Asarco To Deal With Asbestos Claims Through Chapter 11
April 11, 2005
Grupo Mexico SA (GMEXICO.MX), said Monday that several nonoperational and dormant subsidiaries have filed Chapter 11 proceedings to deal with asbestos-related claims.
Written by Anthony Harrup, Dow Jones Newswires
MEXICO CITY (Dow Jones)--Asarco, the U.S. unit of Mexican copper mining concern Grupo Mexico SA (GMEXICO.MX), said Monday that several nonoperational and dormant subsidiaries have filed Chapter 11 proceedings to deal with asbestos-related claims.
Tucson, Ariz.,-based Asarco said in a press release that the filing in Corpus Christi, Texas, won't effect customers, suppliers, employees or any of its operational units.
Asarco said the filing subsidiaries include Lake Asbestos of Quebec Ltd., which was sold in 1989, and CAPCO Pipe Company Inc., which was sold in 1994.
Asarco said that although both businesses were discontinued, they face personal injury claims stemming from the widespread "asbestos crisis" of the late 1990s.
"In order to dispose of thousands of claims in an expeditious and fair manner, Asarco has turned to the congressionally authored solution, and will seek a permanent injunction under section 524(g) of the Bankruptcy Code in which all asbestos-related claims will be channeled to a trust for an equitable resolution and payment," the company said.
Section 524(g) of the Bankruptcy Code gives temporary protection to parent companies from asbestos-related personal injury claims against their subsidiaries. All claims have to be heard at the same court.
Grupo Mexico, which has operations in Mexico, Peru and the U.S., is the world's third-largest copper producer.
Fair Use Notice
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond "fair use", you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.