Final Remarks by the Honorable L. Edward Friend II, US Bankruptcy Judge
Northern District of West Virginia (from the court transcript)
May 16, 2005 1:30 PM
Chapter 11 Re: Jaga, Inc., et al. Debtors
... knowing litigation costs the way I know litigation costs,
it appeared to me and it still appears to me that these parties are entitled
to money and would be far off richer with this settlement and this plan of
reorganization, than they would if they each brought their lawsuit or joined
together in a lawsuit and proceeded for judgments.
The Matrix was a little
hard to understand but it makes sense to me and we do have a procedure that
if somebody does not agree with the analysis on their Matrix, they can
challenge it so that also is for purposes of voting, I think that was fair
and under the circumstances, about as good as you can do with that type of
case.
I think, I truly believe that the parties who are affected by this,
the creditors, are going to be substantially better off than they would
without the plan of reorganization and I'm in favor of it, and I think you
all have done an excellent job of putting together what I would call is a
settlement of a hotly disputed - many, many cases - extending over
geographical distances all over the world, and to put this into a general
procedural aspect where each person will be able to receive some result is
just - it's a great idea.
I wish you all could figure out some way to do
the asbestos cases and come up with a solution because we haven't been able
to figure out what to do with asbestos. So I'm really, I'm impressed. I am
impressed. It's a really good job. It's a great thing in the bankruptcy
that we can do this. The only thing bad against it, I guess is that there
will be some Plaintiffs' lawyers who won't be getting big fees if they would
happen to win the cases. So you might not be real popular with the Plaintiffs' bar with this type of settlement, but I think it is much better
for the creditors or the people that are deserving the money rather than
these numerous lawsuits that we have to go through. So I am going to
wholeheartedly endorse the Plan.
I find it to be in the best interest of
the creditors and I find that the parties have actually worked together to
come to a conclusion that really and truly makes sense in this day and age
which sometimes they are far and few between. So it is confirmed.
Congratulations.
|
