The DII Industries, LLC Asbestos PI Trust (the "Trust") is a Pennsylvania common law trust, and is a "Qualified Settlement Fund" within the meaning of Treasury Department regulations issued pursuant to Section 468B of the Internal Revenue Code. The Trust was created on January 20, 2005, in connection with confirmation of the Chapter 11 Joint Plan of Reorganization (the "Plan") for DII Industries, LLC, formerly Dresser Industries, and certain of its affiliated debtors and debtors-in-possession. The Plan was confirmed by order entered on July 21, 2004, by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, which order was affirmed by the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on December 1, 2004.
The purpose of the Trust is to assume the asbestos liabilities of the debtors, Halliburton Company and certain of its affiliates related to the operations of Harbison-Walker Refractories Company, Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc., Dresser Industries, Inc. and certain other businesses, and to use the Trust's assets and income to pay holders of those asbestos liabilities in such a way that all holders of similar asbestos claims, both current and future, are treated in a substantially equivalent manner.
Halliburton and its affiliates were granted the protection of a permanent channeling injunction entered by the Bankruptcy Court and the District Court in connection with the confirmation order. The injunction enjoins the assertions of these asbestos-related claims against those entities, and channels such claims to the Trust for resolution and payment.
The Trust is governed by a Trust Agreement and Trust Distribution Procedures (the "TDP") that establish the framework and criteria for allowance and payment of asbestos-related claims. For each disease, the TDP establishes a claim amount which the Trust will allow if the medical and exposure requirements of the Trust are satisfied. Claimants also have an alternative to seek a more definitive review of their claim in which case claims may be allowed within a range of higher or lower claim amounts.
The Trust's assets consist primarily of cash and investment securities, which are intended to be totally consumed by the allowance and payment of claims and operations of the Trust.
Court documents for the Trust are on file in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh Division, In Re: Mid-Valley, Inc., DII Industries, LLC, Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc., KBR Technical Services, Inc., Kellogg Brown & Root Engineering Corp., Kellogg Brown & Root International, Inc. (a Delaware corporation), Kellogg Brown & Root International, Inc. (a Panamanian corporation), BPM Minerals, LLC, Case No. 03-35592-JKF.