The Babcock and Wilcox Asbestos Settlement Trust is the only place to file an asbestos personal injury claim against B&W or its former subsidiaries, and it currently pays 4.7% of each claim’s scheduled value. The trust was created in 2006 out of B&W’s Chapter 11 reorganization to compensate people who developed asbestos-related diseases from exposure to the company’s boilers and related equipment.1B&W Asbestos Trust. Babcock and Wilcox Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust
What the Trust Pays
Every claim starts from a fixed “scheduled value” tied to the claimant’s disease level. The trust then multiplies that value by the current payment percentage, which sits at 4.7% because the fund cannot cover the full scheduled amount on every claim. On May 7, 2026, the trust published a formal notice that it is reconsidering the payment percentage. The rate could move in either direction.1B&W Asbestos Trust. Babcock and Wilcox Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust
Scheduled values by disease level, before the 4.7% is applied:
- Mesothelioma (Level VIII): $90,000
- Lung Cancer 1 (Level VII): $35,000
- Lung Cancer 2 (Level VI): no scheduled value; Individual Review only, with an estimated average award of $15,000 and a $50,000 cap
- Other Cancer (Level V): $18,500
- Severe Asbestosis (Level IV): $35,000
- Asbestosis/Pleural Disease Level III: $10,000
- Asbestosis/Pleural Disease Level II: $5,000
- Other Asbestos Disease (Level I): $250 (not subject to the payment percentage)
At today’s 4.7%, a mesothelioma claim processed through the standard track would pay out roughly $4,230 from the trust.1B&W Asbestos Trust. Babcock and Wilcox Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust
Expedited Review or Individual Review
Claims move through one of two tracks. Expedited Review is the faster path: if you meet the trust’s preset medical and exposure criteria for your disease level, you receive the scheduled value multiplied by the payment percentage, and that is the end of it.
Individual Review is for claimants who believe their case warrants more than the schedule, whether because of the severity of the illness, the extent of the exposure, or other case-specific facts. It is also the only route available for Lung Cancer 2 (Level VI), which has no scheduled value at all. Individual Review takes longer and requires more evidence, but it opens the door to a higher payout, subject to any applicable cap.
Who Qualifies
Every claim must show meaningful and credible exposure to B&W asbestos-containing products before December 31, 1982. That cutoff matters: exposure after that date does not qualify.
Several disease categories carry a tougher exposure standard called Significant Occupational Exposure. It applies to lung cancer claims, other cancer claims, severe asbestosis, and Level III pleural disease. To meet it, you need at least five cumulative years of employment involving regular contact with asbestos or asbestos-containing products, and at least two of those years must fall before the end of 1982.2B&W Asbestos Trust. Instructions for Filing a Claim
B&W did not manufacture raw asbestos. It built asbestos-containing components, including block, gaskets, heat seals, insulation, millboard, and rope packing, into steam boilers, utility boilers, water-tube marine boilers, furnaces, and pulverizers. Workers most likely to have been exposed spent time in power plants, shipyards, nuclear facilities, steel plants, oil refineries, and chemical plants. Boilermakers, pipefitters, welders, insulators, machinists, shipyard workers, and maintenance crews who built, serviced, or demolished B&W equipment saw the heaviest exposure. Because B&W marine boilers were widely installed on U.S. Navy vessels, Navy veterans make up a large share of claimants.3Asbestos.com. Babcock and Wilcox
The trust also handles secondary exposure claims, such as a family member who inhaled fibers carried home on a worker’s clothing. Section 5.5 of the Trust Distribution Procedures, which governs those claims, was amended in November 2025.4B&W Asbestos Trust. Documents
How to File
Claims are submitted through the trust’s online system or on paper. The trust publishes detailed instructions on the medical documentation and exposure evidence each disease level requires, along with guidance on fixing deficiencies if a claim comes back with problems.4B&W Asbestos Trust. Documents
To help claimants establish exposure, the trust maintains an approved site list identifying locations where workers came into contact with B&W equipment. That list was last updated in February 2026 and now includes thousands of exposure sites across the country, with hundreds in New York State alone.5Belluck & Fox, LLP. Babcock and Wilcox
Questions can go to the trust’s claimant relations line at 800-708-8925 or claimantrelations@delcpf.com.
If You Disagree With a Determination
The trust runs an Alternative Dispute Resolution process for claimants who want to challenge a decision on their claim. Those procedures were updated in October 2025. The broader Trust Distribution Procedures, originally issued in December 2015, remain the governing document and were most recently amended in November 2025.4B&W Asbestos Trust. Documents
Why the Trust Is Your Only Option
When B&W emerged from Chapter 11 in February 2006, the district court entered a permanent channeling injunction under Section 524(g) of the Bankruptcy Code. That injunction directs all current and future asbestos personal injury claims tied to pre-plan exposure away from the reorganized company and its protected affiliates, including parent company McDermott, and sends them exclusively to the trust. You cannot sue B&W in court over asbestos exposure covered by the plan. The trust is the sole recourse.6Casemine. In re Babcock and Wilcox Company, Case No. 00-10992
The bankruptcy plan also required that current claims and future demands be treated substantially the same way, which is why the payment percentage exists and why it applies uniformly across the schedule. When the fund’s projected liabilities shift, the trustees adjust the percentage rather than pay some claimants in full and later claimants nothing.7GovInfo. In re Babcock and Wilcox Company The pending 2026 reconsideration is the next such adjustment, and any claimant with an unresolved claim should watch for the trust’s announcement of the new rate.