Mealey's Asbestos : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Asbestos

October 20, 2023
Supreme Court Wants Response To LHWCA ‘Twilight Zone’ Asbestos Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court asked a family of a maritime worker to respond to a petition for certiorari claiming that a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals “result-driven” opinion allowing a worker to forego a Longshore Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA) claim and pursue a tort claim under the law’s “twilight zone” doctrine ignores the far-reaching consequences of such a ruling.
October 19, 2023
Johnson & Johnson Entities Want Asbestos-Talc Allegations Stricken From Complaint

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Various Johnson & Johnson entities asked a Connecticut judge to strike asbestos-talc allegations from a complaint, saying that they never manufactured or sold baby powder and that liability for that conduct lies solely with LTL Management LLC.
October 18, 2023
Chief Bankruptcy Judge Stripped Of Cases After Attorney Relationship Disclosed

HOUSTON — A chief bankruptcy judge who served as a HONX Inc. asbestos bankruptcy mediator and oversaw a fracking bankruptcy will no longer hear cases after the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals filed an official complaint against him in the wake of the disclosure of a romantic relationship with a lawyer employed by counsel that appeared before him.
October 17, 2023
BNSF’s Common Carrier Argument In Libby, Mont., Asbestos Case Fails

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Montana Supreme Court precedent collaterally estops Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co. (BNSF) from arguing that as a common carrier it is immune from suit for certain Libby-related asbestos activities, a federal judge in Montana said Oct. 16.
October 17, 2023
Judge: Defendants May Re-Depose Mesothelioma Sufferer In Wake Of Kidney Cancer

OAKLAND, Calif. — A judge overseeing an asbestos case in California said defendants may re-depose a husband and wife given the length of time since the original depositions and his subsequent kidney cancer diagnosis.
October 16, 2023
Johnson & Johnson Spinoff, Talc Study Authors Argue Merits Of Fraud Claims

TRENTON, N.J. — Dismissal is warranted for fraud claims leveled by Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) former bankrupt affiliate LTL Management LLC against three pathologists over their study of mesothelioma patients because the company lacks standing, the court lacks jurisdiction and the claims fail as a matter of law, the doctors argue in a reply brief filed in New Jersey federal court in support of their motion to dismiss.
October 16, 2023
Judge: Construction Waste With Asbestos, Other Materials, Covered By CERCLA

CONCORD, N.H. — Building and construction waste containing arsenic, lead, selenium, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and asbestos qualifies as a hazardous substance under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act because those materials are specifically listed as such in the statute, a New Hampshire federal judge found Oct. 13 in partly granting a motion to dismiss filed by a municipality and a housing authority that are alleged to have contributed to contamination at a former landfill by dumping waste there.
October 16, 2023
Court Won’t Force Filing Of Asbestos Attorney’s Employment Allegations

LOS ANGELES — Redacted allegations in an employment action between an asbestos attorney and the firm he said fired him for complaining about witness coaching were never before the trial court and therefore can’t be unsealed, and the public has no interest in allegations shared only between parties to litigation, a California appeals court said Oct. 13 in denying a company’s request to unseal the redacted complaint.
October 16, 2023
Judge: Survival Damages Proceed, Punitive Damages Not Available In Maritime Law

BOSTON — A magistrate judge’s reasoning in allowing survival damages in a maritime asbestos case is not clearly wrong, but she erred in allowing loss of consortium damages for wrongful death and punitive damages by not following controlling precedent, a federal judge in Massachusetts said.
October 13, 2023
High Court Grants Cert For Insurer’s Challenge To Kaiser Gypsum Asbestos Bankruptcy

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 13 granted a petition for certiorari filed by the primary insurer of Chapter 11 asbestos debtors Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. over a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that the insurer lacks standing to challenge the debtors’ reorganization plan.
October 13, 2023
New Colon Cancer Diagnosis Delays Consolidated Lung Cancer Asbestos Trial

NEW YORK — A joint asbestos trial involving auto mechanics suffering from lung cancer will now occur in late November after one of the plaintiffs conceded that the need to produce new evidence related to a recent colon cancer diagnosis warranted adjourning the trial.
October 13, 2023
J&J Says Quick Asbestos-Talc Verdict Doesn’t Warrant New Trial

ST. LOUIS — Plaintiffs complaining that a jury returned a verdict in an asbestos-talc case too quickly point to no precedent that supports the conclusion that a jury must deliberate for any specific amount of time and simply want a redo at trial, two Johnson & Johnson entities tell a Missouri judge in opposing a motion for new trial.
October 13, 2023
New York Justice Seals Burnham’s Tax Returns Used In Asbestos Trial

NEW YORK — Public curiosity does not outweigh a desire to protect proprietary commercial information disclosed in a tax return produced for use in the punitive damages portion of an asbestos trial that produced a $38 million verdict, a New York justice said in sealing the evidence.
October 12, 2023
J&J Affiliate, Asbestos Talc Study Author Spar Over Fraud Claims

TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC’s arguments against dismissal of its trade libel, fraud and trademark law violation claims against the author of an asbestos talc study only serve to show that the company fails to state any valid claims and that her study “is a protected scientific opinion that is not actionable as a matter of law,” the author says in a reply in support of dismissal filed in New Jersey federal court.
October 11, 2023
Wisconsin Court Finds Questions About Insurance, Revives Suit Against Employer

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Because questions remain about whether a defendant employer accepted, paid for and received coverage under an enhanced insurance policy covering mesothelioma claims on the day a woman filed a workers’ compensation claim, summary judgment to the employer was inappropriate, a Wisconsin appeals court said Oct. 10.
October 11, 2023
Family Waives Response To LHWCA ‘Twilight Zone’ Asbestos Petition

NEW ORLEANS — The family of a maritime worker whose state law asbestos tort the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals allowed as falling within the Longshore Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA) “twilight zone” indicated Oct. 10 that they would not respond to a U.S. Supreme Court petition claiming that the “result-driven” opinion ignores the law’s unambiguous preemption clause and threatens far-reaching consequences.
October 11, 2023
Johnson & Johnson Debtor Seeks Direct Appeal Of Dismissal To 3rd Circuit

TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge on Oct. 10 stayed briefing in the appeal by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC of dismissal of its second Chapter 11 case until the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decides whether to grant the company’s request for a direct appeal to that court.
October 10, 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.
October 10, 2023
New York Special Master Won’t Allow Deposition Of Asbestos-Talc Expert

NEW YORK — Worrying that allowing an expert deposition in an asbestos-talc case could open the floodgates to such moves in New York, which generally doesn’t permit expert depositions, a special master recommended rejecting a defendant’s argument that the unique factors in the case and expert Jacqueline Moline’s report warranted such a drastic departure.
October 10, 2023
Justice: Evidence And Argument Both Lacking In New York Asbestos Case

NEW YORK — A witness lacks the personal knowledge necessary to testify regarding the asbestos-use practices of a caulk company, and when that testimony is contrasted with the specifics identified in the plaintiffs’ experts’ testimony, the evidence is not sufficient to overcome summary judgment, a New York justice held while differentiating recent precedent involving causation in an asbestos-talc case.
October 10, 2023
Justice Finds Nemeth’s Reach Limited, Denies Reargument In Asbestos Case

NEW YORK — Recent asbestos litigation precedent on causation involving an “extraordinary post-trial remedy” has little relevance to a summary judgment motion and would not change the outcome, a justice in New York said in denying reargument.
October 10, 2023
'Visibly Angry’ Juror Caused $8.8M Asbestos Verdict, Pipe Maker Says

LOS ANGELES — “Serious juror misconduct” by two jurors who interjected their own anger and biases into an asbestos trial and a verdict form that fatally failed to include potentially liable nonparties require a Los Angeles court to grant a new trial, an asbestos pipe manufacturer told the court after a nearly $9 million verdict.
October 06, 2023
Man: Reject Feigned Prejudice From Supplemental Asbestos Expert Disclosures

NEW YORK — Defendants’ efforts at creating the appearance of prejudice from an asbestos-talc expert’s supplemental report ignore that they deposed the witness with full knowledge of her opinions and knew almost immediately of a new article on which she relies, a plaintiff tells a federal judge in New York in opposing a motion to preclude the supplemental report.
October 06, 2023
J&J Entities Must Face Asbestos-Talc Liabilities, New Jersey Judge Says

TRENTON, N.J. — A man adequately alleges that asbestos-talc liabilities followed the assets and operations from Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. to various entities resulting from Johnson & Johnson restructuring and placing LTL Management LLC into bankruptcy, a New Jersey judge said in denying a motion to dismiss.
October 05, 2023
Judge Says Avondale’s Reintroduction Warrants Third-Party Complaint

NEW ORLEANS — Because recent precedent resulted in a shipyard previously granted summary judgment being reintroduced into an asbestos case, the interests of justice warrant allowing the filing of a third-party demand naming it, a federal judge in Louisiana said in granting reconsideration.