Barretts Minerals Creditors Oppose Mediation With Parent (1)

A committee of unsecured creditors urged a court to reject bankrupt talc supplier Barretts Minerals Inc.'s request to mediate with its parent company, citing insufficient party separation and an attempt to shield the parent from tort liabilities.

The proposal would allow Minerals Technologies Inc. to “mediate with itself” over its own talc-related tort liabilities, the committee said in a Monday objection filed in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. The creditors described the request as a “pernicious attempt to legitimize facially and incurably conflicted ‘negotiations,’” under the guise of mediation privilege.

Mediation would likely lead to ...