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O-I Glass, Inc. yesterday announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Paddock Enterprises, LLC, has filed its chapter 11 reorganization plan and related disclosure statement with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (the “Court”) as part of the chapter 11 case that Paddock initiated on January 6, 2020, according to a press release. The plan, once confirmed by the courts, will result in a permanent resolution of all current and future asbestos personal injury claims. The plan is jointly proposed by the plan proponents, which are O-I Glass, the official committee of asbestos personal injury claimants, Paddock, and the legal representative for future asbestos personal injury claimants. The plan’s centerpiece is a trust established under section 524(g) of the Bankruptcy Code that will process and pay asbestos claims pursuant to asbestos trust distribution procedures. In exchange for funding the asbestos trust, Paddock and its parent company, O I Glass, as well as certain additional parties, will be protected by an injunction that will prohibit assertion of asbestos claims against the Protected Parties and will channel all such asbestos claims to the asbestos trust.

The Boy Scouts of America said it now expected it will likely be able to pay in full on the sex-abuse claims that drove it to bankruptcy based on new and lower estimates of how much it owes abuse victims, the Wall Street Journal reported. The youth group yesterday said that it now projected the total value of claims eligible for payouts to be roughly $3 billion, the midpoint in a range of $2.4 billion to $3.6 billion. The Boy Scouts’s trust for settling with 82,200 abuse victims grew recently to at least $2.69 billion with contributions from the youth group, its insurers, local councils and others. The Irving, Texas-based youth group said the trust could grow further and would cover all the eligible claims in full. “Survivors of abuse will be paid in full” with the chapter 11 reorganization plan, the Boy Scouts said in a filing Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Facing a slew of sexual-abuse lawsuits, the Boy Scouts filed for bankruptcy in February 2020. The youth group, which has apologized to the victims, says new calculations showed its liability wasn’t nearly as bad as it thought. Critics remained skeptical about the proposed reorganization, which will be debated at a hearing scheduled to begin in late February.

A unit of offshore driller Seadrill Ltd yeterday filed a fast-tracked reorganization plan in Houston bankruptcy court, where it expects to seek approval of the proposal today, Reuters reported. The case comes just a few months after its parent entity emerged from its own bankruptcy proceeding. That reorganization plan is scheduled to go into effect early this year. Seadrill New Finance Ltd’s chapter 11 case is intended to be the “final component” of the entire Seadrill Group’s restructuring efforts, according to a declaration from financial controller Tyson de Souza. De Souza said there are no objections to the plan and that "there can be no question that this is in the best interests" of the company, which is represented by Kirkland & Ellis. Seadrill New Finance, which has around $535 million in secured debt, does not have its own operations. It serves as a holding company for a joint venture with an investment fund controlled by Fintech Holdings Ltd. The joint venture, SeaMex Ltd, holds five rigs in Mexico and underwent a restructuring last year after the state-owned petroleum company Pemex, a top customer, failed to pay up. Under the proposed plan, secured noteholders will take over most of the equity in Seadrill New Finance. The company, which says it has lined up the votes it needs from creditors, will ask U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones to approve the plan on Wednesday afternoon.

Mexican carrier Aeromexico said yesterday that its creditors have overwhelmingly approved the company's restructuring plan as part of its efforts to emerge from bankruptcy, Reuters reported. Aeromexico said in a statement that the voting ended on 7 Jan. and 86% of the creditors who voted backed the plan. "The conclusion of the voting process and the strong support from the company's creditors represents a key milestone in Aeromexico's restructuring process," the company said. It also puts Aeromexico in a strong position to "obtain Court approval for the plan", the company added. Shares in the Aeromexico, which filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. last year amid the pandemic, have been wildly seesawing in recent weeks amid speculation about its bankruptcy proceedings. A meeting of the company's shareholders is due to be held on Friday, where they will discuss the restructuring plan. The court is then due to consider confirming the plan on 27 Jan., Aeromexico said.

The 3-year-old bankruptcy reorganization of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, N.M., entered a critical phase yesterday, with insurance companies and clergy sex abuse claimants meeting in a confidential mediation with attorneys for the church, the Albuquerque Journal reported. At issue is how to resolve the impasse in reaching a universal settlement in the case, particularly how much the archdiocese’s insurance companies will contribute to a payout for nearly 400 people who have filed claims alleging they were sexually abused as children by priests and other clergy in the archdiocese. The mediation includes for the first time a nationally recognized mediator who was brought in during the recently settled chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization filed by USA Gymnastics. The organization agreed last year to pay $380 million in the wake of revelations about former team doctor Larry Nassar, who was convicted in 2018 of sexually assaulting hundreds of girls and women. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma appointed Austin-based mediator Paul Van Osselaer at the request of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. Van Osselaer’s specialty is mediation and arbitration of insurance coverage issues, according to his website. The archdiocese and the nearly 400 sexual abuse survivors who filed claims last year tentatively agreed on a payout figure representing the archdiocese’s portion of any settlement, but that amount is confidential. Meanwhile, the archdiocese has been selling off what is considered “non-mission essential” property and other assets in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and around northern New Mexico for months. Local parishes also have been asked to contribute up to $100,000 each.

Owners of Famous Anthony’s filed bankruptcy yesterday at two of their Roanoke, Va., locations after a hepatitis A outbreak originating from one of their employees killed four people and hospitalized more than 30, the Roanoke Times reported. In 90 days, the company will submit a plan outlining a payment schedule for the people who have claims against the restaurant. Seattle food law attorney Bill Marler currently represents more than two dozen people who were sickened from or died in the Famous Anthony’s outbreak last fall. An employee who worked at three locations — Grandin Road Extension, Williamson Road and Crystal Spring Avenue — tested positive for the virus. Throughout September and October, more than 50 cases were confirmed to be connected to the outbreak. The Crystal Spring location closed and the owners have filed bankruptcy on the remaining two restaurants involved.

A federal judge authorized Purdue Pharma LP and its Sackler family owners to appeal a ruling that threw out their $4.5 billion settlement of thousands of lawsuits linked to the bankrupt company’s OxyContin painkiller and its role in the opioid crisis, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Purdue has until Jan. 17 to apply to the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for an expedited appeal, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon of the Southern District of New York ruled. The Second Circuit can choose whether to accept Purdue’s appeal, which aims to revive a chapter 11 plan to resolve an onslaught of lawsuits alleging that the company and its family owners contributed to opioid addiction. Most U.S. state and local governments backed the settlement with the Sacklers, who received broad releases from opioid-related liability under the bankruptcy plan in exchange. Attorneys general from California, Connecticut and a handful of other states have held out, unsatisfied with the deal terms. Last month, Judge McMahon struck down the chapter 11 plan, saying it went too far by releasing those states’ claims against the Sacklers. On Friday, Judge McMahon allowed Purdue’s appeal to move forward, ruling against the objecting states. The judge acknowledged that allowing the appeal might change states’ negotiating positions with Purdue, but said she didn’t believe it would delay final resolution of the litigation. She said the states were objecting because they were “flush with victory on their appeal and determined to use it to their negotiating advantage.”

Staffing shortages helped push an Iowa chain of nursing homes into bankruptcy as health-care providers continue to struggle with pandemic pressures, Bloomberg News reported. QHC Facilities LLC filed for bankruptcy last week, citing “crippling staffing and employee retention issues” in a court filing. The Clive, Iowa-based company operates eight skilled nursing facilities and two assisted living homes with a total of about 750 beds in the state and 300 workers. Occupancy rates plunged as COVID-19 spread through nursing homes, which accounted for a large proportion of deaths early in the pandemic. At the same time, the health-care sector has suffered from mass resignations as workers face burnout and seek more lucrative employment, contributing to swelling gaps in coverage. The chain was grappling with other problems ahead of the bankruptcy. It’s faced years of fines for substandard patient care, according to the Iowa Capital Dispatch. One of its facilities was damaged in a strong storm in 2020 and still hasn’t been rebuilt. The death of the company’s co-founder in June “had a devastating impact” on the business, his spouse and Chief Executive Officer Nancy Voyna said in the filing, leaving unmet obligations including a $4 million state fee.

One of the best-known buildings in Downtown Sacramento from the early 2000s real estate boom appears to have financial difficulty, with an ownership group filing for bankruptcy last week, the Sacramento Business Journal reported. According to the filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, the entity known as 12th & K Partners LLC, which is connected to the Cathedral Building on the northwest corner of 12th and K streets, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy Thursday, claiming both assets and liabilities in the range of $10 million to $50 million. Bob Clippinger, president of Los Angeles-based Clippinger Investment Properties Inc., is the signatory to the filing, which states the location of principal assets as 1020 12th St. in Sacramento. In 2019, 12th & K Partners appeared to sell at least a portion of the Cathedral Building to another investor. Records show the Ziegelman Family Trust bought 1131 K St. for $1.59 million. That amount, however, seems unlikely to be for the entire building. At that time, 12th & K Partners was also facing pressure from lenders over the note on the building, which was $11.1 million in arrears as of a 2017 foreclosure filing in Sacramento County Superior Court. Plaintiffs in that case filed to have it dismissed a few months later. However, there appears to be another foreclosure pending against the same property, by SBS Trust Deed out of Westlake Village. According to a listing for the filing on foreclosure database Superior Default Services Inc., 1020 12th St. has been set to go to auction several times in recent months, most recently set for Jan. 13, with a listed sale price of $11.8 million.

The judge overseeing the reorganization of opioid maker Mallinckrodt Plc questioned the fairness of a plan to protect company executives and others from future lawsuits, Bloomberg News reported. Under the company’s $5.45 billion bankruptcy exit plan, company officers and directors could not, in most cases, be sued for their alleged role in America’s opioid epidemic. During a virtual court hearing yesterday on the proposal, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey asked how the legal protections would affect creditors who may want to keep suing Mallinckrodt. The company has argued that the provisions should be approved because the reorganization plan would fall apart without the protections, known as third-party releases. A federal judge in New York rejected similar provisions in Purdue Pharma’s reorganization, a legal finding that, if not overturned on appeal, would blow up the drug maker’s plan to end its multi-billion dollar bankruptcy. “It’s not just an issue of necessity, it’s a question of fairness,” Judge Dorsey said in the Mallinckrodt case. “How is it fair to them? What does it give to them?” The company and critics spent three days in a virtual courtroom this week arguing about whether Dorsey should approve the reorganization plan. The judge, based in Wilmington, Delaware, said he would rule as soon as possible. Most creditors have backed the company’s reorganization plan, including the legal releases. A handful have attacked Mallinckrodt’s proposal, in part because it would strip creditors of the right to sue certain people and entities that are not in bankruptcy, but had a role in Mallinckrodt’s operations. Like Purdue, Mallinckrodt has proposed a trust fund to compensate public agencies and others who claim they were harmed by the addictive painkillers that flooded America and caused a spike in overdose deaths. Mallinckrodt disputes those accusations, but filed bankruptcy in part to find a way to resolve the claims, company attorney Christopher Harris said in court on Thursday.