U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Burton Lifland on Wednesday approved a $500 million trust fund to pay asbestos claims against the St. Paul Travelers Companies, Inc. that relate to the bankruptcy of the Johns-Manville Corp.

Travelers, which merged with St. Paul Companies in April, was Johns-Manville’s primary insurer while it made and sold asbestos from the 1940s to the 1970s. The company filed for bankruptcy in 1982 after it was flooded with asbestos-related claims.

The settlement was reached between Travelers and the plaintiffs in May after more than two years of negotiations mediated by former N.Y. Gov. Mario Cuomo, Insurance Journal reported.

The Court ruling resolves all pending asbestos-related statutory direct actions against Travelers, including Wise v. Travelers and Meninger v. Travelers and bars all future asbestos-related statutory direct actions against Travelers in West Virginia, Massachusetts and other states in which Travelers believes plaintiffs might try to bring such actions, Travelers said in a statement. It also resolves substantially all pending, and bars similar future, asbestos-related litigation against Travelers.

The Court order is subject to appeal, which, if taken, must be filed within 10 days.

(via Insurance Journal)