March 8th, 2008

In what could be a disappointing turn in the W.R. Grace trial, a single bankruptcy judge may keep thousands of asbestos victims from settlement. Grace has gambled by requesting an estimation hearing.

In what could be a huge upset to thousands of mesothelioma victims, a single bankruptcy judge is hearing evidence about the bankruptcy of W.R. Grace and deciding on an amount that the company will be responsible for. The estimation proceeding is normally a negotiating tool of companies going through bankruptcy, and is utilized to come up with a set figure that the company will have to pay to emerge from bankruptcy. Grace is gambling with the estimation proceeding, hoping that the figure the judge announces will be much less then experts think the amount should be.

Grace is hoping that the bankruptcy judge will throw out some of the pending asbestos cases against them for lack of evidence. If the estimate comes out to around $700 million, the company will easily emerge from bankruptcy this year. If the judge returns an estimate of $2 or $3 billion, the estimate of experts involved in the case, the company will have a harder time paying out the settlements and emerging from Chapter 11.