Garlock Asbestos Settlement: Eligibility, Payouts, Deadlines

The Garlock asbestos settlement is a $480 million trust fund, formally called the Garlock Settlement Facility, that began paying claims on April 1, 2021, to people diagnosed with mesothelioma, certain other asbestos-related cancers, or asbestosis after exposure to gaskets, packing, and other sealing products made by Garlock Sealing Technologies or its affiliate Coltec Industries.¹ A qualifying mesothelioma claim can pay up to $342,900, and claims with unusually heavy Garlock or Coltec exposure can qualify for a review that multiplies the standard payout by five.²

Who Can File a Claim

The trust compensates people diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma, asbestosis, or an asbestos-related cancer of the lung, colon or rectum, larynx, esophagus, pharynx, or stomach.¹ A claim must be supported by a diagnosis from a board-certified physician and must show at least a 10-year latency period between first exposure and diagnosis. For every covered disease except mesothelioma, the claimant also has to document at least six months of total contact with Garlock or Coltec products.³

Exposure has to be tied specifically to Garlock or Coltec asbestos-containing products, proved through sworn statements or authentic records such as military or union documentation.³ Garlock manufactured gaskets, packing, seals, cloth, tape, and insulation from 1907 to 1980, with some gaskets containing as much as 90% asbestos.⁴ The products ran under brand names including Blue-Gard, Flexseal, and Gylon and appeared throughout shipbuilding, power generation, oil and gas refining, chemical plants, and manufacturing.⁵ The workers most likely to have qualifying exposure are pipefitters, boilermakers, mechanics, insulators, electricians, construction workers, and Navy veterans who served on ships where the products were installed in boilers, engines, and piping. Family members exposed secondhand through a worker’s clothing may also file.⁶

One boundary worth noting: the trust only pays for exposure to Garlock and Coltec products. Exposure to asbestos insulation or other products made by different manufacturers is handled by those companies’ own trusts or by separate litigation.

How Much the Trust Pays

Unlike many asbestos trusts, Garlock does not use a fixed scheduled value with a flat payment percentage. Every claim gets an individualized “Matrix Amount” calculated from disease type, occupation, industry, age, how long the person was exposed to Garlock or Coltec products, economic loss, and other personal factors.³

The maximum values as of 2025 are:

Mesothelioma: $342,900²
Lung cancer: $85,725⁶
Other covered cancers (colorectal, laryngeal, esophageal, pharyngeal, stomach): $34,290⁶

Claims where the great majority of the person’s asbestos exposure came from Garlock or Coltec products, with minimal exposure to other sources, can qualify for Extraordinary Claim Review. If approved, the trust multiplies the standard matrix amount by five.²

The trust allocates 85% of its annual payment budget to mesothelioma claims, 10% to lung cancer, and 5% to all other covered diseases.¹

How to File

Claimants submit a Proof of Claim Form to the Garlock Settlement Facility, either electronically or by mail. Filing fees are $100 for mesothelioma, $75 for lung cancer, and $50 for all other diseases. If the trust makes an offer and the claimant accepts it, the filing fee is reimbursed.³

Claims are processed first-in, first-out. If the trust finds the submission incomplete, the claimant has six months to fix the problem. Missing that window means the claim is rejected, though a rejected claim can be refiled with a new filing fee.³

Deadlines

For claims that were subject to an asbestos claims bar date, the deadline to file with the trust expired on April 1, 2022. For other claims, the deadline is set by the applicable state statute of limitations, or two years after the date of diagnosis, whichever is later.³ Because state statutes of limitations for asbestos claims vary and can be short, anyone with a recent diagnosis should confirm their deadline before assuming they have time.

Trust Finances and Payment Adjustments

As of December 31, 2024, the Garlock Settlement Facility held approximately $387.3 million in total assets. It had paid out more than $31.35 million to claimants, with an additional $1.12 million in claims settled but not yet paid.²

The trust is built to pay claims over decades. To keep current and future claimants on roughly equal footing, the trustee sets a maximum annual payment each year. If assets decline or claims arrive faster than projected, the trustee can lower maximum settlement values across the board, so the figures above are ceilings that can move.¹ Lewis R. Sifford serves as the asbestos trustee, working with a Claimants Advisory Committee and a Future Claimants Representative.⁷

How the Trust Came to Exist

Garlock filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 5, 2010, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of North Carolina, after paying more than $1.4 billion to resolve roughly 900,000 asbestos claims through the tort system.²⁸

In January 2014, Bankruptcy Judge George R. Hodges estimated Garlock’s total liability for present and future mesothelioma claims at just $125 million after a 17-day trial. He found that Garlock’s chrysotile asbestos gaskets posed a relatively low exposure risk compared with the amphibole insulation made by other manufacturers, and that “the last ten years of [Garlock’s] participation in the tort system was infected by the manipulation of exposure evidence by plaintiffs and their lawyers.”⁹

The estimation was a tool to shape a plan, not a final number. In March 2016, Garlock’s parent EnPro Industries announced a negotiated $480 million trust: $400 million in cash on the plan’s effective date and another $80 million within a year.¹⁰¹¹ Senior U.S. District Judge Graham Mullen confirmed the Modified Joint Plan of Reorganization on June 12, 2017, and it took effect July 31, 2017.¹²¹³

The confirmation order included a channeling injunction under Section 524(g) of the Bankruptcy Code. It permanently bars anyone from suing Garlock, EnPro, or their affiliates over asbestos exposure, and directs every such claim to the trust instead.¹¹ For anyone diagnosed with an asbestos disease tied to Garlock or Coltec products, the settlement facility is the only route to compensation from the company.

1
Garlock Settlement Facility. Claims Resolution Procedures
2
Mesothelioma.com. Garlock Sealing Technologies
3
Garlock Settlement Facility. GST Claim Form Instructions
4
Mesothelioma Fund. Garlock Asbestos Trust
5
Mesothelioma.net. Garlock Sealing Technologies
6
Asbestos.com. Garlock Sealing Technologies
7
SEC. Modified Joint Plan of Reorganization
8
Lanier Law Firm. Garlock Sealing Technologies Asbestos Trust Fund
9
U.S. Bankruptcy Court, W.D.N.C. In Re Garlock Sealing Technologies, LLC
10
Westlaw Practical Law. EnPro, Garlock Reach $480 Million Settlement on Asbestos Claims
11
SEC. EnPro Industries Press Release
12
CourtListener. In Re Garlock Sealing Technologies, LLC
13
EnPro Industries 10-K. EnPro Industries Annual Report