Eastman Kodak asks court to reopen case to address indemnification

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, Aug. 15 – Eastman Kodak Co. is asking the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York to reopen its Chapter 11 case for “limited purposes,” according to a motion filed Wednesday.

Specifically, Kodak said it is asking the court to enforce the Chapter 11 plan confirmation order’s discharge and injunction provisions against the Travelers Indemnity Co. and Travelers Casualty and Surety Co. and Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co. and Lumbermens affiliates American Motorists Insurance Co. and American Manufacturers Mutual Insurance Co.

According to the motion, the former Ridge Construction Corp. was founded as a wholly owned subsidiary of Kodak to complete construction projects. The company said Ridge has been named as a defendant in several recent asbestos personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits.

Ridge had been insured under policies sold by the Travelers and Lumbermens entities, and disputes arose between Kodak and the insurers regarding previous settlement obligations and indemnification claims.

Kodak said Travelers claims that the reorganized company remains obligated to defend and indemnify it “based on an erroneous reliance on the pre-petition Travelers settlement agreement” and rejected Kodak’s request to withdraw its demand for indemnification and defense despite being advised of the violation of the plan confirmation order.

The company said Lumbermens’ position on any ongoing obligations of reorganized Kodak remains unclear, “but the reorganized debtor must know definitively now that it has no obligation to defend or indemnify Lumbermens, as it will otherwise unnecessarily be forced to continue to spend significant sums to defend the actions or risk a default judgment that Lumbermens may later assert the reorganized debtor must pay.”

As a result, Kodak said it has been left with “no choice but to seek recourse from this court.”

The company will present the motion to the court on Aug. 30. However, if an objection is filed, a hearing will be held on Sept. 4.

Kodak is a Rochester, N.Y.-based imaging technology products and services provider to the photographic and graphic communications markets. The company emerged from bankruptcy on Sept. 3, 2013. The Chapter 11 case number for the currently closed case was 12-10202.

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