Mealey's Asbestos
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July 25, 2023
Asbestos Verdicts & Settlements: January 2022 – December 2022
Every year, Mealey’s Litigation Report: Asbestos compiles, analyzes and reports on verdict information appearing in the report from the previous calendar year. The following report contains that information.
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July 25, 2023
Parties Brief Precedent In Asbestos-Talc Concealment Class Certification Issue
TRENTON, N.J. — Parties in July briefed a federal judge in New Jersey on the impact of a recent Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals opinion and how it impacts Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) motion to deny class certification and strike allegations that it secured favorable settlements and dismissal by fraudulently concealing the presence of asbestos in talc from tort plaintiffs.
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July 25, 2023
Plaintiff/Defense Experts Testifying Since Jan. 1, 2002
The following is a listing of plaintiff and defense experts who testified in trials covered by Mealey's Litigation Report: Asbestos since Jan. 1, 2002.
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July 21, 2023
Kentucky High Court Allows Teacher’s Asbestos Claim Against School Board
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky’s workers’ compensation system applies to a teacher and the school board that employed him, and a statute covering negligence actions against the commonwealth does not preclude the asbestos-related action, the Kentucky Supreme Court said.
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July 21, 2023
Statute Of Repose Doesn’t Cover Insulating Work, Washington Court Says
SEATTLE — Two defendants have not shown that work insulating pipes or upgrading certain equipment and safety systems is the type of integral work required for a refinery to function and, thus, be covered by the state’s statute of repose, an appeals court in Washington said in reversing summary judgments.
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July 21, 2023
No Link To Asbestos In Cooling Tower Case, California Court Says
SAN FRANCISCO — A family establishes that cooling towers contained asbestos in some instances and that a family member worked on cooling towers but not that the work involved the towers’ asbestos-containing parts or that the work would have resulted in exposure, a California appeals court said in affirming summary judgment for two defendants on July 20.
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July 21, 2023
California Jury Awards $18.8M Against J&J For Man’s Mesothelioma
LOS ANGELES — A California jury hit Johnson & Johnson with an $18.8 million verdict in an asbestos-talc case freed from the company’s related bankruptcy stay and held it 100% liable for the 25-year-old’s mesothelioma.
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July 21, 2023
Washington High Court Won’t Review Asbestos Evidence Destruction Rulings
TACOMA, Wash. — The Washington Supreme Court declined to address an opinion holding that a trial court erred in finding that an asbestos defendant destroyed evidence, erred by giving an adverse inference instruction and erred in imposing sanctions.
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July 21, 2023
Writ Application Didn’t Stay Period For Asbestos Appeal, Louisiana Court Says
BATON ROUGE, La. — A supervisory writ to the Louisiana Supreme Court did not interrupt the period for appealing a ruling denying a new trial, an appeals court in the state said in dismissing the case as untimely.
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July 21, 2023
Judge Adopts Fees Ruling, Finding Lawyers Never Complied With Court Orders
BALTIMORE — A federal judge in Maryland said she agreed “wholesale” with a magistrate judge’s conclusion that much of the litigation over asbestos case referral fees could have been avoided had the defendant simply complied with the court’s discovery order.
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July 20, 2023
Judge Awards Low End Of Penalties In Libby, Mont., Asbestos Diagnosis Case
MISSOULA, Mont. — The federal judge in Montana overseeing the False Claims Act (FCA) dispute between a railroad and the provider of medical care under a special provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) said $2,582,228 in statutory penalties, while at the low end of the permissible range, were sufficient to curtail “reckless disregard for proper medical procedure.”
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July 19, 2023
J&J Says 3rd Circuit Ruling Supports Striking Asbestos-Talc Class Allegations
TRENTON, N.J. — A recent Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals opinion requiring plaintiffs to identify reliable and feasible methods of determining class action members supports striking allegations that Johnson & Johnson (J&J) fraudulently concealed the presence of asbestos in talc from tort plaintiffs, the company told a federal judge in New Jersey in a July 18 letter.
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July 18, 2023
Experts Linking Talcum Powder To Mesothelioma Excluded In Arizona Case
PHOENIX — An Arizona judge granted summary judgment to a manufacturer sued by a man claiming that he developed mesothelioma from repeated exposure to asbestos in talcum powder after finding that experts retained by the man did not show that talc was a substantial contributing factor of his condition.
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July 13, 2023
Mesothelioma Plaintiff Opposes Blood Draw, Genetic Testing
LOS ANGELES — Plaintiffs in a mesothelioma case urged a California court to deny a motion seeking a blood draw for genetic testing, saying the court should reject the motion on procedural grounds and that the defendants overstate the role of a BAP1 genetic mutation.
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July 13, 2023
Company: Asbestos Lawyer’s Complaint Against Former Firm Should Be Public
LOS ANGELES — A California trial court correctly unsealed a complaint and had the power to order production of an unredacted version involving allegations that a law firm suborned perjury from one of its asbestos clients, a company says in a reply brief, calling the lawyer and the firm he sued for wrongful termination “strange bedfellows.”
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July 12, 2023
5th Circuit Won’t Rehear LHWCA ‘Twilight Zone’ Asbestos Case
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied both panel and en banc rehearing after finding that an asbestos “twilight zone” case falls outside Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA) preemption.
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July 12, 2023
Delaware High Court Won’t Review Dissolved Asbestos Company Representation Ruling
WILMINGTON, Del. — The Delaware Supreme Court declined to review a chancery court’s letter ruling holding that dissolved companies such as the asbestos defendant before it cannot retain counsel, saying that the standard for interlocutory appeal had not been met.
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July 12, 2023
Statutory Damages Briefed In Montana Asbestos False Claims Case
MISSOULA, Mont. — Whether a court should impose statutory penalties in excess of $5 million or whether such an award would further harm those suffering from asbestos-related diseases in Libby, Mont., was briefed by parties to a False Claims Act (FCA) case after a jury found 337 violations of a Medicare program instituted under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).
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July 11, 2023
Kentucky Court Finds Late 1960s Duty To Households For Asbestos Exposure
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Defendants owed a duty to a household member to prevent asbestos exposure by the late 1960s, a judge improperly excluded deposition testimony by an expert regarding asbestos in talc and the workers’ compensation exclusivity provision does not immunize an employer where there is evidence only of a summer’s worth of exposure to dust but not asbestos, the Kentucky Court of Appeals said.
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July 11, 2023
Plaintiff/Defense Experts Testifying Since Jan. 1, 2002
The following is a listing of plaintiff and defense experts who testified in trials covered by Mealey's Litigation Report: Asbestos since Jan. 1, 2002.
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July 11, 2023
Asbestos Firm: Motion Ignores ‘Indefensible’ Conduct At Heart Of Sanctions
BALTIMORE — Unable to recast “indefensible” conduct, lawyers hit with more than $1 million in fees and costs for litigation misconduct simply take a magistrate judge’s words out of context and argue that he mischaracterized their arguments, a law firm told a federal court in Maryland overseeing a dispute over asbestos trust referral fees.
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July 10, 2023
Judge: Experts Not Opining On Decedent’s Condition Not Fatal To Admissibility
SEATTLE — Experts retained in a case alleging that a fireman and pipe fitter was exposed to asbestos while aboard a Navy ship can testify even though their reports did not contain any review or analysis specific to the decedent’s condition because general causation testimony may be helpful to a jury, a federal judge in Washington ruled days after granting summary judgment to one valve maker.
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July 10, 2023
Justice: Manufacturer Can’t Stop The Press Of New York Asbestos Suit
NEW YORK — A printing press manufacturer largely relies on a “very small detail” regarding the potential period of asbestos exposure and unsupported testimony regarding its sales records and has not met the heavy burden of proof on summary judgment, a New York justice said.
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July 10, 2023
California Jury Awards $8.8M In Asbestos Cement Pipe Case
LOS ANGELES — A California jury found for plaintiffs on a variety of asbestos-related claims and awarded in excess of $8.5 million for exposure stemming from cement pipe used by the city of Newport Beach.
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July 10, 2023
Judge Denies Sanctions Despite Counsel’s ‘False Statement’ About Asbestos Expert
PHOENIX — While counsel’s representations about a discovery dispute were “simply not accurate,” a judge in Arizona said he would not impose sanctions on the expert witness who refused to answer deposition questions or counsel, finding no bad faith and that the plaintiff’s concerns about the potential impact were “nonsense.”