THRONEBERRY LAW GROUP
Mesothelioma & Asbestos Attorneys
TRUST PAYMENT REFERENCE
A payment reference for the Metex Asbestos PI Trust, which pays claims for asbestos products supplied, specified, manufactured, installed, distributed, sold, maintained, or repaired by Metex Mfg. Corporation, the company formerly known as Kentile Floors, Inc., maker of Kentile vinyl asbestos floor tile. Every figure below was checked against the trust's own Trust Distribution Procedures, amendments, notices, and filing instructions on October 18, 2026.
CURRENT TRUST STATUS
The Metex asbestos trust, the Kentile Floors trust, pays 7.25% of a claim's liquidated value. The trustee cut the rate from 8.3% to 7.25% effective June 9, 2020, and the trust's website still lists 7.25% as the current rate. A mesothelioma claim carries a $135,000 scheduled value, so an Expedited Review claim pays about $9,788. Individual Review averages $175,000 (about $12,688 at 7.25%) with a $330,000 maximum. The trust does not adjust its values for inflation and charges no filing fee. Floor tile layers, tile installers, tile grinders, remodelers, and asbestos ripout workers are on the trust's own presumptive occupation list, which shortens the exposure proof for the people most likely to have cut and sanded Kentile tile.
Throneberry Law Group files Metex claims for flooring installers, carpenters, remodelers, demolition and abatement workers, and the homeowners and family members who laid or tore out Kentile tile, across the country. This page is part of our asbestos trust funds guide, which covers every trust we file against. Our page on asbestos in vinyl flooring explains how vinyl asbestos tile released fiber when it was cut, sanded, or scraped up.
PAYMENT REFERENCE
The table below is the short answer. The sections that follow explain each line.
| Current payment percentage | 7.25% of the liquidated value for Disease Levels II through VIII. Other Asbestos Disease (Level I) is a flat $100 cash discount payment that is not reduced by the payment percentage. |
|---|---|
| In effect since | June 9, 2020 (Notice to Holders of Metex Asbestos PI Trust Claims, Adjustment to Payment Percentage, dated June 9, 2020, from trustee Charles A. Koppelman, proposed to the TAC and the FCR under TDP Section 4.3). Claims liquidated before June 9, 2020 whose releases came back before that date, or within 30 days of receipt, were paid at 8.3%. |
| Prior rates | 18% Initial Payment Percentage set in the TDP (Section 2.3) when the trust opened in 2015; 8.3% immediately before June 9, 2020. The trust has posted no notice dating the step or steps between 18% and 8.3%, and this page does not guess at them. |
| Review cycle | The trustee may adjust the rate up or down with the consent of the TAC and the FCR to reflect current estimates of assets and liabilities (Section 4.2). When a cut is proposed, claims are paid at the lower rate while consent is pending, with the difference paid later if the proposal fails. If the rate later rises, claimants paid at the lower rate receive supplemental payments (Section 4.3). The trust has posted no change since June 9, 2020. |
| Inflation adjustment | None. The TDP contains no annual inflation adjustment; the values below are the values in the TDP as filed. The trust pays a "sequencing adjustment," an interest-like payment at the one-year Treasury bill rate (capped at 2.6% since the Second Amendment of July 12, 2023) on claims that wait more than a year for payment, with no adjustment for time the claim was deferred, withdrawn, deficient, or waiting on a release (Section 7.5). |
| Mesothelioma scheduled value | $135,000 scheduled; $175,000 Individual Review average; $330,000 Individual Review maximum (Section 5.3(b)(3)). |
| Mesothelioma payout at the current rate | Expedited Review: about $9,788 ($135,000 x 7.25%). Individual Review awards are paid at 7.25% of the liquidated value, up to the maximum (about $23,925 at the $330,000 cap). |
| Review options | Expedited Review pays the scheduled value times 7.25% once the claim meets the medical and exposure criteria (Section 5.3(a)). Individual Review values the claim on the law of the claimant's jurisdiction and the trust's factors, up to the maximum (Section 5.3(b)). Lung Cancer 2 (Level VI), Foreign Claims, Extraordinary Claims, and secondary (take-home) exposure claims must go through Individual Review (Sections 5.4 and 5.5). |
| Extraordinary Claims | Disease Levels I through VIII. A claimant whose exposure occurred predominantly while working in a Metex or Kentile manufacturing facility while it made asbestos products, or was at least 75% the result of exposure to a product or conduct for which the company is responsible, with little likelihood of a substantial recovery elsewhere, can be awarded up to five times the scheduled value (five times the average value for Level VI), times 7.25% (Section 5.4(a)). For mesothelioma that is up to $675,000, about $48,938 at 7.25%. Extraordinary Claims go through Individual Review and a special panel decides disputes. |
| Exposure requirement | Debtor Exposure: meaningful and credible exposure before December 31, 1982 to asbestos or asbestos products supplied, specified, manufactured, installed, distributed, sold, maintained, or repaired by Metex Mfg. Corporation (formerly Kentile Floors, Inc.) or an entity it is legally responsible for, in circumstances where the asbestos in the product was disturbed, such as breaking, cutting, or sanding it (Section 5.7(b)(3)). Mesothelioma needs Debtor Exposure only. Lung Cancer 1, Other Cancer, Severe Asbestosis, and Level III need six months of Debtor Exposure before December 31, 1982 plus Significant Occupational Exposure (five cumulative years in an asbestos trade, at least two before December 31, 1982). Level II needs six months of Debtor Exposure plus five years of occupational asbestos exposure. Proof may be an affidavit of the claimant, a co-worker, or (for a deceased claimant) a family member, invoices, employment or construction records, or other credible evidence. |
| Presumptive occupation list | The trust posts a Presumptive Occupation/Job Title list (March 2, 2015): asbestos abatement (ripout), commercial and residential building remodeler, floor tile and linoleum layer, construction ripout, tile grinder, tile helper, tile installer, tile layer, and tile worker. Under the trust's filing instructions, a claimant in one of those jobs does not have to describe the specific activity that disturbed the asbestos; everyone else must. |
| Filing deadline | Anyone first diagnosed after November 9, 2012 (the Commencement Date) may file within three years after diagnosis or by September 9, 2018 (three years after the September 9, 2015 Initial Claims Filing Date), whichever is later, regardless of any state statute of limitations (Section 5.1(a)(3); Claims Filing Deadline Notice dated October 19, 2017). Claims diagnosed before November 9, 2012 were timely only if they were pending, tolled, or still within the statute of limitations on that date and were filed by September 9, 2018. |
| Fees and withdrawal rules | No filing fee. The TDP leaves a fee to the trustee's discretion (Section 6.5) and the trust's filing instructions and claim form require none. A claimant may defer processing and keep the queue position (Section 5.1(a)(3)). The trust's documents set no refiling bar for withdrawn claims. |
| Claims processor | Verus Claims Services, LLC, 3967 Princeton Pike, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, through the MFR Claims electronic filing system (Electronic Filer Agreement required). Verus acquired MFR Claims Processing, Inc. of Newtown, Pennsylvania, the trust's original processor. The trustee named in the trust's most recent notice is Charles A. Koppelman. |
| Trust created | Under the Plan of Reorganization of Metex Mfg. Corporation (formerly Kentile Floors, Inc.) under Chapter 11, dated December 23, 2013. Metex filed its petition on November 9, 2012 (the Commencement Date). The trust was created in 2014, began accepting claims March 9, 2015, and set the Initial Claims Filing Date at September 9, 2015. The TDP has been amended twice, most recently by the Second Amendment dated July 12, 2023 (sequencing adjustment). |
| Last checked | October 18, 2026, against metex.mfrclaims.com (home, Resources, and Contact Us pages), the Metex Asbestos PI Trust Distribution Procedures, the Second Amendment to the TDP dated July 12, 2023, the Notice of Adjustment to Payment Percentage dated June 9, 2020, the Claims Filing Deadline Notice dated October 19, 2017, the Presumptive Occupation/Job Title list dated March 2, 2015, and the Claim Form and Claim Form Instructions dated February 10, 2015. |
SCHEDULE OF DISEASES
The trust sorts asbestos diseases into eight levels. Lung Cancer 2 (Level VI) has no scheduled value and goes through Individual Review only. The values below are the figures in Section 5.3 of the TDP; the trust has no inflation adjustment, so they are the values in force today.
| Level | Disease | Scheduled Value | Payout at 7.25% | IR Average | IR Maximum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VIII | Mesothelioma | $135,000 | About $9,788 | $175,000 | $330,000 |
| VII | Lung Cancer 1 | $65,000 | About $4,713 | $78,000 | $100,000 |
| VI | Lung Cancer 2 | None (Individual Review only) | Individually valued | $15,000 | $25,000 |
| V | Other Cancer | $17,500 | About $1,269 | $20,000 | $25,000 |
| IV | Severe Asbestosis | $65,000 | About $4,713 | $78,000 | $100,000 |
| III | Asbestosis / Pleural Disease | $5,500 | About $399 | None | None |
| II | Asbestosis / Pleural Disease | $2,500 | About $181 | None | None |
| I | Other Asbestos Disease (cash discount payment) | $100 | $100 flat | None | None |
The payout column is the scheduled value times 7.25%, rounded. Metex is unusual in paying Severe Asbestosis the same $65,000 scheduled value as Lung Cancer 1, and in setting a lung cancer value nearly half the mesothelioma value. For mesothelioma the Individual Review average is about 30% above the scheduled value, so Individual Review is worth considering for a claimant with heavy, well-documented Kentile exposure in a jurisdiction with strong verdict history, and the Extraordinary Claim track is in reach for a tile layer whose working life was mostly Kentile product.
FILING REQUIREMENTS
The trust checks three things on every claim: the disease, the exposure, and the timing. There is no fee to check.
The claimant must show meaningful and credible exposure, before December 31, 1982, to asbestos or asbestos products supplied, specified, manufactured, installed, distributed, sold, maintained, or repaired by Metex Mfg. Corporation, formerly Kentile Floors, Inc., or an entity it is legally responsible for, in circumstances where the asbestos in the product was disturbed, for example by breaking, cutting, or sanding it (TDP Section 5.7(b)(3)). The trust accepts a sworn statement of the injured person or a co-worker, a sworn statement of a family member when the claimant has died, invoices, employment or construction records, or other credible evidence, and it can ask for more. The claim form asks for each site, the dates, the occupation, the industry, and the names of the products. If the claimant's job is on the trust's Presumptive Occupation/Job Title list (floor tile and linoleum layer, tile installer, tile layer, tile worker, tile helper, tile grinder, building remodeler, or asbestos ripout), the form does not require a description of how the asbestos was disturbed; for any other job it does. Mesothelioma needs Debtor Exposure only. Lung Cancer 1, Other Cancer, Severe Asbestosis, and Level III also need six months of Debtor Exposure before December 31, 1982 and Significant Occupational Exposure, which means at least five cumulative years, two of them before December 31, 1982, in an industry and occupation that handled raw asbestos, fabricated asbestos products, worked with asbestos products, or worked regularly alongside those who did (Section 5.7(b)(2)). Level II needs six months of Debtor Exposure plus five years of occupational asbestos exposure. Take-home (secondary) exposure claims go through Individual Review and must show the occupationally exposed person would have met the exposure rules (Section 5.5).
A mesothelioma claim needs a diagnosis of mesothelioma. Lung Cancer 1 and Other Cancer (colorectal, laryngeal, esophageal, pharyngeal, or stomach) need the cancer diagnosis plus evidence of an underlying Bilateral Asbestos-Related Nonmalignant Disease (a B-read of 1/0 or higher, or an x-ray, CT, or pathology report by a qualified physician showing bilateral disease) and medical documentation that asbestos exposure contributed to the cancer. Severe Asbestosis needs an ILO reading of 2/1 or higher or pathology, plus TLC under 65% or FVC under 65% with an FEV1/FVC ratio over 65%. Level III needs bilateral disease plus TLC under 80% or FVC under 80% with a ratio of 65% or more. The trust keeps a List of Unacceptable Physician Reports and Medical Facilities Reports. The National Cancer Institute explains what mesothelioma is and how it is diagnosed.
Anyone first diagnosed after November 9, 2012 may file within three years after diagnosis, regardless of the state statute of limitations (Section 5.1(a)(3)). The alternative deadline, three years after the September 9, 2015 Initial Claims Filing Date, ran out on September 9, 2018, so for a diagnosis today the deadline is three years from the diagnosis date. Claims diagnosed before November 9, 2012 had to be filed by September 9, 2018 if they were pending against Metex or Kentile, tolled, or still within the statute of limitations on the Commencement Date (Claims Filing Deadline Notice, October 19, 2017). A claimant may ask the trust to defer processing and keep the queue position.
Expedited Review pays the scheduled value times 7.25% once the claim meets the criteria, about $9,788 for mesothelioma. Individual Review values the claim on the law of the claimant's jurisdiction and the trust's factors, up to $330,000 for mesothelioma, with the average set at $175,000 (about $12,688 at 7.25%). An Extraordinary Claim, for a worker exposed predominantly in a Metex or Kentile plant or whose exposure was at least 75% Kentile product, can reach five times the scheduled value, about $48,938 for mesothelioma at 7.25% (Section 5.4(a)). A claimant who rejects the trust's offer can go to arbitration under the trust's Alternative Dispute Resolution Procedures and, after non-binding arbitration, to the tort system.
RATE HISTORY
The TDP set the Initial Payment Percentage at 18% (Section 2.3) for the claims the trust began accepting on March 9, 2015. The trust's Notice of Adjustment to Payment Percentage dated June 9, 2020 records that the rate was 8.3% immediately before the trustee, Charles A. Koppelman, asked the TAC and the FCR to consent to a cut to 7.25%, and that claims were paid at 7.25% from June 9, 2020. Claimants whose claims were liquidated before that date and who returned a release before it, or within 30 days of receiving one, were paid at 8.3%. The trust has posted no notice dating the drop from 18% to 8.3%, and this page does not guess at the steps.
The trust's website lists 7.25% as the current payment percentage and has posted no later notice. The only amendment since the cut is the Second Amendment of July 12, 2023, which rewrote the sequencing adjustment so that claimants are compensated for delays caused by the trust or its processor, at the one-year Treasury bill rate capped at 2.6%, and not for delays the claimant controlled. The trust posts no annual report on its website, so this page carries no claims-paid totals.
PRODUCTS AND WORK SITES
The trust's procedures define covered exposure by company, as asbestos products supplied, specified, manufactured, installed, distributed, sold, maintained, or repaired by Metex Mfg. Corporation, formerly Kentile Floors, Inc., or an entity it is legally responsible for, where the asbestos was disturbed by breaking, cutting, or sanding (TDP Section 5.7(b)(3)). The trust publishes no product list and no site list, but its Presumptive Occupation/Job Title list says who it expects to pay: floor tile and linoleum layers, tile installers, tile layers, tile workers, tile helpers, tile grinders, building remodelers, and asbestos ripout workers. Proof for the trust comes from two directions.
The firm sees Kentile exposure among flooring installers, carpenters, and remodelers in the construction trades, among demolition and abatement crews who pulled up old tile, and among homeowners who laid or ripped out tile themselves. The same flooring history usually supports claims against the other flooring trusts, including Congoleum and Armstrong World Industries, and the black mastic under the tile often supports claims against the adhesive makers. Our page on asbestos in vinyl flooring explains how vinyl asbestos tile released fiber when it was cut, sanded, or scraped up.
QUESTIONS
As of October 18, 2026, the Metex Asbestos PI Trust, the trust for Kentile Floors, pays 7.25% of a claim's liquidated value. The trustee cut the rate from 8.3% to 7.25% effective June 9, 2020, with the consent of the Trust Advisory Committee and the Future Claimants' Representative, and the trust's website still lists 7.25% as the current rate. The TDP's initial rate in 2015 was 18%.
The mesothelioma scheduled value is $135,000, so an Expedited Review claim pays about $9,788 at 7.25%. Individual Review averages $175,000 (about $12,688) with a $330,000 maximum (about $23,925). A tile layer or plant worker whose exposure was at least 75% Kentile product can qualify as an Extraordinary Claim worth up to five times the scheduled value, about $48,938 at 7.25%. The trust has no inflation adjustment, so these values do not rise from year to year.
Usually not for a recent diagnosis. Anyone first diagnosed after November 9, 2012 may file within three years after diagnosis regardless of the state statute of limitations. The trust's alternative deadline of September 9, 2018 has passed, so claims diagnosed before November 9, 2012 and not filed by then are late. There is no filing fee.
WHY THRONEBERRY LAW GROUP
Metex pays about seven cents on the dollar, but it costs nothing to file, its values do not shrink, and its presumptive occupation list means a tile layer's claim needs less proof than almost any other flooring trust asks for. We file Metex because a flooring installer's or remodeler's history usually supports several trusts at the same time, because the trust accepts a family member's affidavit for a deceased claimant, and because the mesothelioma scheduled value needs no occupational exposure showing. We confirm the diagnosis date against the three-year rule, match the client's job title to the trust's list, and elect Individual Review or the Extraordinary Claim track only where the facts earn it. 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 Metex Asbestos PI Trust website (metex.mfrclaims.com): the home, Resources, and Contact Us pages; the Metex Asbestos PI Trust Distribution Procedures; the Second Amendment to the TDP dated July 12, 2023; the Notice of Adjustment to Payment Percentage dated June 9, 2020; the Claims Filing Deadline Notice dated October 19, 2017; the Presumptive Occupation/Job Title list dated March 2, 2015; the Claim Form and Claim Form Instructions dated February 10, 2015; and the Verus Claims Services trust list at verusllc.com. The First Amendment to the TDP is posted as an image-only scan and could not be read as text. 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 installed, cut, sanded, or tore out Kentile floor tile before 1983, the Metex asbestos trust may owe a payment, and the same history often supports claims against the other flooring and adhesive trusts. We check the current rate, the exposure rules, the occupation list, 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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