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Chemical maker W.R. Grace & Co reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit and said that it would seek to emerge from its 11-year asbestos-related bankruptcy in the expectation that court appeals would be unsuccessful, Reuters reported yesterday. W.R. Grace filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April 2001, weighed down by asbestos-related claims. A district court approved its reorganization plan earlier this year, clearing a major hurdle for it to emerge from bankruptcy protection. The plan was reaffirmed in June. Eight parties filed notices of appeal before a July 11 deadline. The timing of the emergence from Chapter 11 will depend on satisfaction or waiver of the conditions set forth in the reorganization plan, according to the company.

Grubb & Ellis Co. is asking a bankruptcy judge to allow workers who were hurt during the cleanup of lower Manhattan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to pursue their lawsuits against the company and seek damages from its insurers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The commercial real estate broker is asking the judge to sign off on a deal reached with lawyers representing many victims in the cases, which were halted as a result of Grubb & Ellis's chapter 11 filing. The multiple lawsuits involve at least 490 victims who were involved in clearing debris after the attacks. Grubb & Ellis is named as a defendant in the cases where the plaintiffs suffered mainly respiratory injuries after the attack, outside the World Trade Center area or within the World Trade Center site.

Wyndham Worldwide Corp., the franchiser of Days Inn hotels and Super 8 motels, was sued by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over security breaches that led to more than 500,000 credit cards being compromised, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The data breaches led to fraudulent charges on customers' accounts and the export of credit card information to an Internet domain address registered in Russia, the FTC said yesterday. "Wyndham's privacy policy misrepresented the security measures that the company and its subsidiaries took to protect consumers' personal information,' the FTC said in a complaint filed yesterday in federal court in Arizona. The breaches led to more than $10.6 million in "fraud losses," the FTC said.

The Diocese of Davenport, Iowa, has emerged from bankruptcy after following through with plans to pay $37 million to dozens of people who said they were sexually abused by priests and change policies to prevent future cases, the Associated Press reported on Friday. Bankruptcy Judge Lee Jackwig last week closed the bankruptcy case, saying that the diocese has substantially completed the terms of a reorganization plan and settlement approved in 2008. The plan called for the diocese to pay $17.5 million to up to 162 victims of abuse, and its insurer to pay an additional $19.5 million. The diocese also had to take several steps to prevent sexual abuse, investigate claims and apologize to victims. One of the most visible parts of the settlement has been an online list of credible claims of abuse by priests, which lists more than 30 cases and stretches back to the 1940s.

Grupo Mexico SAB's Asarco unit asked a U.S. judge to throw out the $219.5 million settlement of its Omaha, Nebraska, lead-contamination case, claiming that the true source of the pollution was concealed by a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official who is under criminal investigation, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Asarco, which filed the largest environmental bankruptcy case in U.S. history to resolve pollution at about 100 sites nationwide, was misled into paying a “grossly inflated’’ settlement amount to resolve an EPA claim that a company smelter contaminated the Omaha site, Asarco attorneys said yesterday in a court filing. For the past year, Asarco has accused Robert Feild, the EPA’s Omaha lead project coordinator, with leading an evidence-destruction campaign that hid an agency study indicating the Nebraska property was probably contaminated by lead paint peeling from old houses rather than Asarco smelter emissions.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. was sued by a Louisiana police pension fund for alleged securities fraud tied to a trading loss of at least $2 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. The Louisiana Municipal Police Employees Retirement System claimed that the biggest U.S. bank and top officials including Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon misled investors about its risk management and financial condition from February 2010 to May 2012. The police pension plan is seeking class-action status on behalf of all who bought JPMorgan Chase common stock from February 2010 to May 2012, a number which may be in the tens of thousands, according to the complaint. It is also seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

New York and Delaware won their bids to intervene in litigation over Bank of America Corp.'s proposed $8.5 billion settlement with mortgage-bond investors, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. New York State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Kapnick yesterday granted motions by the attorneys general of the states to intervene in the case over the objections of an investor group. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden "have identified legitimate quasi-sovereign interests at play" in the case, Kapnick wrote. The judge also said that she is not persuaded by arguments that the intervention would delay or burden the proceeding. The settlement would resolve claims from investors in Countrywide Financial Corp. mortgage bonds. Bank of America acquired the mortgage lender in 2008. Bank of New York Mellon Corp., as trustee for investors, is seeking approval of the deal in state court.

A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that Owens Corning Sales LLC could be liable for allegedly-defective roof shingles, even though the company has been through a bankruptcy reorganization, Reuters reported on Friday. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in recent years has expanded the types of claims that a company can shed in bankruptcy, but the court on Friday reinstated product-liability claims against the building-materials maker that came to light after it emerged from bankruptcy. Owens Corning entered bankruptcy proceedings in 2000, in the face of significant asbestos liability. The company published notices in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and other media outlets, calling for any outstanding claims to be filed. A bankruptcy court confirmed the company's plan in September 2006, and extinguished all claims that arose before the confirmation date. Two customers, Patricia Wright and Kevin West, discovered leaks in their Owens Corning roofs from split shingles in 2009 and sued the company for fraud, negligence, strict liability and breach of warranty. A three-judge panel of the 3rd Circuit acknowledged that it had to balance the goal of giving a debtor a fresh start by resolving all claims arising from its conduct before emerging from bankruptcy, and the rights of individuals damaged by that conduct who were unaware of the potential harm at the time of the bankruptcy.

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law is holding a hearing today at 9:30 a.m. ET to examine H.R. 4369, the "Furthering Asbestos Claim Transparency (FACT) Act of 2012." The bill, which was introduced on April 17 by Rep. Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.), looks to amend title 11 of the United States Code to require the public disclosure by trusts established under section 524(g) of such title, of quarterly reports that contain detailed information regarding the receipt and disposition of claims for injuries based on exposure to asbestos, and the filing of such reports with the Executive Office for United States Trustees. Click on the link below for the witness list and other hearing information.
http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/Hearings%202012/hear_05102012.html

Click here for the full text of H.R. 4368.
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr4369ih/pdf/BILLS-112hr4369ih.pdf