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Travelers Insurance Finally Agrees to Pay Asbestos Victims

          Travelers Insurance Finally Agrees to Pay Asbestos Victims

               Ten years after reneging on a settlement agreement with asbestos victims, Travelers Insurance has finally agreed to fund the settlement. On January 5, 2015 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied their latest motion for a rehearing and further review by the Circuit Court, ending a “fiendishly complex case”.

               The litigation began in 2001, when a group of asbestos victim’s law firms filed lawsuits in Hawaii, West Virginia and Massachusetts state courts over Travelers unfair settlement practices. After the cases were removed to U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, Travelers settled following a mediation with Governor Mario Cuomo. The company agreed to pay the Statutory Settlement Claimants $ 360 million, in addition to payments for Common Law and Hawaii victims.

               When other insurance companies attempted to intervene in the litigation, Travelers used that as an excuse to renege. The Plaintiff’s firms refused to give up and the case went from Bankruptcy Court to the District Court, U.S. Court of Appeals (twice), and the United States Supreme Court (twice). Thankfully thousands of asbestos victims will now get the compensation they deserve with millions of dollars of interest added to the settlements.

               Led by Joseph Rice and Fred Baker of The Motley Rice Law firm, the litigation team included some of the best asbestos litigation firms in the country. Baron and Budd, Wilentz Goldman and Spitzer, Galiher De Robertis and Ono, as well as Thornton & Naumes all participated. Attorney Robert Naumes of the Naumes Law Group was proud to have to have been part of this great team.

               For further information concerning the status of the settlement, please check the Statutory Direct Action website at directactionsettlement.com

Please contact the Naumes Law Group if you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma or lung cancer as a result of exposure to asbestos.  Our attorney’s have litigated asbestos cases throughout New England for the past 25 years. 

              

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