Thorpe Insulation Company and Pacific Insulation Company (both California corporations) emerged from bankruptcy this fall. Pursuant to an order of the United States Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California, and Los Angeles Division, the Thorpe Insulation Company Asbestos Settlement Trust (doing business as the Thorpe Insulation Settlement Trust) has been created to process the asbestos claims of these two entities. The Thorpe Insulation Settlement Trust will operate in Reno, Nevada. Thorpe Insulation Company’s asbestos related operations involved being a distributor of asbestos-containing thermal insulation products and a contractor installing and removing these products. Thorpe Insulation did work at Southern California oil refineries, power plants, and other major industrial sites. Thorpe Insulation Company also did work at commercial buildings, schools, hospitals and some shipyards.

This new trust should not be confused with other asbestos settlement trusts that have similar names and process asbestos claims for companies that also have the Thorpe name in their title. The following companies and trusts have no relationship to the Thorpe Insulation Settlement Trust:

• The “J.T. Thorpe Company Successor Trust”, is a bankruptcy trust operating in Texas and that trust is accepting claims for the work of a separate and wholly independent company called JT Thorpe Company, a Texas corporation, which did refractory and thermal Insulation work in Texas and Louisiana.
• “Thorpe Corporation” doing business in Texas does thermal insulation work in Texas and has no relationship to Thorpe Insulation Company in California.
• “J.T. Thorpe & Son Inc.” did refractory work in Northern California and now does work in other states. This company also has no relationship to Thorpe Insulation Company which operated mainly in Southern California.
• The “J.T. Thorpe Settlement Trust”, is a bankruptcy trust operating in Reno, Nevada and that trust is accepting claims for the work of another separate and wholly independent company, formerly known as J.T. Thorpe Inc. a California corporation, a refractory contractor that did work primarily in Southern California. This company also has no relationship to Thorpe Insulation Company which did thermal insulation work and operated mainly in Southern California.