Announcements

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.

NARCO: COVID-19 Policy

NOTICE FROM THE NARCO ASBESTOS TRUST
March 27, 2020

In recognition of the hardships resulting from the current COVID-19 pandemic, effective March 27, 2020, the NARCO Asbestos Trust adopts the following:

The Trust temporarily suspends any requirement that a document submitted to the Trust be notarized. Documents may be submitted to the Trust without notarization as provided below. The Trust temporarily suspends any requirement that a document be witnessed by more than one person or by a person unrelated to the signatory. Documents may be witnessed by one person who may be a family member.

Provided the claimant’s law firm has entered an electronic filer agreement with the Trust and CRMC, the Trust will accept documents signed by DocuSign or by another commercially reasonable e-signature program. Claimants’ law firms should coordinate submission of documents signed by DocuSign or by another commercially reasonable e-signature program with CRMC.

Deadlines imposed by the TDP, Trust policy or procedures are tolled for 90 days from March 23, 2020, subject to further extension by notice from the Trust. The Trust will assess whether to extend the tolled time period before the end of the 90 days.

These provisions will apply until further notice from the Trust. The Trust may prospectively revert to its prior policies and may subsequently require that the original signatures be obtained for documents submitted with electronic signatures.

NARCO Trust COVID-19 Policy PDF

Manville: Updated Release Document

The Manville Trust has added language to the release document so it only needs to be signed by the injured party or representative. If you would like to secure an updated release for clients based on this change, please provide a list of claimids in excel to inquiry@claimsres.com and we will let you know once the updated release document(s) may be printed from eClaims.

Manville: MV Trust COVID-19 Policies

Policy Changes – COVID 2019

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

The Manville Trust’s current policy is that a release must be signed by the injured party or personal representative and notarized by a notary or witnessed by two individuals not related by blood or marriage.

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, for the next 120 days from the date of this notice or until further notice by the Trust, whichever occurs later, the following temporary policies will be in place.

  • 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 at the end of the release so that the release need not be notarized or witnessed. A notice will be sent once this change is in place.

e-Claims Enhancements 03-03-2020

CRMC rolled out a bulk actions tool which allows users to perform an action for a list of claimIDs if their security allows for that action. This new feature hangs from the Claims tab and is labeled Bulk Actions. The actions that can be performed include: accept offers, reactivate and accept last offer, reactivate and elect re-review, withdraw or delete, remove claim from deferral, defer a claim, and elect recategorization. Permissions are based on the law firm user’s permissions for the particular Trust and the Trust’s requirements according to their individual TDP’s.  The eClaims user guide has been updated and walks through this new feature in detail.

Manville: MAP

The Manville Trust has reached its Maximum Annual Payment (MAP) amount for 2019.  Therefore, any claim with a status of “Awaiting Offer Funding” will not receive payment until 2020.  Claims at this status will be carried over to 2020 and placed at the head of the FIFO payment queue. Please refer to the 2002 TDP Section H.8 for further details.

NARCO: Timing of Payments

NARCO ASBESTOS TRUST

NOTICE TO HOLDERS OF ANNUAL CONTRIBUTION CLAIMS

TIMING OF PAYMENTS

To date, the NARCO Asbestos Trust (the “Trust”) has paid holders of Annual Contribution Claims from funds received from dividends paid on the Trust’s holdings of 79% of the stock of Harbison Walker International (“HWI”) and from investments of the dividends. The Trust projects that it will exhaust those funds during the Third Quarter of 2019. Upon exhaustion of those funds, the Trust will pay holders of Annual Contribution Claims based on the schedule and process provided in Section 2.3 (c) of the NARCO Asbestos Trust Agreement.

Following the end of each calendar quarter, the Trust provides Honeywell International Inc. with notice of the claims entered in the Annual Contribution Claims Fund Payment Queue during the quarter. The Trust includes in the notice the funds received by the Trust from the Trust’s holdings in HWI available to pay Annual Contribution Claims. Thirty days after receipt of the notice, Honeywell is obligated to deliver to the Trust funds, as stated in the notice, sufficient to pay the Annual Contribution Claims in the Annual Contribution Claims Fund Payment Queue less amounts, if any, held by the Trust from the Trust’s holdings and subject to annual caps specified in the Trust Agreement.

Honeywell will be given the regular notice of claims entered in the Annual Contribution Claims Fund Payment Queue in the Third Quarter of 2019 during the first week of October. Honeywell will be obligated to transfer the requisite funds thirty days thereafter, that is, in early November. Holders of Annual Contribution Claims entered in the Annual Contribution Claims Fund Payment Queue in the Third Quarter should expect payments in mid- November.

Holders of claims entered in the Annual Contribution Claims Fund Payment Queue in subsequent calendar quarters should expect payments in the second month following the end of the calendar quarter in which their claims were entered in the Payment Queue.

NARCO: Claim Processing Updates Related to Proof of Personal Representative’s Official Capacity

eClaims has been updated to allow claims to be reviewed for exposure, medical and statute of limitations purposes prior to the submission of a Certificate of Capacity Document. To the extent a Certificate of Capacity Document is required, an offer will not be issued until an acceptable document is submitted to the Trust. Certain claims’ statuses have been updated to allow for the further processing of claims affected by this update.