CHARLOTTE – Bankruptcy judge Laura Beyer threw three strikes past lawyers opposing Georgia Pacific’s investigation of fraud in asbestos litigation on Aug. 31.
Beyer ordered the Maune Raichle firm of St. Louis to pay $402,817.70 to lawyers who defended the firm’s Illinois suit aiming to overturn an order she signed.
She denied further discovery, saying she’d move straight ahead. She also ordered her committee of plaintiff lawyers to provide more information about the fields of their experts and the topics they would cover.
Beyer presides over the bankruptcy of Bestwall, an entity Georgia Pacific created by splitting itself in two in 2017.
Georgia Pacific assigned assets to New Georgia Pacific and assigned liabilities to Bestwall for resolution in bankruptcy court.
Bestwall moved for a hearing to estimate its liabilities, and Beyer granted it over opposition from asbestos firms.
Those firms then argued that Bestwall could calculate future liabilities on the basis of past settlements.
However, Bestwall argued that the past didn’t count because fraud inflated the settlements.
Bestwall claimed many plaintiffs alleged one set of exposures in court and another in confidential proceedings of private trusts.
Bestwall moved to require firms to answer a personal injury questionnaire for each plaintiff, and Beyer granted it.
Bestwall moved to require the private trusts to produce records for matching claimants, and Beyer granted it.
The trusts quashed the subpoenas in district court for Delaware, where most of them operate.
Negotiation produced agreement on a ten percent random sample, but Bestwall and the asbestos firms disagreed on the selection process.
Beyer found Maune Raichle in contempt in July, for suing Bestwall in Illinois to require individual subpoenas for the questionnaires.
She opened last week’s hearing by announcing the amount of her sanction.
Sharon Zieg of Wilmington, Del., told Beyer on behalf of future claimants that there were about 1,500 to 1,600 in the ten percent sample.
“They want to use their sample. We don’t think it’s representative,” Zeig said.
Beyer told the parties to try to agree on what random means.
Natalie Ramsey of Wilmington, counsel to Simmons Hanly Conroy of Alton, objected to the unreasonable breadth and scope of the estimation.
Ramsey called Bestwall’s allegations a general indictment of claimants and counsel.
She claimed Bestwall intended to relitigate every issue it litigated for 40 years.
She said they would introduce evidence about talc.
“That’s a brand new focus of estimation,” she said.
Bestwall counsel Gregory Gordon of Dallas said, “We tried to be careful and cover every topic that might come up.”
His power point screen alleged corruption of the scientific literature by plaintiff lawyers and their affiliates.
It alleged inaccurate and misleading testimony by their experts.
Beyer asked Ramsey how they could avoid discussing talc.
“We are maybe entering completely into the realm of speculation,” Ramsey said. “It is spiraling way out of control.”
Beyer said, “I kind of sympathize with both sides but I can’t do two months. Two weeks, three weeks at the outside.”
Gordon said the scope of the hearing hadn’t changed.
Ramsey said they needed more information, but Beyer said she wouldn’t order it.
Next, Bestwall lead counsel Garland Cassada of Charlotte challenged the adequacy of preliminary disclosures for the fields of 13 experts.
He made his point by displaying the entire disclosure on a single screen.
“That’s all I can provide at this time,” Zeig said. Give us some structure and we’ll do everything we can. My concern is that we disclose it now and find out we have to go in a completely different direction.”
Beyer said, “There’s no way anyone can argue with a straight face that these disclosures comply.”
She asked Zieg what she needed and Zieg said she needed more information.
Beyer said, “But it’s your case in chief.”
Zieg said, “We need to determine the reliability of past settlements. I can’t be tied to a position with blinders on.”
After a recess, Bestwall counsel Richard Worf of Charlotte said he would file a motion in a week about responses to the personal injury questionnaires.