioid makers to identify doctors who were heavy prescribers of painkillers, resulting in highly addictive drugs finding their way to some of the most vulnerable people in America. The work for Purdue began in 2004 and continued for 15 years as opioid-related deaths surged.

Lawyers for InfoWars defended the far-right wing website’s decision to seek bankruptcy protection under a provision of the law that is for small and family-owned businesses, noting that founder Alex Jones’ parents have been involved in his endeavors, Reuters reported. Their statements came in court papers filed on Monday in response to questions U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez, who is overseeing the case, raised at a hearing last week surrounding two of the three Jones-related entities, InfoW LLC and Prison Planet TV LLC, that were placed into bankruptcy in Victoria, Texas on April 17. InfoWars filed for bankruptcy following recent court judgments that found Jones and his media businesses liable in multiple defamation lawsuits after he falsely claimed that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut that left 20 children and six school employees dead was a hoax. Lawyers for InfoWars have said the bankruptcy is necessary to preserve the means to eventually pay damages in the cases. The U.S. Department of Justice’s bankruptcy watchdog and families of the Sandy Hook victims have questioned the legitimacy of the bankruptcy filing, with some saying Jones and his businesses are using the legal protection afforded under chapter 11 to avoid trials that will determine the amount of damages owed. One trial in Texas was set to start this week but was halted as a result of the bankruptcy. Lopez specifically had asked InfoWars attorney Kyung Lee of Parkins Lee & Rubio how InfoW and Prison Planet qualify for bankruptcy protection under subchapter V of chapter 11 designed to aid small businesses. Lopez noted that both entities exist solely to hold intellectual property and don’t have operations. To qualify for subchapter V protection, a debtor must be “engaged in commercial or business activities.” Subchapter V, which was enacted in 2019, is popular for family-owned businesses. The company’s lawyers said in Monday’s filing that until very recently, the bankrupt entities were single-member owned LLCs that “operated within a family-owned structure, which include Mr. Jones’ father and mother.” The brief did not provide further details of their involvement.

A California bankruptcy judge questioned American Apparel founder Dov Charney’s motive for filing for chapter 11, saying the fashion entrepreneur wanted to thwart litigation against him by a hedge-fund manager that backed his failed bid to be reinstated as the company’s chief executive, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Judge Vincent Zurzolo of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles said Mr. Charney’s bankruptcy was a legal tactic meant to hinder or delay collection efforts by hedge-fund manager Standard General LP to enforce about $30 million in judgments. “Clearly, these were strategic efforts to delay and thwart creditor action, rather than a legitimate and reasonable effort to reorganize,” Judge Zurzolo said from the bench. Charney is still protected by the automatic bankruptcy stay that has paused the Standard General litigation. On Tuesday, Judge Zurzolo didn’t consider a request by Standard General to lift the bankruptcy stay, which Charney has opposed. Standard General has accused Charney of attempting to evade judgments against him and said its litigation against him belongs in state court, rather than in his personal bankruptcy case.

An Illinois-based trucking company has filed for chapter 11 protection, citing a jury award of $10 million in December after a 2019 fatal truck crash involving one of its drivers, Freight Waves reported. Joseph Keller, president of Marvin Keller Trucking, headquartered in Sullivan, Ill., filed the first of several emergency motions in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of Illinois on Friday, stating the bankruptcy filing is necessary to “avoid irreparable and immediate harm” to the carrier’s operations. In the filing, Keller wrote that the “substantial money judgment” against the trucking company, stemming from the jury verdict is the “main event” for the family-owned trucking company, founded by his father, Marvin Keller in 1965, to file chapter 11. “With an agreed forbearance on collection of the judgment about to expire, and the debtor [MKT] unable to pay the judgment amount, the debtor filed a voluntary petition under chapter 11 to maximize the potential recovery to its creditors and for the benefit of the other parties in interest including its employees,” according to the trucking company’s emergency motion. A hearing on Marvin Keller’s emergency motions is set for Wednesday.

Officials from 24 states want coin dealer Lear Capital Inc.’s chapter 11 case thrown out, alleging the business filed for bankruptcy to evade government investigations into its business practices, not for a legitimate purpose, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Attorneys general and financial regulators said in court papers Monday that Lear Capital’s bankruptcy case wasn’t tied to any financial distress but was filed “solely to gain a tactical advantage” in pending investigations of the company. Lear, which sells gold and silver coins at a markup to individual investors over the phone, filed for chapter 11 last month to resolve legal claims that might be asserted against it after it resolved probes into its business practices by the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office and New York Attorney General. The company paid a combined $8.73 million to Los Angeles and New York last year without admitting wrongdoing to settle lawsuits alleging it misled its customers and charged hidden fees. But there are dozens more state investigations of Lear and its management pending around the country, according to Monday’s court filing. State officials said the bankruptcy had more to do with Lear’s desire to bring those probes to a head in its chosen forum than with any real financial distress.