On November 22, 2000, WLF scored a victory when the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan overturned a ruling by a bankruptcy court invalidating a third-party release of liability in a bankruptcy settlement. Under the settlement, which would reorganize Dow Corning Corporation in the face of numerous product-liability claims for silicone breast implants, Dow Corning’s parent companies, Dow Chemical Company and Corning, Inc., would be released from future tort claims. Instead, claimants would receive compensation out of the settlement fund. WLF maintained in its brief filed on March 13, 2000 that such a release is permissible under the bankruptcy code and would put an end to the quagmire of litigation surrounding this case.
