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Takata Corp. will seek bankruptcy protection from creditors on Monday as the Japanese company faces billions of dollars in liabilities stemming from the biggest recall in automotive history, Reuters reported yesterday. The firm, whose defective air-bag inflators have been blamed for at least 16 deaths and more than 150 injuries worldwide, will file for protection in Tokyo District Court under the Civil Rehabilitation Act, Japan's version of U.S. chapter 11 protection, according to Reuters. Takata will then seek bridge loans from the core banking unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., which will provide tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars) in bridge loans, one source said. Takata spokesman Toyohiro Hishikawa said nothing had been decided regarding any filing or financing.

Many lawyers in the defense bar described Monday's landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Superior Court of California as “a game changer,” the National Law Journal reported today. Even plaintiffs lawyers concede that Bristol-Myers took a hatchet to a lucrative growth area in mass torts: Lawsuits brought on behalf of dozens of individuals in venues considered more favorable to plaintiffs, such as certain state courts in California, Illinois, Missouri and Texas. The court held that plaintiffs in such a case against Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. — referred to as a "mass action" — had failed to establish specific jurisdiction because there wasn't enough of a link between their claims and California, where they brought their lawsuit. The ruling, like many of the Supreme Court's prior decisions on jurisdictional matters, tightened the rules on where corporate defendants can be sued.

Takata Corp., the Japanese company facing billions in liabilities stemming from its defective air bag inflators, is preparing to file for bankruptcy as early as next week as it works toward a deal for financial backing from U.S. auto parts maker Key Safety Systems Inc., Reuters reported yesterday. Takata, one of the world's biggest automotive suppliers, has been working for months to complete a deal with Key Safety. The Nikkei business daily reported that a new company created under Key will purchase Takata operations for about 180 billion yen ($1.6 billion) and continue supplying air bags, seat belts and other products, leaving liabilities behind in a separate entity.

Donald J. Trump made coal miners a central metaphor of his presidential campaign, promising to “put our miners back to work” and look after their interests in a way that the Obama administration did not. Now, three months into his presidency, comes a test of that promise, the New York Times reported today. Unless Congress intervenes by late April, government-funded health benefits will abruptly lapse for more than 20,000 retired miners, concentrated in Trump states that include Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. Many of the miners have serious health problems arising from their years in the mines. Responsibility for the retirees’ health plans has increasingly shifted to the federal government in recent years, as struggling coal companies have shed their liabilities in bankruptcy court. Congress voted last fall to finance benefits for a large group of retirees for several months, but House and Senate Republican leaders have yet to agree on a longer-term solution.

New Jersey state legislators are calling on federal and state agencies to investigate whether Argentina’s state-run oil company is using a subsidiary’s bankruptcy to avoid paying for a cleanup of the contamination in the Passaic River, NorthJersey.com reported today. The New Jersey Senate and Assembly environmental committees held an unusual joint hearing yesterday on a resolution calling for the investigations into YPF SA and its bankrupt subsidiary, Maxus Energy. The committees unanimously approved the resolution. Of particular concern to state senator Bob Smith, who heads the senate committee, was a document from 1996 that he said appears to show a scheme laid out to siphon assets away from Maxus so it could declare bankruptcy and avoid paying out possibly hundreds of millions of dollars toward cleaning up the Passaic, which is so polluted that the lower portion of the river is a Superfund site.

Potential rescuers of Japan's Takata Corp have extended talks, already in their 14th month, for a deal to take over the air bag maker at the heart of the auto industry's biggest safety recall, Reuters reported on Friday. Car-parts maker Key Safety Systems Inc. and Bain Capital LLC are the preferred bidders for Takata, whose faulty air bags have been blamed for at least 16 deaths worldwide. Discussions that include the steering committee tapped by the air bag maker to oversee the search for a financial sponsor, automaker clients, suitors and bankers are now likely to run on until at least end-May. The parties have already moved beyond an informal, self-imposed end-March deadline to work out a deal. Recent talks, described by two participants as “chaotic,” have focused on issues such as an indemnity agreement to cover reimbursement costs for air bag recalls, estimated to be as high as $10 billion.

A Roman Catholic diocese in Montana has filed for bankruptcy protection, months before facing its first trial of a civil lawsuit stemming from child sex abuse claims against its clergy, church officials and the plaintiffs' lawyers said on Friday, Reuters reported. The Diocese of Great Falls-Billings filed a chapter 11 petition in Montana federal court as part of a negotiated settlement of dozens of "credible" sex abuse cases that date from 1950s through the 1990s, lawyers for 72 victims and the diocese said in separate statements. At least 15 other U.S. Catholic districts and religious orders have been driven to seek Chapter 11 protection by a sex abuse scandal that erupted in 2002. Montana’s other Catholic diocese in Helena, the state capital, filed for bankruptcy in 2012 to settle cases stemming from similar accusations. If granted by a judge, the Great Falls bankruptcy would allow the diocese and its insurer to contribute to a fund that would be set aside to compensate victims, the diocese said in a statement.

Alabama’s Attorney General is joining colleagues from 12 other states in investigating asbestos bankruptcy trusts’ failure to pay out Medicaid payments as federal law requires, Alabama Today reported today. Lawsuits have sent more than 60 manufacturers of asbestos or asbestos-containing products into bankruptcy and have paid out more than $17 billion since 2008. The attorneys general claim that the bankruptcy trusts, which are often overseen by plaintiff lawyers, are not giving Medicare and Medicaid their fair due when making payments to claimants. The 13 attorneys general sent demand letters to bankruptcy trusts for Armstrong World Industries, Babcock & Wilcox, DII and Owens Corning/Fibreboard back in December, and after receiving no response elected to file a civil suit in Utah this month to move forward on recovering Medicaid payments.