The case matters to the insurance industry because of who is standing behind the debtors. National Indemnity Company, a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary, acquired the debtors’ parent companies years after the 2004 asset sale, later assigning its acquisition rights to fellow Berkshire affiliate Ringwalt & Liesche Co., which remains the debtors’ ultimate parent. Through a chain of indemnity agreements, National Indemnity currently backstops certain asbestos-related successor liability claims against Brenntag. A group of Berkshire-affiliated entities including National Indemnity, National Liability & Fire Insurance Company, Columbia Insurance Company, and Resolute Management, Inc., among others, appeared in the appeal as intervenor-appellees.
