1. Except as provided in subsection 2, the cumulative successor asbestos-related liabilities of a successor are limited to the fair market value of the total gross assets of the transferor determined as of the time of the merger or consolidation. A successor shall not have responsibility for successor asbestos-related liabilities in excess of this limitation.

Terms Used In Iowa Code 686C.3

  • Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
  • Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
  • following: when used by way of reference to a chapter or other part of a statute mean the next preceding or next following chapter or other part. See Iowa Code 4.1
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • Successor: includes any of that successor corporation's successors. See Iowa Code 686C.2
  • Successor asbestos-related liability: includes liabilities that, after the time of the merger or consolidation for which the fair market value of total gross assets is determined under section 686C. See Iowa Code 686C.2
  • Transferor: means a corporation from which successor asbestos-related liabilities are or were assumed or incurred. See Iowa Code 686C.2
 2. If the transferor had assumed or incurred successor asbestos-related liabilities in connection with a prior merger or consolidation with a prior transferor, then the fair market value of the total gross assets of the prior transferor determined as of the time of the earlier merger or consolidation shall be substituted for the limitation set forth in subsection 1 for purposes of determining the limitation of liability of a successor.
 3. The limitations in this section shall apply to any successor but shall not apply to any of the following:

 a. Workers’ compensation benefits paid by or on behalf of an employer to an employee under the provisions of chapter 85 or 85A, or a comparable workers’ compensation law of another jurisdiction.
 b. Any claim against a corporation that does not constitute a successor asbestos-related liability.
 c. Any obligation under the federal National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 151 et seq., as amended, or under any collective bargaining agreement.
 d. A successor that, after a merger or consolidation, continued in the business of mining asbestos or in the business of selling or distributing asbestos fibers or in the business of manufacturing, distributing, removing, or installing asbestos-containing products which were the same or substantially the same as those products previously manufactured, distributed, removed, or installed by the transferor.
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