Kane v. Johns-Manville Corp.
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
843 F.2d 636 (1988)
Johns-Manville Corporation (debtor), a major asbestos manufacturer, filed for chapter 11 reorganization amid a wave of asbestos personal-injury lawsuits and proposed a plan creating a trust to compensate victims. Claimants already suffering from asbestos-related illness were treated as current creditors, while a separate class of people exposed to Manville's asbestos but not yet sick - potential future claimants - was represented by a court-appointed legal representative and would remain eligible to file claims against the trust later. After the bankruptcy court confirmed the plan and the district court affirmed, current claimant Lawrence Kane appealed, arguing the plan improperly discharged the rights of future victims who didn't yet have ripe claims.
Whether a present claimant has standing, in a mass-tort bankruptcy, to challenge a reorganization plan's treatment of potential future claimants.