The Celotex Asbestos Settlement Trust pays claims to people who developed mesothelioma or another asbestos disease after exposure to products made or sold by the Celotex Corporation, including asbestos products it inherited from the Philip Carey product lines. Celotex went through bankruptcy in the 1990s, and the trust created in that process now handles its asbestos claims. A Celotex trust claim runs alongside, not instead of, a lawsuit against companies that are still solvent.
Who Celotex was
Celotex was a major American building-products manufacturer. Its catalog over the decades included roofing materials, insulation boards, wallboard, and related construction products, and for years some of those products contained asbestos. Through a corporate acquisition, Celotex also took on responsibility for asbestos products sold under the Philip Carey name, a line that included pipe covering and other insulation used heavily in industrial settings.
That combination matters for families. A roofer might remember Celotex shingles and felts. An insulator or pipefitter might remember Carey pipe covering. Both memories can point to the same trust, and a lawyer screening a work history checks for both product lines.
The bankruptcy and the trust
The weight of asbestos litigation pushed Celotex into Chapter 11 in the 1990s. When the reorganization was approved, the Celotex Asbestos Settlement Trust was created and funded to pay existing and future asbestos claims. Since then, people harmed by Celotex or Carey asbestos products file claims with the trust under its written procedures rather than suing the company in court.
Who was exposed in Pennsylvania
Celotex and Carey products moved through Pennsylvania job sites for decades. The workers most often connected to these products include:
- Roofers and roofing laborers who handled shingles, felts, and roofing cements.
- Insulators and pipefitters who cut and fitted pipe covering in plants, refineries, and shipyards.
- Carpenters, drywallers, and general construction workers who cut insulation board and wallboard.
- Family members exposed at home to dust carried in on work clothes.
You do not need to prove any of this yourself before calling a lawyer. Work histories are reconstructed from records and testimony, which is the firm’s job.
The long delay between the work and the diagnosis changes nothing legally. Mesothelioma typically appears 20 to 50 years after exposure, according to the National Cancer Institute (asbestos fact sheet), so a roofer who handled these products in the 1970s may be diagnosed only now. Pennsylvania’s two-year filing window generally runs from discovery of the disease (42 Pa. C.S. § 5524), not from the years on the roof.
What a Celotex trust claim requires
In concept, the trust looks for the same things every asbestos trust looks for: a documented diagnosis of an asbestos-related disease, credible evidence connecting the person to a covered Celotex or Carey product, and a claimant with standing, which can be the diagnosed person or the family and estate after a death. Claims can also be filed after a death, with the estate standing in the person’s place. The trust claim itself is administrative: it is reviewed on paper against the trust’s criteria, with no courtroom appearance and no trial testimony required from the family. The trust pays according to its own current procedures, and amounts depend on the disease and the evidence. We do not publish payment figures because they are set by the trust and change over time. The full list of active trusts is on our asbestos trust fund list.
How the trust claim fits into a lawsuit
Almost no one with mesothelioma was exposed to only one company’s asbestos. A typical Pennsylvania case combines trust claims against bankrupt companies like Celotex with a lawsuit against solvent defendants. The two tracks have to be coordinated: statements made to a trust are discoverable in litigation, and Pennsylvania’s Fair Share Act (42 Pa. C.S. § 7102) governs how responsibility is apportioned among everyone involved. Handled well, the tracks reinforce each other. Handled carelessly, one can undercut the other. Start with the asbestos trust funds overview if you want the whole system explained in one place.
What this means for your family
If roofing, insulation work, or general construction appears in your family’s work history, Celotex is one of several trusts a lawyer will screen for, along with related building-products trusts such as USG. The practical point is simple: the trust exists, it was funded for people in your situation, and claiming from it does not limit the rest of the case.
To have your family’s work history screened against Celotex and every other applicable trust, request a free case review.