NARCO: COVID-19 Policy Update

NOTICE FROM THE NARCO ASBESTOS TRUST
September 22, 2020


In recognition of the continuing hardships resulting from the current COVID-19 pandemic, effective September 22, 2020, the NARCO Asbestos Trust adopts the following (which replaces and supersedes the Trust’s Notice dated August 12, 2020):

The Trust continues its temporary suspension of 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 continues its temporary suspension of 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 continue to 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.

Any statute of limitations deadlines and the deferral period pursuant to TDP Section 5.3 are extended from March 23, 2020 (as per the notice dated March 27, 2020 through November 1, 2020. The Trust will assess whether to further extend the statute of limitations deadlines before October 15, 2020 and will give at least five business days’ notice if the Trust determines to further extend the deadlines.

The calculation of time with regard to all other deadlines imposed by the TDP or Trust policies or procedures will resume on October 1, 2020.

If the COVID-19 pandemic presents an issue with regard to other deadlines,
claimants may defer the claim or seek reconsideration of such claim by selecting the appropriate option in eClaims.

The provisions of this Notice will expire on November 1, 2020.

NARCO Trust COVID-19 Policy PDF

NARCO: COVID-19 Policy Update

NOTICE FROM THE NARCO ASBESTOS TRUST
August 12, 2020


In recognition of the continuing hardships resulting from the current COVID-19 pandemic, effective August 17, 2020, the NARCO Asbestos Trust adopts the following:

The Trust continues its temporary suspension of any requirement that a document submitted to the Trust be notarized. Documents may be submitted to the Trust without notarization as provided below. Also, the Trust continues its temporary suspension of 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 continue to 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 esignature program with CRMC.

Deadlines imposed by the TDP or Trust policies or procedures are extended through September 30, 2020. This is an extension of the deadlines, not a tolling of the deadlines. By notice dated March 27, 2020 the Trust tolled deadlines imposed by the TDP or Trust policies or procedures from March 23, 2020, for 90 days, to June 21, 2020. On June 21, 2020, the tolling ended, and the tolled times resumed running. If a time deadline occurs sometime between June 21, 2020 and September 30, 2020, the deadline is extended until September 30, 2020. The Trust will assess whether to further extend the deadlines before September 30, 2020 and will give at least five business days’ notice if the Trust determines to further extend the deadlines.

Without a further extension, the provisions of this Notice will expire on September 30, 2020. Except for deadlines extended by this Notice, absent further notice from the Trust, on September 30, 2020, the Trust will revert to its prior policies including requiring original signatures.

NARCO Trust COVID-19 Policy PDF

NARCO: COVID-19 Policy Update

NOTICE FROM THE NARCO ASBESTOS TRUST
June 24, 2020


In recognition of the hardships resulting from the current COVID-19 pandemic, effective June 21, 2020, the NARCO Asbestos Trust adopts the following (which replaces and supersedes the Trust’s Notice dated March 27, 2020):

The Trust continues its temporary suspension of 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 continues its temporary suspension of 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 continue to 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 extended through August 17, 2020. This is an extension of the deadlines, not a tolling of the deadlines. By notice dated March 27, 2020 the Trust tolled deadlines imposed by the TDP, Trust policy or procedures from March 23, 2020, for 90 days, to June 21, 2020. On June 21, 2020, the tolling will end and the tolled times will resume to run. If a time deadline occurs sometime between June 21, 2020 and August 17, 2020, the deadline is extended until August 17, 2020. The Trust will assess whether to further extend the deadlines before August 17, 2020 and will give at least five business days’ notice if the Trust determines to further extend the deadlines.

Without a further extension, the provisions of this Notice will expire on August 17, 2020. Except for the deadlines extended by this Notice, absent further notice from the Trust, on August 17, 2020, the Trust will revert to its prior policies including requiring original signatures.

NARCO Trust COVID-19 Policy PDF

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

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.

NARCO: Claim Processing Updates Related to Individual Review Claims and Part 4 of the Individual Review Claim Form

eClaims has been updated to allow claims to be processed for exposure, medical and statute of limitations purposes prior to the submission of an IR Part 4 Affirmation. To the extent an IR Part 4 Affirmation is required, an offer will not be issued until an acceptable affirmation is submitted to the Trust. Certain claims’ statuses have been updated to allow for the further processing of claims affected by this update.

NARCO: Individual Review Claims and Part 4 of the Individual Review Claim Form

All NARCO Asbestos Trust Individual Review (“IR”) claims that answer “Yes” to the question “Has an asbestos-related lawsuit or claim ever been filed on behalf of the injured party?” must complete the Affirmation of Counsel: IR Claim Form Part 4: Asbestos-Related Litigation and Claims History.  This document should be uploaded as part of the claim file using document type “NAR-IR Doc Aff.”

See documentation requirements contained in Part 4 of the IR Claim Form.  If you answer “Yes”, to the question “Has an asbestos-related lawsuit or claim ever been filed on behalf of the injured party?”, you must complete Part 4 of the IR Claim Form. In addition, for every asbestos-legal action filed on behalf of the injured party, the claimant and the claimant’s law firm must attach to the Claim Form:

    1. the file-stamped copy of the complaint, as amended,
    2. any standard disclosures or interrogatories and the answers thereto required by the applicable jurisdiction, and
    3. any affidavits or deposition testimony submitted by or on behalf of the injured party

To the extent that affidavits or depositions from a person other than the injured party include information that bears on an injured party’s exposure to a NARCO asbestos-containing product (whether or not the affidavits or depositions mentioned NARCO) and were submitted on behalf of the injured party to a court, an insurance company, or an asbestos defendant in the tort system in an effort to support an asbestos claim, those affidavits and depositions must also be submitted. Such affidavits and depositions must be submitted regardless of whether they tend to support the claim of exposure to a NARCO asbestos-containing product. Affidavits and depositions that do not relate to the time period of the injured party’s exposure to a NARCO asbestos-containing product do not have to be submitted to the NARCO Trust, unless the affidavit or deposition: (1) names the injured party; and (2) contradicts the evidence of the injured party’s exposure to a NARCO asbestos-containing product. Affidavits that were submitted to other asbestos trusts only do not have to be submitted to the NARCO Trust.