THRONEBERRY LAW GROUP
Mesothelioma & Asbestos Attorneys
TRUST PAYMENT REFERENCE
A payment reference for the Keene Creditors Trust, which pays claims for asbestos materials made or sold by Keene Corporation. Every figure below was checked against the trust's own claims procedures, notices, and Approved Job Sites list, published by its claims processor, on October 18, 2026.
CURRENT TRUST STATUS
The Keene asbestos trust pays 1.05% of scheduled value. The trustee raised the rate from 0.90% to 1.05% effective October 24, 2024, by notice dated October 28, 2024. A mesothelioma claim carries a $125,000 scheduled value, so a mesothelioma claim pays about $1,313. Since January 1, 2025 every claim needs a $75 processing fee, refunded when the claim is paid. The trust publishes an Approved Job Sites list of 1,419 sites, 140 of them in Illinois, which is the main way a Keene claim is proved.
Throneberry Law Group files Keene claims for insulators, plant workers, railroad workers, and other trades and their families across the country. This page is part of our asbestos trust funds guide, which covers every trust we file against. Keene pays about a penny on the dollar, so we file it alongside the larger insulation trusts that reach the same job sites, never on its own.
PAYMENT REFERENCE
The table below is the short answer. The sections that follow explain each line.
| Current payment percentage | 1.05% of scheduled value. One rate for all claims. |
|---|---|
| In effect since | October 24, 2024 (Notice of Payment Percentage Increase dated October 28, 2024, adopted under Section 3.2 of the claims procedures with the consent of the Trust Advisory Committee). |
| Prior rates | 0.90% before October 24, 2024. 0.8% from February 15, 2010, when the trustees cut the rate from 1.3% after an actuarial study (letter dated February 15, 2010). The trust has posted no notice dating the step from 0.8% to 0.90%. |
| Review cycle | The trustees re-evaluate the rate periodically under the Trust Agreement; the claims procedures set no fixed interval (Section 3.2). A claimant who already holds an offer at the old rate when a change takes effect is paid under that offer if the signed release comes back within a reasonable time. When the rate goes up, the trust may make an additional payment to claimants paid at the lower rate (Section 3.3). |
| Mesothelioma scheduled value | $125,000 (Category 1, Section 5.4). The Keene procedures set no Individual Review average or maximum; a claimant who rejects the offer may instead take the claim to the tort system. |
| Mesothelioma payout at the current rate | About $1,313 ($125,000 x 1.05%). |
| Review options | The trust offers the scheduled value times the payment percentage once a claim meets the category's criteria. There is no Individual Review track and no Extraordinary Claim provision. A claimant who rejects the offer may elect to have the claim's validity and amount decided in the tort system (Section 2.2). Lung Cancer Level I (Category 3) claims are individually evaluated. |
| Exposure requirement | Meaningful and credible exposure to asbestos or asbestos products made or sold by Keene (Section 5.5(b)). The procedures set no cutoff date for Keene exposure. Mesothelioma needs credible evidence of Keene exposure only. Categories 2, 4, 5, and 6 need six months of occupational exposure to Keene products plus Significant Occupational Exposure (five cumulative years in an asbestos trade). Category 7 needs six months of Keene exposure plus five years of occupational asbestos exposure. Category 3 needs occupational exposure to Keene products. Work at one of the 1,419 sites on the trust's Approved Job Sites list, during the years the list gives, is how most claims are proved. |
| Filing deadline | For anyone diagnosed after the December 3, 1993 petition date, within three years after diagnosis or three years after the trust first began accepting claims, whichever is later, regardless of any state statute of limitations; a longer limitations period applies if the state where the exposure happened gives one (Section 5.1(e)). Claims diagnosed before the petition date follow the statute of limitations in effect when the claim was filed, with tolling for claims pending or tolled against Keene on that date. If the trust suspends a disease category, the limitations period on those claims is tolled until the suspension lifts. |
| Fees | $75 Claim Processing Fee on every claim filed on or after January 1, 2025, payable by ACH or check to the Keene Creditors Trust. The trust does not process the claim until the fee arrives, and if it does not arrive within 60 days of the trust's receipt of the claim, the claim is rejected and the statute of limitations is not treated as tolled. Refunded in full when the claim is paid; forfeited if the claim is denied and not cured, or withdrawn (Section 5.1(f), added November 25, 2024; notice dated December 3, 2024). |
| Suspended categories | The trustees may, with the Trust Advisory Committee's consent, suspend processing and payment of any disease category if the payments would be disproportionate to the cost of processing, and recalculate the rate for the remaining categories (Section 2.4). The trust has posted no notice of a suspension. |
| Claims processor | Claims Processing Facility, Inc. (CPF), Naperville, Illinois, with electronic filing through CPF's e-File system. |
| Trust created | Under the Fourth Amended Plan of Reorganization, as Modified, of Keene Corporation, confirmed by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on June 12, 1996. Keene filed for Chapter 11 on December 3, 1993. The current procedures are the First Amended Keene Asbestos Related Personal Injury Claims Resolution and Distribution Procedures, amended February 1, 2010, May 2, 2012, November 7, 2013, and November 25, 2024. |
| Last checked | October 18, 2026, against cpf-inc.com (Keene Trust pages, Forms and Letters, and news), the First Amended Claims Resolution and Distribution Procedures with amendments through November 25, 2024, the Keene Approved Job Sites list (posted March 2015), the Keene Claim Filing Instructions, and the trust's notices dated February 15, 2010 (payment percentage decrease), October 28, 2024 (payment percentage increase), and December 3, 2024 (claim processing fee). |
SCHEDULE OF DISEASES
The trust sorts asbestos diseases into seven categories. Six carry a fixed scheduled value. Lung Cancer Level I has no scheduled value and is individually evaluated, with an anticipated average the procedures put at $13,700. The values come from Section 5.4 of the claims procedures. The Keene procedures set no Individual Review averages or maximums; the alternative to the scheduled offer is the tort system.
| Category | Disease | Scheduled Value | Payout at 1.05% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mesothelioma | $125,000 | About $1,313 |
| 2 | Lung Cancer, Level II | $41,200 | About $433 |
| 3 | Lung Cancer, Level I | None (anticipated average $13,700) | Individually evaluated |
| 4 | Other Cancer | $21,500 | About $226 |
| 5 | Severe Asbestosis Disease | $41,200 | About $433 |
| 6 | Asbestosis / Pleural Disease, Level II | $10,600 | About $111 |
| 7 | Asbestosis / Pleural Disease, Level I | $4,800 | About $50 |
The payout is the scheduled value times 1.05%, rounded. Keene's scheduled values are set by a 1996 plan and have not been raised; the rate is what makes the payout small. A Category 7 claim pays less than the $75 processing fee until the fee is refunded, which is why the trust's own procedures allow it to suspend low-value categories.
FILING REQUIREMENTS
The trust checks three things on every claim: the disease, the exposure, and the timing. Since January 1, 2025 it also checks a fourth: whether the $75 processing fee arrived within 60 days.
The claimant must show meaningful and credible exposure to asbestos or asbestos-containing products manufactured or sold by Keene (Section 5.5(b)). The trust accepts an affidavit from the worker, from a co-worker, or from a family member of a deceased worker, as well as invoices, construction records, and other credible evidence. The procedures set no cutoff date for Keene exposure. The trust's Approved Job Sites list, 1,419 sites in 49 states, names each site, its city and state, and the years Keene products are established to have been there, and a claim that places the worker at a listed site during those years carries the exposure proof with it. Mesothelioma needs credible evidence of Keene exposure only. Categories 2, 4, 5, and 6 also need six months of occupational exposure to Keene products and Significant Occupational Exposure, which means five cumulative years in a trade that handled, fabricated, or worked with asbestos products, or worked regularly alongside those who did (Section 5.5(b)(ii)). Category 7 needs six months of Keene exposure and five years of occupational asbestos exposure.
Every diagnosis must come with either a physician's statement that at least ten years passed between first asbestos exposure and diagnosis, or an exposure history that shows a ten-year latency (Section 5.5(a)). A mesothelioma claim needs a diagnosis of mesothelioma. Non-malignant categories require, for living claimants, a physical examination by the diagnosing physician, an x-ray read by a certified B-reader, and pulmonary function tests that meet American Thoracic Society standards, with the findings the procedures list for the category, such as an ILO reading of 2/1 or greater or pathology plus reduced lung function for Severe Asbestosis. The trust also keeps a list of physicians whose reports it will not accept. The National Cancer Institute explains what mesothelioma is and how it is diagnosed.
For anyone diagnosed after December 3, 1993, the procedures' own deadline is three years after diagnosis or three years after the trust first began accepting claims, whichever is later, and it applies regardless of any state statute of limitations (Section 5.1(e)); if the state where the exposure happened allows longer, the longer period applies. For a diagnosis today, that means three years from the diagnosis date. The processing fee changes how that clock works: a claim is rejected, and the limitations period is not treated as tolled, if the $75 fee does not arrive within 60 days of the trust receiving the claim. We file soon after diagnosis and send the fee with the claim.
Once a claim meets a category's criteria, the trust offers the scheduled value times the payment percentage, about $1,313 for mesothelioma. Keene has no Individual Review track and no Extraordinary Claim provision. A claimant who rejects the offer may elect to have the claim's validity and amount decided in the tort system (Section 2.2), with the trust's Fund B set up to pay the percentage on any judgment above the scheduled value (Section 6.1). At 1.05%, a lawsuit against the trust is never worth the cost, so every Keene claim we file takes the scheduled offer, and the effort goes to the larger trusts that reach the same job sites.
RATE HISTORY
The Keene Creditors Trust was paying 1.3% of scheduled value when, by letter dated February 15, 2010, the trustees announced that an actuarial study supported a cut to 0.8%; any initial offer issued after that date was paid at 0.8%, while claimants holding earlier offers kept 1.3% if they returned a signed release. At some point after that the rate moved to 0.90%; the trust has posted no notice dating that step.
By notice dated October 28, 2024, after a reconsideration under Section 3.2 of the claims procedures and with the consent of the Trust Advisory Committee, the trustee raised the rate from 0.90% to 1.05% effective October 24, 2024. Five weeks later, by notice dated December 3, 2024, the trustee imposed the $75 Claim Processing Fee on all claims filed on or after January 1, 2025, written into the procedures as Section 5.1(f) by the Fourth Amendment dated November 25, 2024.
PRODUCTS AND WORK SITES
The trust's procedures define covered exposure by company, as asbestos materials manufactured or sold by Keene Corporation, and the trust publishes no product list. Its Approved Job Sites list is the working tool: 1,419 sites in 49 states, each with the years Keene products are established to have been there, posted by the claims processor in March 2015. New York has the most listed sites (217), then Illinois (140), Pennsylvania (133), and California (95). A claim is usually proved one of two ways.
The Illinois entries cover the Metro East and Chicago plants the firm sees most: Shell Oil in Wood River and Roxana, Clark Oil in Hartford, Granite City Steel, American Steel Foundry and A.O. Smith in Granite City, Laclede Steel and Alton Box Board in Alton, Olin in East Alton, Monsanto in Sauget, and the Owens-Illinois plants in Alton and Streator, along with Caterpillar in East Peoria, the Central Illinois Light stations around Peoria, Sundstrand in Rockford, Johns Manville in Waukegan, the Waukegan powerhouse, the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, and dozens of Chicago plants, powerhouses, railroads, and buildings, from U.S. Steel South Works and Republic Steel to Western Electric's Hawthorne Works and the Sears Tower. Missouri entries include Anheuser-Busch, Monsanto, Mallinckrodt, McDonnell Douglas, and the General Motors and Chrysler plants in the St. Louis area, and the Hawthorne powerhouse and Butler Manufacturing in Kansas City. Those are the power plants, refineries, steel mills, and factories where insulators, construction trades, power plant workers, and railroad workers breathed the dust. The same work history usually supports claims against the other insulation trusts, such as Armstrong World Industries, Owens Corning and Fibreboard, Pittsburgh Corning, Johns-Manville, and ACandS, and the proof built for those trusts carries the Keene claim.
QUESTIONS
As of October 18, 2026, the Keene Creditors Trust pays 1.05% of scheduled value. The trustee raised the rate from 0.90% to 1.05% effective October 24, 2024, by notice dated October 28, 2024. The rate had been cut from 1.3% to 0.8% on February 15, 2010.
The mesothelioma scheduled value is $125,000. At the current 1.05% rate, a mesothelioma claim pays about $1,313. The Keene procedures have no Individual Review track; the alternative to the scheduled offer is a lawsuit, which is never worth it at this rate.
Usually not. For anyone diagnosed after December 3, 1993, the trust's own deadline is three years after diagnosis, and the procedures apply it regardless of state statutes of limitations. Since January 1, 2025 a claim is rejected, and the limitations period is not treated as tolled, unless its $75 processing fee arrives within 60 days, so the safest step is to file soon after diagnosis with the fee attached.
WHY THRONEBERRY LAW GROUP
A Keene claim is worth about $1,313 for mesothelioma, and a firm that files it alone is wasting your time. We file it because the Keene site list is one of the best maps of Illinois asbestos exposure any trust publishes, 140 sites from Granite City to Waukegan, and the same job history that proves Keene exposure proves Armstrong, Owens Corning, Pittsburgh Corning, Johns-Manville, and ACandS exposure too. We build the site and trade proof once, run it against every insulation trust's list, and file them as a set. Our overview of mesothelioma compensation explains how trust payments fit with lawsuits and other recoveries, and attorney Michael Throneberry, who has handled asbestos cases for more than two decades, reviews every trust claim before it goes out.
We work on contingency, so you pay nothing unless we recover money for you. We serve clients nationwide, we can help Spanish-speaking families, and we travel to you, including to your home or hospital.
SOURCES
Figures on this page come from the Keene Creditors Trust pages published by its claims processor, Claims Processing Facility, Inc. (cpf-inc.com), the First Amended Keene Asbestos Related Personal Injury Claims Resolution and Distribution Procedures (conformed copy with amendments dated February 1, 2010, May 2, 2012, November 7, 2013, and November 25, 2024), the Keene Approved Job Sites list (posted March 2015), the Keene Claim Filing Instructions, and the trust's notices dated February 15, 2010 (payment percentage decrease), October 28, 2024 (Notice of Payment Percentage Increase), and December 3, 2024 (Claim Processing Fee). Last checked October 18, 2026.
DISCLAIMER
This page is general information, not legal advice. Trust payment percentages, scheduled values, and procedures change, and the trust's own current documents control. Payout examples are arithmetic on the trust's published figures, not a promise of any result. Contacting us or sending a form does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Copyright 2026 Throneberry Law Group. All rights reserved.
GET A FREE CASE REVIEW
If you or a family member worked at a plant, refinery, powerhouse, railroad, or building on the Keene site list, or installed or tore out insulation anywhere, the Keene asbestos trust may owe a payment, and it is one of several insulation trusts that reach the same job history. We check the current rate, the exposure rules, and the deadline for every trust before we file.
We serve clients across the country, we can help Spanish-speaking families, and we charge nothing unless we recover for you. Start with a free, no-obligation case review through our contact form.
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