Asbestos Claimants Lose Bid to Toss Aldrich Pump Bankruptcy

Aldrich Pump’s asbestos liability bankruptcy can’t be dismissed under the binding precedent of the Fourth Circuit, a bankruptcy judge ruled.

Under Carolin Corp v. Miller, a 1989 decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, parties moving to throw out a bankruptcy must prove both that the case was filed in bad faith and is objectively futile. Because Aldrich’s bankruptcy, designed to settle 90,000 asbestos claims, is not objectively futile, it can’t be dismissed, Judge J. Craig Whitley of the US Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of North Carolina ruled in a 63-page decision Thursday.

The ...