Hess Sought to Avoid Asbestos Litigation With Bankruptcy Move. Former Workers Are Suing Anyway
- Focus on Hess after Ch. 11 paused suits against subsidiary
- Lawyers said Hess unit bankruptcy was filed in bad faith
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Hess Corp. put a subsidiary into bankruptcy to try to avoid litigating hundreds of asbestos lawsuits tied to an oil refinery it no longer owns. Now workers from that unit are focusing on suing Hess instead.
The legal team for over 600 plaintiffs who say they developed lung disease after working at a US Virgin Islands refinery said in a filing Tuesday it would withdraw pending litigation against the now-bankrupt subsidiary, Honx Inc. It plans to instead proceed with lawsuits against Hess Corp. directly for its role in the workers’ asbestos exposure, plaintiffs’ attorney Warren Burns told Bloomberg.