Owens Corning asbestos claimants call demands for proof "mindbogglingly complicated"

By Jeff Pines

Washington, Aug. 11 - Demands by Owens Corning's pre-Chapter 11 bank debt holders for proof of injuries suffered by asbestos claimants are "mindbogglingly complicated," the official committee of asbestos claimants said in court documents.

The committee asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware to deny the bank debt holders' request for a claims deadline and its proposed proof-of-claim forms, according to court documents.

The bank debt holders, which include Credit Suisse First Boston as the agent, want to set a bar date, or a deadline, for personal injury asbestos claims and a process for investigating the claims, which the Toledo, Ohio-based building materials company estimates to be $16 billion.

The bank debt holders believe the figure is wildly inflated and have asked the court for more time to evaluate the claims that Owens Corning plans to allocate.

But the official committee of asbestos claimants said it is indisputable that Owens Corning faces an enormous amount of still unfiled, or future, asbestos claims and that except for claims filed and settled before the company went into bankruptcy, tens of thousands of asbestos personal injury claims are still pending.

The forms the bank debt holders want to use would require claimants' "entire work record, the particulars of their medical history, the legal theories underpinning their claim to compensation, their settlements with other defendants and information about the financial and professional affairs of their lawyers and doctors."

The bank debt holders' goal is to disqualify the bulk of the asbestos claims to increase their own recovery from Owens Corning, the committee said.

Contrary to the bank debt holders' position, the asbestos claimants committee does not believe a bar date is critical for filing a proof of claim, and considering there are hundreds of thousands of claims, it is impractical to try to resolve each one, the committee said.

Furthermore, diseases related to asbestos exposure may start damaging a person's lungs before the damage is visible on an x-ray, the committee said.

Owens Corning filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 5, 2000. Its Chapter 11 case number is 00-03837.

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