Congoleum Asbestos Trust: Claims and Payment

Congoleum Corporation stopped making asbestos-containing sheet products in 1983 and asbestos-containing tile products in 1974. Its disclosure statement reports known asbestos claimants rising from about 12,000 at the end of 2000 to about 56,000 by the end of 2002, and about 91,000 by mid-2003. The trust's distribution procedures give December 31, 2003 as the Petition Date. The reorganization was later conducted in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, which withdrew the reference from the Bankruptcy Court on August 17, 2009. On June 7, 2010 the court entered an order confirming the Fourth Amended Joint Plan of Reorganization, as modified, and the trust's site says the Congoleum Plan Trust was created in 2010 on confirmation. Under the plan the trust assumes liability for asbestos personal injury claims and holds 50.1% of the new common stock of reorganized Congoleum, plus insurance settlement payments and the debtors' rights to further insurance coverage. The trust's distribution procedures, in the First Amended version, schedule eight disease levels, from Other Asbestos Disease to Mesothelioma. The trust files annual reports with the District of New Jersey, and its notices page lists later amendments to the procedures.