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Congoleum Corp. v. ACE American Ins. Co.: No Coverage When Cooperation and Consent Obligations Are Violated
Coverage litigation in the case of Congoleum Corp. v. ACE American Ins. Co. ('Congoleum'), Dkt. No. MID-L-8908-01 (N.J. Super. Ct. May 18, 2007), provides a cautionary tale for insureds tempted to attempt a strategy to foist financial responsibility for asbestos or other mass tort liabilities upon their insurers.
Congoleum, a manufacturer of flooring products that once contained encapsulated asbestos, made a business decision to enter into a global agreement with asbestos plaintiffs' counsel that essentially had Congoleum paying very little money of its own, but generated thousands of asbestos claims, many of them more than dubious, against Congoleum. The global settlement was part of Congoleum's larger plan to use '524(g) of the Bankruptcy Code and a so-called prepackaged bankruptcy or 'pre-pack' to rid itself of current and future asbestos liabilities. The deal sounded too good to be true, and it was. The business decision was a legal disaster for Congoleum.
Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough
There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.
Judge Rules Shaquille O'Neal Will Face Securities Lawsuit for Promotion, Sale of NFTs
A federal district court in Miami, FL, has ruled that former National Basketball Association star Shaquille O'Neal will have to face a lawsuit over his promotion of unregistered securities in the form of cryptocurrency tokens and that he was a "seller" of these unregistered securities.
Why So Many Great Lawyers Stink at Business Development and What Law Firms Are Doing About It
Why is it that those who are best skilled at advocating for others are ill-equipped at advocating for their own skills and what to do about it?
Blockchain Domains: New Developments for Brand Owners
Blockchain domain names offer decentralized alternatives to traditional DNS-based domain names, promising enhanced security, privacy and censorship resistance. However, these benefits come with significant challenges, particularly for brand owners seeking to protect their trademarks in these new digital spaces.
Coverage Issues Stemming from Dry Cleaner Contamination Suits
In recent years, there has been a growing number of dry cleaners claiming to be "organic," "green," or "eco-friendly." While that may be true with respect to some, many dry cleaners continue to use a cleaning method involving the use of a solvent called perchloroethylene, commonly known as perc. And, there seems to be an increasing number of lawsuits stemming from environmental problems associated with historic dry cleaning operations utilizing this chemical.