The subsidiary of the company was put into Chapter 11 to avoid litigating hundreds of lawsuits related to the oil refinery it no longer owns. Workers from that unit are trying to file a lawsuit against him.
The legal team for over 600 people who say they developed lung disease after working at a US Virgin Islands refinery plans to proceed with lawsuits against the company.
According to lawyers, Honx filed its petition in April in order to dodge up to $1 billion in debts. Corporations facing mass litigation have been using bankruptcy to quickly and cheaply settle their liability lawsuits. The maneuver has been tried by Johnson & Johnson and Georgia-Pacific.
The refinery in the Virgin Islands used insulation made out ofchrysotile. The workers say they were exposed to the carcinogen while working at the refinery.
The lawyers for Honx did not comment. According to the company's representatives, the only efficient way to address the asbestos liabilities is by filing for Chapter 11.
The automatic stay, or pause, that affects all lawsuits against a company that is in Chapter 11 will be circumvented by only those claims, according to Burns. Most of the former refinery workers are represented by Burns Charest.
The market value of the company is over 40 billion dollars. The initial $10 million from Hess was used to settle claims at Honx Inc.
The Virgin Islands court denied a request by Hess to dismiss the case because there was enough evidence to go to trial.
The trial was set to start before the Honx Inc. bankruptcy filing. In previous years, the company and its subsidiary had settled more than a thousand similar lawsuits for undisclosed sums.
The case is Honx Inc. The motion was filed on 9/22.
Jeremy Hill, Steven Church and Alex Wolf aided in the project.
(Updates to add details on Honx funding in seventh paragraph)
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