William Russell Grace, an Ireland native turned mayor of New York City, founded W.R. Grace & Co. (WRG) in New York in 1865. During the early 1900s, WRG began to produce asbestos-containing specialty construction materials like insulation, industrial coatings, plaster, cement, and paint.
In 1963, WRG made an important acquisition – Zonolite. Zonolite owned and operated an infamous contamination site, a vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana.
Vermiculite is a type of clay-like mineral, or hydrous phyllosilicate, which was used for industrial purposes. Vermiculite can have a dangerous contaminant…asbestos.
In 1968, WRG introduced its Zonolite Mono-Kote product. MonoKote was a brand of spray-on insulation that contained tremolite asbestos fibers from the WRG mine in Libby, Montana.
This type of insulation was sprayed on steel beams during the construction of buildings to act as a fireproofing mechanism. It was reportedly used in the original construction of the World Trade Center.
Lawsuits for asbestos injuries began to hit the company in the mid-1980s and came primarily from miners and families of Libby mine workers. WRG was named in close to 300,000 lawsuits by the time it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with over 60 affiliated companies. The petition was filed on April 2, 2001.
According to the petition, the company’s debt was over $2 billion.
As is standard procedure for asbestos companies filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy, an asbestos trust was established to handle the payment of claims for any individuals injured due to exposure from WRG. The trust was established with more than $1.8 billion in funding.
The W.R. Grace Asbestos Trust began accepting claims on August 24, 2014.
The Trust’s website shows the range of payment that can be awarded for varying levels of injury from the diagnosis of an asbestos-related disease.
The Payment Percentage gets reevaluated at regular intervals by the trustees and is under revaluation as of March 2022. The most recent Payment Percentage was 35%.
In 2021, 23,406 claims were paid to claimants, totaling approximately $259.92 million.
As of 2021, the Trust has $2,346,753,342 remaining in assets available for the payment of claims.
It has paid a total of 204,580 claims since it was established, amounting to approximately $1.87 billion.
Of the 23,640 claims paid in 2021, 6,370 were malignancy claims (meaning cancer or mesothelioma related) and 17,090 were non-malignancy claims (meaning asbestosis or pleural disease).
14,754 claims were filed with the trust in 2021.
We’ve helped thousands of people receive the compensation they deserve for their asbestos injuries. Let us help you. You can contact asbestos attorney Justinian C. Lane at Asbestos Claims Law via his website at http://www.AsbestosClaims.law.
Email directly at help@asbestosclaims.law.
Or call anytime at (833) 4-ASBESTOS (427-2378).
