Shipyard’s Asbestos Liability Not Linked to Insurer Buy-Back Agreements, La. Judge Rules

NEW ORLEANS — Asbestos plaintiffs cannot impart liability on executive officers of Huntington Ingalls Incorporated by virtue of buy-back agreements the shipyard owner entered into with its now-insolvent insurers, a federal judge in Louisiana has ruled.

In a Nov. 18 decision, Judge Lance M. Africk of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana held that because the agreements merely extinguished the insolvent insurers’ obligations under policies issued to Huntington Ingalls, it cannot be argued that there exists any obligation to the plaintiffs as a result of the buy-backs, and any attempt to circumvent the clear language of …