Judge ousts members of breast implant panel

Abstract

Clearly frustrated at the slow progress in settling Dow Coming's bankruptcy case, a federal judge has dismissed a nine-member committee set up to represent claims against the company from silicone breast implant recipients. The judge says eight of the nine panel members are lawyers who have conflicts of interest. Instead, Judge Arthur J. Spector of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Northern Division, in Bay City, Mich., has ordered the U.S. bankruptcy trustee to appoint a new Tort Claimants Committee (TCC) composed of U.S. and foreign recipients of breast and perhaps other silicone implants. The trustee appointed the current members last May 31, just 15 days after Dow Corning filed for bankruptcy protection (C&EN, May 22, 1995, page 6). Spector asserts that the lawyers' conflicts of interest have hurt settlement negotiations: The committee and Dow Corning are warring. They are not getting closer to a consensual plan. A Dow Corning spokeswoman ...