Treading Murky Waters: The Third Circuit’s Search for When a Claim Arises in In re Grossman’s, Inc.

On June 2, 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in In re Grossman’s, Inc. held that despite a post-petition manifestation of injury, the tort claims of a woman allegedly exposed to a Chapter Eleven debtor’s asbestos-containing products arose pre-petition. In so holding, the court reasoned that a claim arises when an individual is exposed pre-petition to a debtor’s product giving rise to an injury, thus overruling its 1984 decision in In re M. Frenville Co. This Comment argues that although the court examined two tests before determining when a claim arises under the Bankruptcy Code, it left the state of claim accrual law in the contingent tort claims context unclear.