Mealey's Asbestos

  • 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.

  • March 05, 2024

    Reinsurer Seeks Reconsideration In Default Dispute In Settlement Reimbursement Case

    OMAHA, Neb. — Arguing in part that “the prima facie standard only applies at the pre-trial stage,” a Brazil-based reinsurer has asked a Nebraska federal judge to reconsider denying its motion to set aside a default previously entered against it in the suit over reimbursement for a settlement reached with Montana regarding alleged asbestos exposure.

  • March 05, 2024

    Idaho Federal Judge Dismisses Criminal Count Brought Under CAA Asbestos Standards

    POCATELLO, Idaho — The United States failed to allege a criminal offense arising from the Clean Air Act (CAA) in one count of its indictment against a man who allegedly violated the statute by failing to comply with certain asbestos standards when demolishing two buildings because the language of the CAA does not make failing to thoroughly inspect a building for asbestos a crime, an Idaho federal judge found in granting the man’s motion to dismiss in part.

  • March 04, 2024

    Parties Debate Consolidation Of Certain Injury Asbestos Cases Against Employer

    HARTFORD, Conn. — Superficial similarities do not warrant consolidated trial of four asbestos cases against a former employer under the certain injury exception, and any such trial would leave the jury with the “herculean task” of sorting through the evidence to determine how it applies to the various exposures, work locations and time periods, an employer tells a Connecticut judge in a March 1 amended opposition.

  • March 04, 2024

    John Crane: Jurisdiction, Damages Ruling Basis Doom Seaman’s Asbestos Challenge

    BOSTON — A court lacks jurisdiction over a case where a widow chose not to proceed under admiralty jurisdiction and where a judge didn’t decide defenses or liabilities, but even if the court considers the case, nonpecuniary damages are not available in a seaman’s case against a product supplier, John Crane Inc. tells the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a March 1 brief.

  • March 04, 2024

    J&J Special Master Wants Responsive Documents Prior To Decision On Subpoena

    TRENTON, N.J. — The special master overseeing the federal Johnson & Johnson multidistrict asbestos talc litigation said a consulting firm should produce documents responsive to a subpoena seeking communications between it and law firms the defendant seeks to disqualify, after which the parties can confer about any resulting privileged documents prior to a ruling on a motion to quash.

  • March 01, 2024

    Talc Special Master Quashes Subpoena Seeking Moline Study Participants

    TRENTON, N.J. — Because asbestos expert Jacqueline Moline will not testify at trial, and no other expert appears to rely on her study involving asbestos-talc exposure and mesothelioma, Johnson & Johnson’s subpoena seeking the names of individuals in the study is irrelevant, a special master in the federal talc multidistrict litigation said Feb. 29 in granting a motion to quash.

  • February 29, 2024

    South Carolina Top Court Rejects Cumulative Exposure Argument, Affirms Verdict

    CHARLESTON, S.C. — Expert testimony and other evidence that led to an asbestos verdict did not constitute cumulative exposure theory, and lower court rulings did not run afoul of the state’s causation standard, the South Carolina Supreme Court said Feb. 28.

  • February 28, 2024

    Judge: Former Libby, Mont., Asbestos Clinic Director Must Sit For Deposition

    GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A federal judge in Montana overseeing an asbestos action against a railway denied two motions to quash a subpoena issued to the former director of a medical clinic in Libby, Mont., giving the parties two hours to depose the witness and circumscribing what may be asked at the deposition.

  • February 28, 2024

    Judge Delays Asbestos Trial As Parties Can’t Meet 3-Week Trial Limit

    NEW ORLEANS — In light of the “inability or unwillingness” of the parties to propose a reasonable trial length and the many outstanding objections, a federal judge in Louisiana said he would delay an asbestos trial until April.

  • February 28, 2024

    Court: Single-Source Asbestosis Case Avoids Texas Dose Requirement

    HOUSTON — Because the record shows that a woman’s asbestos exposures came from a single company’s facility and reliable expert testimony established that her asbestosis could have only been caused by asbestos exposure, the evidence satisfies the state’s substantial factor causation standard even without reference to the dose required for disease, a Texas appeals court said Feb. 27 in reversing summary judgment for the company.

  • February 27, 2024

    4th Circuit Tosses Appeal Of Asbestos Coverage Row With S.C. Guaranty Association

    RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 26 dismissed an 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, finding that the court does not have jurisdiction over the remand order.

  • February 27, 2024

    Judge Again Denies Company’s Motion To Sanction Asbestos Attorney

    LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California adopted a tentative ruling denying yet another effort by a company to sanction an asbestos plaintiff’s attorney, saying the company waived one of its arguments by not responding and failed to show that comments during trial about others that served aboard ships or a screen saver some jurors might have seen that potentially showed family members were false or constitute bad faith.

  • February 27, 2024

    New York Jury Finds For AII In Barbershop Asbestos-Talc Case

    NEW YORK — A New York jury returned a defense verdict for American International Inc. (AII) over claims that a woman suffered exposure to asbestos in talc used at the barbershop where her husband worked, sources told Mealey Publications.