August 19, 2004
Willkie counsel and former New York State Governor Mario Cuomo serves as court-appointed mediator in $500 million asbestos settlement.
On August 17, Judge Burton R. Lifland approved a plan for Travelers Property Casualty Corp. to pay $500 million to victims of asbestos-related diseases linked to the bankruptcy of Johns-Manville Corp. Willkie counsel and former New York State Governor Mario Cuomo served as the court-appointed mediator in the settlement. Governor Cuomo said of the agreement, “The most important thing is that it produces $500 million that would not have been available at a time when the Manville Trust is withering itself. This is a very important settlement.” The funds allocated in the original trust set up after the 1982 bankruptcy of Johns-Manville are diminishing and the payout is designed to cover the remaining 37,000 pending claims of the already settled 623,400 claims. Due to the significance of this case, several publications have provided press coverage, including the August 18 editions of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Law Journal.