Mealey's Asbestos

  • March 28, 2024

    Asbestos-Talc MDL Judge: Changes To Landscape Require Refiling Of Daubert Motions

    TRENTON, N.J. — Changes in science and federal rules of evidence since a 2020 opinion on the admissibility of experts in the federal multidistrict asbestos-talc litigation warrant the refiling of Daubert motions, the federal judge overseeing the litigation said in a March 27 text-only order.

  • March 27, 2024

    South Carolina Jury Returns $1.75M Asbestos Verdict Against John Crane

    SPARTANBURG, S.C. — A South Carolina jury awarded $1.75 million to a widow whose husband developed mesothelioma and died after exposure to asbestos in John Crane Inc. gaskets, finding the company liable for negligence but not strict liability.

  • March 26, 2024

    4th Circuit Says No Rehearing In Asbestos Coverage Row With Guaranty Association

    RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied an insurer’s request for rehearing and rehearing en banc of the court’s ruling dismissing the insurer’s appeal of a district court’s order remanding to state court a receiver’s asbestos coverage suit against insurers and the South Carolina Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association.

  • March 26, 2024

    Chicago Jury Awards $7.43M To Brick Mason With Mesothelioma

    CHCAGO — An Illinois jury returned a $7.4 million verdict for a former brick mason suffering from mesothelioma, finding that exposure to hot top boards used in the steel-making process was the cause of his disease, sources told Mealey’s Publications.

  • March 26, 2024

    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.

  • March 25, 2024

    Asbestos Verdict Appeal Briefing Wraps As Kaiser Gypsum Exits

    LOS ANGELES — In an appeal of a jury verdict, a California appeals court dismissed one asbestos defendant after a notice of settlement was filed, while briefing wrapped up over the appropriateness of the jury apportioning zero liability to a company it concluded was a substantial factor in a man’s mesothelioma.

  • March 22, 2024

    Merchant Marine Loses Appeal Of Expert, Summary Judgment Rulings In Asbestos Case

    NEW ORLEANS — A former Merchant Marine’s concession that he had no memory of exposure to asbestos and simply assumed it based on the mineral’s widespread use falls short of the threshold for success and warranted exclusion of his experts and summary judgment in favor of various ship owners, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in affirming.

  • March 22, 2024

    Pennsylvania Top Court Set To Decide Application Of Occupational Law’s Exclusivity

    HARRISBURG, Pa. — Similarly situated plaintiffs moved to appear at oral arguments after briefing wrapped up in a case where the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will decide whether the exclusivity provision in the state’s occupational disease law precludes a man’s tort action even when the four-year statute of limitations precludes him from recovering under the statute.

  • March 21, 2024

    Judge Orders BAP 1 Genetic Testing In California Asbestos Case

    LOS ANGELES — Evidence of whether a man carries the BAP 1 genetic mutation and its potential role in his mesothelioma go to a core issue in an asbestos case and cannot be obtained in any other way, a California judge said in granting a motion to compel and ordering a saliva test and associated genetic testing.

  • March 21, 2024

    Plaintiff, W.R. Grace Trust Debate Proper Place For Tort Claim

    MISSOULA, Mo. — W.R. Grace & Co.’s asbestos trust and a former nonbinding arbitration claimant briefed a Montana federal court on whether resolution of his tort claim simply seeks a declaration of the disease from which he suffers or would require interpretation of the bankruptcy trust’s distribution procedures and therefore falls under the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy court.

  • March 19, 2024

    English Court Affirms Employer Foreseeability Rulings In Asbestos Cases

    LONDON — A trial court judge properly evaluated evidence in concluding that the pre-1960s exposures two individuals experienced did not rise to the level required to find that their injuries were foreseeable to their employers, an appellate court in England found in affirming dismissal of the actions.

  • March 19, 2024

    EPA Finalizes Rule Banning Last Remaining Uses Of Chrysotile Asbestos

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Environmental Protection Agency has banned the ongoing use of chrysotile asbestos, the last type of asbestos to have its importation, processing and distribution banned in the United States and the first time the government has finalized a rule under the 2016 amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), according to a March 18 press release by the agency.

  • March 19, 2024

    Retrial Of California Asbestos Case Ends In Defense Verdict

    SAN FRANCISCO — A jury in San Francisco returned a defense verdict for John Crane Inc. in a mesothelioma case originally tried virtually to a hung jury during the coronavirus pandemic.

  • March 18, 2024

    Supplier Seeks Judgment In Asbestos Liability Case Involving Insolvent Insurer

    NEW ORLEANS — A purported supplier of asbestos-containing products moved for partial summary judgment and filed a brief in support in an asbestos liability suit against it, the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA) and multiple other parties over a man’s exposure to asbestos resulting from his work at a shipyard, asserting that partial summary judgment should be granted because the purported supplier was not a “professional vendor.”

  • March 13, 2024

    Facing Revived Asbestosis Case, Employer Wants Deeper Look From Court

    HOUSTON — In a motion for rehearing, an employer who saw claims in a Texas asbestosis case against it revived says the appellate court should now rule on the additional grounds it raised for summary judgment in the trial court.

  • March 13, 2024

    Panel: Instruction Didn’t Prevent Asbestos Plaintiffs From Arguing Ongoing Duty

    SEATTLE — Even though a judge did not instruct a jury that a manufacturer operates under an ongoing duty to warn about the dangers of its product, nothing in the instructions that were given imposed a time limit on such a duty or prevented the plaintiffs from arguing that a crane company failed in its duty, a Washington appeals court said in affirming a defense verdict.

  • February 27, 2024

    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.

  • March 12, 2024

    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.

  • March 12, 2024

    Talc Study Evidence Crucial To Defending Case, Defendant Says

    RICHMOND, Va. — A talc defendant defended its need for a list of mesothelioma study participants from a third party, saying in a brief to the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the evidence is the only way it has of refuting asbestos-talc claims at trial and that the burden of showing otherwise lies with the party seeking to quash the subpoena.

  • March 11, 2024

    Justice Stays, Severs Claims Against Insolvent Insurer In Asbestos Coverage Row

    CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — A New York state court justice granted a stay and severed proceedings as to the insured of an insolvent insurer in an estate’s asbestos liability case filed against numerous parties involved in the manufacture and distribution of asbestos-containing products, finding that the claims against the other defendants may go forward without causing undue burden to the estate of the decedent.

  • March 08, 2024

    Mistrial Declared After Florida Jury Hangs In Ovarian Cancer Talc Trial

    MIAMI — A Florida asbestos trial ended in a hung jury after the jury twice told the judge that it could not reach a decision despite a day and a half of deliberations about Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) liability for the death of an anesthesiologist from ovarian cancer.

  • March 07, 2024

    LTL Management Says Appellee Arguments Backing Chapter 11 Dismissal Fail

    PHILADELPHIA — A New Jersey federal bankruptcy court wrongly imposed an insolvency requirement in dismissing the second Chapter 11 case of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC, and the U.S. trustee, asbestos claimants and other appellees “do little to defend the lower court’s misunderstanding,” the debtor says in its appeal to the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of the dismissal of its second attempt to reorganize through bankruptcy.

  • March 07, 2024

    J&J SEC Filing Announces Settlement Of States’ Talc Actions

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) announced that though negotiations were ongoing about the nonmonetary terms, it had reached an agreement in principle with 40 states and the District of Columbia settling claims over the marketing of its talcum powder, leaving suits by two states remaining.

  • March 07, 2024

    New York Court: Evidence Behind $23M Asbestos Verdict Meets Causation Standard

    NEW YORK — A New York appeals court found that a man’s testimony about the work he performed with valves and expert testimony detailing the levels of resulting exposure and how that impacted his risk of mesothelioma satisfied Nemeth v. Brenntag N. Am. and affirmed asbestos jury awards of $13 million in past pain and suffering and $10 million for future pain and suffering.

  • March 05, 2024

    Florida Measure Revises Information Needed For Asbestos Suit

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Florida Senate bill requiring asbestos and silica plaintiffs to submit sworn disclosures about the use of cigarettes and the names and addresses of individuals who can testify regarding the exposures in question passed on a 29-6 vote on March 4.