[FireBeyond]

They still are. Just indirectly. They set the amount that they were willing to fund the subsidiary to the tune of.

Must be nice, being able to say "Well, we'll give LTL $X and that can be used for settlements" while still throwing off nearly $X a year in profits, and 25% of X in shareholder dividends alone.

Why should a company be allowed to set and determine how much liability it needs to pay?

[HDThoreaun]

This is the opposite of what happened. The court rejected their first two step attempt for not having a high enough payout and forced the subsidiary to have a 61.5 billion dollar payout maximum.

[FireBeyond]

And yet in every company where the Texas Two Step has been done, funding, "requirements" etc., have been blatantly disregarded and the only ones who have been screwed over are said claimants.

Georgia Pacific, faced with several billions in claims, formed a subsidiary, and "pledged" to fund it to the full amount, starting with an initial $1B funding...

Actually only funded it to the value of $175M. Less than $3,000 per claimant for mesothelioma.

Less than $3,000... before claimant legal fees.

[thomastjeffery]

That's not what opposite means. What's you just described is the same exact thing with extra steps.

Sure, it's a higher number than J&J asked for, but it's still a number!

[HDThoreaun]

It's the entire value of the business, there is no higher possible number.

[thomastjeffery]

Of course there is! It's called "debt".

The entire purpose of bankruptcy is to resolve debt you can't afford to pay.