An asbestos bankruptcy trust was filed for in 2006 for Babcock & Wilcox Co., 800 Main Street, 4th Floor Lynchburg VA 24504 under the name Babcock & Wilcox Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust. Asbestos bankruptcy trusts are typically set up so that people who become victims of asbestos exposure can potentially obtain financial compensation for any illness incurred as a result of such exposure, including mesothelioma.
Exposure to asbestos can lead to a number of serious illnesses. One of the most devastating diseases is mesothelioma, a malignant form of cancer. The survival rate for mesothelioma is extremely low because symptoms do not begin to appear until 30 to 40 years after inhalation of asbestos fibers has occurred. By the point of diagnosis, the cancer has reached the later and nearly incurable stages.
As people became aware of the dangers of asbestos and mesothelioma diagnoses became more prevalent, people began hiring asbestos lawyers and suing the companies responsible for their illnesses. As the number of these lawsuits increased, it became necessary for the manufacturers and distributors of asbestos products to file for bankruptcy and reorganize their debts in a way that would allow them to pay off their liabilities. Part of this process involved setting up trusts to settle the claims.
Incorporated in 1881, The Babcock & Wilcox Company designs, engineers, and manufactures boilers. Due to its products' innovative features, Babcock & Wilcox's boilers are very popular and widely used. However, this created a problem for the company because it used asbestos insulation in many of its boilers as early as the late 1800s. The popularity of the boilers made it clear that the company had exposed hundreds of thousands of people to the harmful effects of asbestos. Though it phased out the use of asbestos in the 1970s, by then it was too late to undo the damage that had been done.
In February of 2000, Babcock & Wilcox and its subsidiaries, Americon Inc., B&W Construction Co., and Diamond Power International Inc., filed a voluntary petition to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code. At this point, the company had already spent $1.6 billion settling 385,000 asbestos claims. After emerging from bankruptcy in 2006, the personal injury settlement trust was established. The trust was set up to resolve the company's outstanding asbestos-related liabilities and absolve it from any future claims.
For more information on this Asbestos Bankruptcy Trust, visit the Trust web site at http://www.bwasbestostrust.com or call 866-665-5786Contact the asbestos lawyers at Clapper, Patti Schweizer & Mason for more information on the bankruptcy trust for Babcock & Wilcox Co., or if you have any other questions regarding mesothelioma.