The New York Times reports a federal appeals court ordered the judge overseeing five important asbestos-related bankruptcy proceedings to withdraw from three of the cases because of the appearance of bias. In a 2-to-1 decision, a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia ordered Alfred M. Wolin, a federal district judge in Newark, to end his role in the bankruptcy hearings involving W. R. Grace, Owens Corning and U.S. Gypsum because his handling of the cases had the appearance of bias.

The Times further reported:

Lawyers for the creditors objected to meetings that Judge Wolin conducted with plaintiffs’ lawyers and other parties to the case without a record being made for those who were absent. The meetings “were flawed because no opportunity existed for their adversaries to know precisely what was said” and what effects might result, the court said.

The creditors also argued that the judge had appointed advisers who were not impartial because they represented plaintiffs in a similar bankruptcy case in Newark involving a company called G.I. Holdings Inc. The court noted that the judge and his advisers met with asbestos plaintiffs’ lawyers for 325 hours over several years.

According to the Times, Legal experts said the decision would probably force new delays and might cause far-reaching economic repercussions in the long-running litigation, which involves thousands of people who say they were harmed by exposure to asbestos.

“He was deciding critical issues very much in the interests of plaintiff lawyers,” said Lester Brickman, a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, who has studied asbestos litigation. The dispute involving Judge Wolin has already led plaintiffs’ lawyers to increase their settlement demands significantly in many other cases involving companies that are not in bankruptcy proceedings to make up for the delay in resolving the five cases, Mr. Brickman said.