Announcements

Manville: MAP

Per Manville’s TDP, the Trust’s distribution to all claimants for the first nine months of a year shall not exceed 85% of the Maximum Annual Payment (MAP) determined for that year.  Manville has reached this limit for 2020.  Therefore, any claim with a status of “Awaiting Offer Funding” will not receive payment until October of 2020.  Please refer to the 2002 TDP Section H.8 for further details.  

Manville: Temporary Policy Update Extension – COVID 2019

Temporary Policy Changes Regarding (a) Release Signatures and (b) Enforcement of Time Limitations

The Trustees of the Manville Trust are aware that these are difficult and unusual times.  Some filers may not be able to meet the requirements for certain Trust claims due to illness, quarantine or shelter in place orders. Therefore, the Trust has extended the prior deadline from September 15, 2020 until January 1, 2021. The following temporary policies will be in place.

  • For releases generated prior to the changes on March 26, 2020, a release document may be signed by the Injured Party or Personal Representative (when the injured party is deceased) and one witness who may be related by blood or marriage.
  • The timeframe for responding to notices of offer, deficiency, deactivation, and withdrawal has been tolled.
  • The statute of limitations period for filing a claim is tolled.

These policy changes are the result of the current pandemic crisis and are designed to provide temporary measures to assure claimants that claims handling will continue during the crisis.

Permanent Policy Changes Regarding Electronic Signatures:

  • The Trust will accept any document requiring a signature that has been signed utilizing DocuSign or other electronic signature software provided the law firm has an electronic filer agreement on file with CRMC.
  • The Trust added language to the end of the release on March 26, 2020 so the release need not be notarized or witnessed.

Durabla: Claim Processor

CRMC is pleased to announce we have been selected as the claims’ processor for the Durabla Manufacturing Company and Durabla Canada Ltd. Asbestos Trust. Claim forms and instructions are available on our website under the documents tab along with other filing documents required to begin the filing process. If you plan to file as a hybrid filer please complete the Hybrid Filer Agreement, and User Administrator Form. We will obtain an updated W-9 and EFT agreement later on. These forms should be emailed in PDF format to Donita Snow at DSnow@claimsres.com. Please review the notice regarding the initial intake period and contact us should you have questions. eClaims has been updated to accept the key pieces of information required to toll the statute of limitations. Once it has been fully programmed, we will notify you. Web services and batch are also available.

If you need assistance, please reach out to CRMC at inquiry@claimsres.com.

CRMC Enhancements 7/27/2020

CRMC is pleased to announce the implementation of significant enhancements to eClaims this past weekend. We have been working through these for some time and are excited to share them with you.

Deficiency Listing: This is a new page off the “Search” tab labeled “Deficiency Listing”.   Law firm users can locate specific deficiencies by Trust. We added selection criteria we thought was most useful such as: Trust, deficiency type, deficiency code, claim status, and cat/level. Once you enter your criteria and the list of claims returns, you may download that list by selecting that option at the bottom of the page.  A detailed explanation of how to use this page is included in the updated User Guide on page 42.  We posted a list of Trust specific deficiencies to each Trust’s Documents tab for your reference.

Deficiency Tab: This is a new claim specific tab which displays any deficiencies currently pending on a claim. The deficiencies are broken into the following sections: POC Data, POC Required Documents, Exposure, and Medical.  Each section has a link in its top right corner that will take you to further information. The user guide details the specifics for using the tab beginning on page 49.

Action Links: We replaced the prior one-character action links such as C for CDT to a list view. Hover your mouse over the green Actions box and a list of pages displays. Just scroll down to the page you would like to go to. See Figure 45 in the updated manual for additional information.

MV CDT: A change was made to the CDT Summary page to show if the claim meets the “medical” criteria. If the expected level is displayed as an L7 and the CDT level is an L7 that means the claim met the medical criteria. To see if there are non-medical deficiencies click on the explanation of level. If there is an issue with one of the following requirements it will show as a No on that page: SOE, SOL, Latency, exposure to Manville asbestos, etc.

Once you have had a chance to use these new features, please reach out if you have questions or would like us to consider adding additional features to a page. We hope you find these useful in tracking the status of claims within eClaims.

Manville: Temporary Policy Update Extension – COVID 2019

Temporary Policy Changes Regarding (a) Release Signatures and (b) Enforcement of Time Limitations

The Trustees of the Manville Trust are aware that these are difficult and unusual times.  Some filers may not be able to meet the requirements for certain Trust claims due to illness, quarantine or shelter in place orders. Therefore, the Trust has extended the prior deadline from July 22, 2020 until September 15, 2020. The following temporary policies will be in place.

  • For releases generated prior to the changes on March 26, 2020, a release document may be signed by the Injured Party or Personal Representative (when the injured party is deceased) and one witness who may be related by blood or marriage.

  • The timeframe for responding to notices of offer, deficiency, deactivation, and withdrawal has been tolled.

  • The statute of limitations period for filing a claim is tolled.

These policy changes are the result of the current pandemic crisis and are designed to provide temporary measures to assure claimants that claims handling will continue during the crisis.

Permanent Policy Changes Regarding Electronic Signatures:

  • The Trust will accept any document requiring a signature that has been signed utilizing DocuSign or other electronic signature software provided the law firm has an electronic filer agreement on file with CRMC.

  • The Trust added language to the end of the release on March 26, 2020 so the release need not be notarized or witnessed.

Manville: MV Level 2 Release Language

At the request of several counsel, a change has been made to the Level 2 release. Your client will have the option to accept the L2 offer at 4.3% which is eligible for a supplemental payment should one be made or the L1 $600 Cash Discount Payment. They should initial their selection and sign the release.

Manville: Manville Trust 4.3% pro rata share

With the recent change in the Manville Trust Pro Rata share, the pro rata payment amount for a Level 2 claim is $516, less than a Level 1 Cash Discount Payment of $600. Therefore, the Trustees will offer the option of accepting the Level 2 value, which is eligible for a supplemental payment should one be paid, or accepting the Level 1 $600 cash discount payment. For electronic filers you will see the following options on the Offer Status Page:

                ACC – Offer Accepted as L2 $516 eligible for supplemental payment

                AL1 – Offer Accepted as L1 $600 cash discount payment

The proper release will generate once an option is selected. If you file on paper with CRMC, a representative will contact you prior to the issuance of an offer for your selection so the proper offer and release documents are sent.

CET: COVID-19 Policy

Statute of Limitation. At this time, the Trust will continue to enforce deadlines for the filing of claims set forth in Section 7.1(a)(2) of the TDP. However, in recognition of the inability of many claimants to file their claim on a timely basis as a result of circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trust will extend the applicable limitation period for 90 days for claims whose limitation period expires during the period from March 20, 2020 through June 18, 2020.

Offers. The Trust recognizes the inability of many claimants, as a result of circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic, to respond to offers in the time frame required. As such, where the time to respond to an offer expires during the period from March 20, 2020 through June 18, 2020, the Trust will extend the time for 90 days.

Affidavit. In light of current guidelines related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trust will accept the authentication of affidavits through DocuSign or similar Trust authorized electronic signature program during the period from March 20, 2020 through June 18, 2020, provided that documentation of the electronic signature history and a certificate from the electronic signature program is submitted with the affidavit. The Trust reserves the right to request supplemental documentation at a later date.

Releases. In light of current guidelines related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trustees recognize that some claimants may not have access to a notary or to two unrelated witnesses for the authentication of releases. The Trust may accept the signature of one witness (related or unrelated) as reliable authentication of a release if the release was executed and submitted to the Trust during the period from March 20, 2020 through June 18, 2020. The Trust will also accept releases executed using DocuSign or similar Trust authorized electronic signature program. If the claimant utilizes DocuSign or a similar Trust authorized electronic signature program, documentation of the electronic signature history and a certificate from the electronic signature program must be provided with the release. The Trust reserves the right to request supplemental documentation at a later date.

The North American Refractories Company Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust (the "NARCO Trust") has transitioned its claims processing to the Delaware Claims Processing Facility (“DCPF”). Please see narcoasbestostrust.org for more information.