Trust Created By the Federal Court

Welcome!

On this site you will find information related to claims and claim submission, documents available for download, and pertinant notifications.
Please click this link to go directly to the Trust Documents page

Headquarters of the Western Asbestos Settlement Trust

300 East Second Street, Suite 1410
Reno, Nevada 89501
(775) 324-5511

Notices:

Annual Report

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that a hearing on the motion to approve Western Asbestos Settlement Trust’s Ninth Annual Report and Accounting is scheduled for Wednesday, June 19, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. before United States Bankruptcy Court Judge, the Honorable Roger L. Efremsky, at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California, Oakland Division, located at 1300 Clay Street, Oakland, California 94612 in Room 201.

Western Asbestos Payment Percentage Review

Section 4.2 of the Trust Distribution Procedures requires that the Payment Percentage be reconsidered no less frequently than once every three years. The Payment Percentage was last reviewed on February 18, 2010 (see notices of all reviews and changes in Archive notices). On February 7, 2013, the Payment Percentage was again reviewed and it remains at 44%.

Modification to the Western Ship Lists

The following is a synopsis of the modifications to the Western Asbestos Settlement Trust Built and Repair Ship Lists approved at the September 20, 2012 Trustees' meeting.

Ships removed from the Western Built List:

• Monterey
• Oregon Mail
• Hamer

Ship removed from the Western Repaired List:

• Point Defiance

Ships added to the Western Built List:

• Bush – Start Date 5/10/1943
• Hazelwood – Start Date 1/18/1943
• Oyster Point – Start Date 7/1/1959
• Point Orient – Start Date 1/1/1960
• Point Bonita – Start Date 1/1/1960
• Valdez – Start Date 1/1/1966
• McKinley – Start Date 7/1/1964
• Shasta aka Centennial Queen – Start Date 6/28/1946 

Modifications to Site List

The following modifications to the California Land Site List were approved at the April 19, 2012 Trustees' meeting:

• Hawthorne Army Base – Correct State Designation to NV
• Camp Parks – Correct City Designation to Dublin

Annual Report

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that a hearing on the motion to approve Western Asbestos Settlement Trust's Eighth Annual Report and Accounting is scheduled for Tuesday, June 26, 2012 at 1:30 p.m. before United States Bankruptcy Court Judge, the Honorable Roger L. Efremsky, at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California, Oakland Division, located at 1300 Clay Street, Oakland, California 94612 in Room 201.

Timing of Requests for Consideration at February 2012 Trustees' Meeting

Any requests for revisions to Trust policies or procedures, physician certification, modifications to an approved list, and/or TDP/Matrix interpretations or questions to be considered during the February 2012 Trustees' meeting must be received by the Trust on or before Friday, January 6, 2012.

Comments to the Trust

The Trust welcomes comments from Trust claimants, beneficiaries and law firms that file claims with the Trust. The Trustees invariably will seek the advice of the Trust Advisory Committee and Futures Representative with regard to any comments seeking to modify Trust policies or set priorities on Trust agendas or finances. The Trust recommends that claimants or their attorneys make an effort to discuss those issues either with the Trust Advisory Committee or the Futures Representative, or both, as appropriate, before raising these issues with the Trustees or the Trust staff.

Modification to the Western Built Ships List

A modification to the Western Built Ships List was approved at the September 15, 2011 Trustees’ meeting. The modification is listed below and the new list has been posted on the Trust Web site. Please review the list, which includes a modification column for reference purposes.

Additions to the Western Ships Built List
• USS Arco (ARD 29) – Start Date 7/1/1944
• USS San Onofre (ARD 30) – Start Date 8/1/1944
• ARD 31 – Start Date 6/9/1944
• ARD 32 – Start Date 1/1/1944

New Documents added to Site

The Ninth Amendment to and Complete Restatement of Trust Agreement and First Amendment to and Complete Restatement of Matrix have been added to the Trust Documents section of the site.

2010 Annual Report

The 2010 Annual report is now posted.  Click the link to download.

Notice of Hearing

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that a hearing on the motion to approve Western Asbestos Settlement Trust's Seventh Annual Report and Accounting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 1:30 p.m. before United States Bankruptcy Court Judge, the Honorable Roger L. Efremsky, at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California, Oakland Division, located at 1300 Clay Street, Oakland, California 94612 in Room 201.

Declarations

Pursuant to Section I(d) of the Matrix, the Trust may require additional information to assure that such evidence provided to the Trust is reliable. Therefore, any claim that is partially supported by a declaration to verify claimant’s presence at a site, asbestos exposure, and/or dates of exposure, or any other facts relevant to the claim must meet these requirements:

• The declaration must be written by a person who is competent to testify to the information stated in the declaration and the person must have direct knowledge of the factual information relevant to the claim.
• The declaration must provide sufficient background information to explain how the declarant acquired the direct knowledge of factual matters relevant to this claim, to allow the Trust to determine the credibility of the declarant.
• The declarant's complete home address is to be part of the declaration.
• The declaration must be in the declarant's own words and not boilerplate wording.
• The declaration must be accompanied by any documents (i.e. military records, social security records, etc) that the declarant relied upon in drafting his or her declaration.  If no documents were relied upon in drafting the declaration, then the claimant must make a statement that he or she did not rely on any documents for the declaration. If the information was given to the person by someone other than the Injured Person, then the declaration must state who, when, and in what form the information was given.
• The declaration must be specific to the claim filed.
• The declaration must be signed under the penalty of perjury.
• The Trust may interview anyone who signs a declaration in support of a claim submitted to the Trust pursuant to Section I(d) of the Matrix.

Approved Modifications

Modifications to the Western Ships Built List, Western Ships Repaired List, and Minnesota On-Land list were approved at the February 17, 2011 Trustees meeting. The modifications are listed below and the new lists have been posted on the Trust Web site. Please review the lists, which include a modification column for reference purposes.

Minnesota On-Land Site List:

• Removed Power Plant- Port Neal - it has been determined this is not a site in Minnesota but in Iowa.

Western Asbestos Ships Repaired List:

• Removed USS Garcia DE 1040 from the repaired list. This is a built ship and is currently on the built list.

Western Asbestos Ships Built List:

• Added the below ships to the built list. These ships were built at Bethlehem Steel - San Francisco

RESOLVED that the Trustees, in agreement with the TAC and Futures Representative, do hereby amend the Western Asbestos Settlement Trust Case Valuation Matrix Section IV (vii) as follows:

vii. Medical Causation. The following adjustments apply to Injured Persons who have different smoking histories and/or medical findings than those described for the base Other Cancer case. In no event can any of the adjustments listed below be combined for an overall causation adjustment in excess of 3.0 OCA.