USG asbestos committee, representative request hearing on liabilities estimation method

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, April 27 - USG Corp.'s asbestos personal injury creditors committee and the legal representative for future asbestos claimants opposed the company's proposed method to be used to estimate its asbestos-related liabilities, according to a statement filed Tuesday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

The committee and legal representative requested a hearing to determine the method of estimation be held before discovery.

The parties said the hearing is needed because USG argues that the court should employ a "substantive" estimation method in place of the well-established Eagle-Picher/Owens Corning method for estimating asbestos-related claims.

According to the filing, the EaglePicher method says asbestos-related claims generally fall into basic categories based on the disease alleged and that the value of the claims depends on the severity of the disease, with the more serious diseases such as mesothelioma receiving higher settlements or jury awards than claims alleging pleural disease.

The committee and representative argue that, before discovery, the court must receive answers to five questions, including do "unimpaired" claimants have an injury that requires compensation, what level of exposure must a claimant demonstrate to establish that the products were a "substantial factor" in causing injury, does chrysotile asbestos cause mesothelioma, can lung cancer without asbestosis be asbestos-related and does asbestos cause "other cancers?"

The committee and representative said that, unlike the EaglePicher method, USG's proposed method of estimation is untested.

"[USG's] substantive estimation plan is contrary to well established estimation methodologies," the filing said. "Indeed, no court has ever accepted the radical methodology that debtors are proposing should be used here."

USG, a Chicago-based building materials company, filed for bankruptcy on June 25, 2001. Its Chapter 11 case number is 01-02094.

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