Mealey's Discovery
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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
Deepwater Horizon Plaintiff Denied Bid To Obtain Clawed Back Item From BP
NEW ORLEANS — A man bringing claims against BP Exploration & Production Inc. and BP America Production Co. (BP, collectively) pursuant to the Deepwater Horizon medical settlement agreement (MSA) saw his motion to compel production of a confidential document from another case denied, with a Louisiana federal judge declining to override of other court’s protective order.
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July 12, 2023
Lowe’s Avoids Sanctions Over Deposition, Deadlines In Personal Injury Suit
EL PASO, Texas — A customer of Lowe’s Home Centers LLC failed to establish that he was entitled to sanctions for the home supply chain’s purported failure to comply with a discovery order or to provide a corporate officer for deposition, a Texas federal magistrate judge ruled, finding that the personal injury plaintiff did not meet its burden to show that sanctions were warranted.
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July 12, 2023
Former Law Professor’s Employer Argues Against High Court Review Of Sanctions
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A former law professor’s pro se petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of sanctions and other appellate orders in a race bias lawsuit should be denied as none of the criteria necessary has been met, the professor’s former employer argues in an opposition brief filed in the U.S. Supreme Court.
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July 11, 2023
Subpoenas Issued In $9.8M Life Policy Row Related To Alleged Fraudulent Birthdate
NEW YORK — A New York federal judge granted a securities intermediary’s request to subpoena federal and state agencies in its breach of contract suit against a life insurer for failure to pay a $9.8 million death benefit, finding that the insured’s actual birthdate is “relevant” to the denial of coverage regarding the insured’s alleged fraud as to “misstatement of age.”
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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 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.”
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July 07, 2023
Insurer: Production Would Involve Millions Of Claims, Man Hours
TEXARKANA, Texas — A federal judge in Texas on July 6 gave a medical provider until July 21 to respond to an insurer’s motion for reconsideration challenging a ruling compelling production of records it said could potentially apply to all 21 million emergency reimbursement claims in Texas and require 1.4 million man hours.
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July 06, 2023
J&J Securities Plaintiff, Asbestos Expert Counter Need To Revisit Subpoena Issue
TRENTON, N.J. — Asbestos lawyers, an expert and plaintiffs in a securities class action told a federal judge in New Jersey that he should reject Johnson & Johnson’s untimely and unnecessary request to reconsider a ruling quashing sanctions to nonparties.
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July 06, 2023
Asbestos Securities Plaintiff Refutes Need To Revisit J&J Third-Party Subpoenas
TRENTON, N.J. — A court need not reconsider a ruling quashing third-party subpoenas because even if Johnson & Johnson (J&J) obtained all the evidence it seeks with the subpoenas, the information discovered would not refute the statistically significant drop in stock price that happened in the wake of media reports that the company knew for decades about asbestos contamination of its talc, a plaintiff for a putative securities class told a federal judge in New Jersey in a response brief.
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July 06, 2023
United States Urges 3rd Circuit Not To Stay Mandate In Microcaptive Info Case
PHILADELPHIA — Arguing that there is “no reasonable probability” the U.S. Supreme Court will either agree to review the case or hand down a reversal, the United States urged against staying a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals mandate pending an intended certiorari petition by the Delaware Department of Insurance (DDOI) in a case the Third Circuit panel said “pits Delaware’s authority to protect corporate privacy against the power of the IRS.”
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July 05, 2023
Man Wants Sanctions For Asbestos-Talc Company’s Discovery Attempts
NEW YORK — Evidence continues to mount that an asbestos-talc defendant acted in bad faith in pursuing discovery of the identities of participants in Jacqueline Moline’s study on causation, a man tells a federal judge in New York in a reply brief in support of sanctions.
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July 03, 2023
Parties Resolve Dispute Over $300,000 Asbestos Discovery Sanction
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Supreme Court dismissed an appeal over a $300,000 sanction after parties notified the court of an agreement, ending a fully briefed dispute over the allegedly in-trial revelation that a typographic error made it appear that there were two asbestos-containing boilers shipped to a man’s workplace.
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June 29, 2023
Fracking Company Says Bid To Quash Subpoena In Abandoned Wells Case Fails
WHEELING, W.Va. — A hydraulic fracturing company has filed a brief in West Virginia federal court contending that it should deny a landowner’s motion to quash a subpoena in a case pertaining to abandoned wells on jurisdictional grounds and because the landowner has not met his burden for resisting discovery.
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June 28, 2023
Monsanto, Plaintiffs Seek Discovery Protective Order In PCB Injury Lawsuit
BURLINGTON, Vt. — Monsanto Co. and school teachers and a spouse who have sued the company for injuries from exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in a school have moved in Vermont federal court for approval of a stipulated protective order governing discovery because the litigation may involve production of trade secrets, personal health information and other sensitive material.
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June 28, 2023
Illinois Agencies Compelled To Produce Documents In PCB Case Against Monsanto
CHICAGO — Illinois state agencies that were explicitly referenced in Illinois’ complaint against Monsanto Co. for the alleged statewide contamination of waterways by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) can be compelled to produce documents because the attorney general effectively controls the documents, an Illinois federal magistrate judge found in granting Monsanto’s motion to compel discovery.
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June 27, 2023
Stay Of 3rd Circuit Mandate Sought In Microcaptive Info Case Pending Review Bid
PHILADELPHIA — After the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied its rehearing petition in the case a panel said “pits Delaware’s authority to protect corporate privacy against the power of the IRS,” the Delaware Department of Insurance (DDOI) asked for issuance of the mandate to be stayed, saying it intends to seek review by the U.S. Supreme Court.
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June 27, 2023
Asbestos-Talc Company Says Discovery Sanction Motion Full Of ‘Half-Truths’
NEW YORK — A plaintiff filed a defective motion for sanctions with “half-truths and lies” about discovery efforts targeting an asbestos-talc expert’s study, a company told a federal judge in New York.
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June 26, 2023
Judge Says Admiral Will Not Testify In Water Pollution Case Against U.S. Navy
HONOLULU — A federal judge in Hawaii has granted a motion to quash a subpoena for an admiral in the U.S. Navy, ruling that the plaintiffs in a groundwater contamination lawsuit against the Navy have not established that the admiral has “unique, first-hand knowledge” with regard to the plaintiffs’ “proposed areas of inquiry or how each area of inquiry is essential” to the case.
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June 26, 2023
Magistrate Denies Insured’s Motion To Compel Appraisal Of Hurricane Sally Damage
MOBILE, Ala. — A federal magistrate judge in Alabama denied an insured’s motion to compel appraisal in a coverage lawsuit over Hurricane Sally damage to its 10 four-story residential condominium buildings in Gulf Shores, Ala., finding that appraisal is not appropriate at this time because the parties' dispute involves the cause of the insured’s loss and not just the amount of loss.
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June 26, 2023
Freddie Mac Sues Insurers, Seeking D&O Coverage For Costs Incurred By SEC Subpoenas
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. (Freddie Mac), sued its primary and excess directors and officers liability insurers for breach of contract and bad faith in a District of Columbia federal court, seeking coverage for underlying expenses that it incurred on behalf of its directors, officers and employees who were subpoenaed by the Securities Exchange Commission during an investigation and subsequent lawsuit.
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June 22, 2023
7th Circuit Affirms New Trial Denial In Testosterone Case Over Late Disclosure
CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) multidistrict litigation court did not err in denying a new trial request over the late disclosure of a Food and Drug Administration letter about studying whether TRT drugs have a risk of high blood pressure, saying high blood pressure was only one of several causal factors in a trial where a man claimed that Androderm caused his heart attack.
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June 21, 2023
Tobacco Companies Must Post Discovery From Juul MDL Online, Judge Says
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge granted a motion filed by public health groups and ruled that a 2006 order requiring Altria Group Inc. and Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM) to post evidence of their past deceptive marketing online also applies to discovery obtained from the companies during the recent multidistrict litigation against e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI).
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June 21, 2023
Panel Upholds Sanction, Kessler Findings By Florida Federal Judge In Patent Row
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A patent owner’s subsequent infringement action against the same defendant following dismissal with prejudice of litigation involving the same patents and accused product was precluded under the Kessler doctrine, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said June 21.