Manville, Three Insurers Agree to Settle Claims : Former Asbestos Maker to Receive $112 Million

Manville Corp. said Monday that it had reached a $112-million settlement with three more insurance companies over liability claims related to Manville’s production of asbestos.

The companies--Insurance Co. of North America and Midland Insurance Co., both based in Philadelphia, and Chicago-based Allstate Insurance Co.--are among 27 insurance firms that Manville sued in 1980 after they refused to reimburse claims pending against the Denver-based company.

Last May, Manville reached a similar accord for $315 million with three other of its product-liability insurers.

A Manville spokeswoman said Monday that the company will continue to negotiate an out-of-court settlement with its 21 remaining insurers for $173 million in claims until March 4, when the case is scheduled for trial in a San Francisco Superior Court.

Once the nation’s largest maker of asbestos, Manville has been flooded with lawsuits by individuals claiming health damage from exposure to the material.

Filed for Chapter 11 in 1982

Asbestos--a fibrous mineral once popular as an insulating material--has been proven to cause lung disease and cancer.

The company filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in August, 1982, to protect itself from more than 19,000 asbestos-related lung disease claims seeking more than $2 billion in damages.

In addition, the company has received 3,500 claims for property damage from owners seeking to force Manville to pay for the removal of asbestos used in their buildings.

“It’s (the settlement) a significant step in our reorganization process,” company spokeswoman Penelope Purdy said. “This insurance money will be part of the ($600-million) fund with which Manville wants to compensate injured asbestos workers.”

Monday’s agreement, which must be given final approval by the federal bankruptcy court, states in part that the first $315 million in claims must be paid off by the previously announced settlement with Traveler’s Indemnity Co., Home Insurance Co. and a group of Lloyds of London syndicates.

A spokesman for Philadelphia-based Cigna Corp., of which Insurance Co. of North America is a subsidiary, said the agreement calls for INA to pay up to $37 million in future claims.

5-Year-Old Legal Dispute

Midland Insurance and Allstate could not be reached for comment.

Manville declined to announce the dollar amounts of the claims to be funded by each of the three insurers.

Robert J. Rosenberg, counsel to the Asbestos Litigants Committee, which objected--on behalf of the individuals who have sued the company--to Manville’s first round of settlements with insurers last May, said he had not seen the official papers on Monday’s settlement and could not comment.

The 5-year-old legal dispute with Manville’s insurers centered on which insurance policy covered the damage claim--the one in force at the time a claimant was exposed to asbestos particles, or the one in force at the time--often years later--when symptoms of asbestos-related disease first appeared.