We secured a complete victory when the Second Circuit affirmed orders holding asbestos claims were discharged and channeled

On September 28, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued an eight-page summary order in favor of our client Graphic Packaging International, a leading manufacturer of packaging for commercial products. Graphic is a successor-in-interest to Manville Forest Products Corporation (MFP), a Johns-Manville subsidiary. This order affirmed Davis Polk’s previous triumphs in the district court and bankruptcy court holding that an asbestos personal injury claim against Graphic was discharged in the MFP bankruptcy and barred by the Manville third-party injunction. Importantly, the Second Circuit held that the asbestos claimant (i) had a prepetition claim because an asbestos claim arises at the time of first exposure to asbestos, which occurred here before MFP and Manville filed their chapter 11 petitions; (ii) received due process with respect to the discharge in the MFP bankruptcy even though there was no future claims representative in the MFP reorganization; and (iii) received due process with respect to the third-party injunction in the broader Manville bankruptcy. This decision comes over three decades after Davis Polk’s victory obtaining confirmation of the Johns-Manville chapter 11 plan.

The Davis Polk team includes partner James I. McClammy and associate Joshua N. Shinbrot, located in the New York office.

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