Garlock asbestos committee asks for removal of document information

By Kali Hays

New York, Sept. 11 – Garlock Sealing Technologies, LLC’s official committee of asbestos personal injury claimants is seeking a court order requiring the redaction of personal information of asbestos claimants included in previously sealed court documents, according to a Thursday motion with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of North Carolina.

The documents were produced as a part of the discovery process related to Garlock’s present and future asbestos claims estimation hearing concluded in January 2014.

As previously reported, the trial was closed to the public and the documents were ordered sealed at the request of the asbestos claimant parties.

Garlock and several other companies pursued litigation to unseal the documents after the trial court found fraudulent activity among the asbestos claimants and their legal representatives.

The U.S District Court for the Western District of North Carolina ordered the documents unsealed and placed on the public record July 24 and remanded further decisions on specific seal requests back to Bankruptcy Court.

The asbestos committee said that “much of the fruits of discovery and investigation” submitted during the estimation hearing were “in the nature of social science surveys” and include “personally identifying information, financial information and medical information pertaining to thousands of asbestos victims.”

Considering the nature of the information included in the documents, the committee asked that the court order the “sealing or redacting, from all materials of record in the estimation proceeding, any information the disclosure of which would invade the legitimate privacy interests of asbestos victims,” according to the motion.

The asbestos committee went on to claim it “has no objection to unsealing the record of the estimation proceeding” but wants to protect the privacy of victims and “prevent any effort by [Garlock] or others to skew the public record, or the facts surrounding Garlock’s historical verdicts and settlements in asbestos cases, by cherry-picking for continued sealing of those documents unhelpful to their position.”

Garlock is a subsidiary of Charlotte, N.C.-based EnPro Industries, which makes sealing products, bearings, compressors and engines. The company filed for bankruptcy on June 5, 2010 under Chapter 11 case number 10-31607.

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