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

Mealey's Asbestos

August 23, 2023
Longshore Asbestos Case Stayed Again, This Time Pending Top Court Petition

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals suspended briefing for a second time as the parties await a petition for certiorari in a separate case involving Longshore Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA) preemption of a “twilight zone” asbestos case.
August 23, 2023
Dismissal Motion Ordered For J&J Former Debtor’s Suit Over Asbestos Talc Study

TRENTON, N.J. — The author of an asbestos talc study who is accused of fraud by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC must file her proposed motion to dismiss the case by Sept. 8, according to a docket entry by a New Jersey federal judge, who also rejected a pre-motion conference.
August 22, 2023
Judge Denies Motions Seeking To Upend $9.7M Asbestos Verdict

MILWAUKEE — A judge in Milwaukee denied post-trial motions seeking to undo a $9.7 million asbestos verdict, and the defendant indicated that it would move for reconsideration of a third ruling imposing sanctions.
August 22, 2023
Justice Denies Automaker Digestive Testing Of Mesothelioma Sufferer’s Tissue

NEW YORK — An automaker defending an asbestos case will do without digestive testing of the man’s pleural tissue after a New York justice said the case lacks the type of unusual circumstance required for post-trial setting discovery and that an expert never established that the need for the testing outweighs the mesothelioma sufferer’s safety.
August 22, 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.
August 11, 2023
COMMENTARY: Evolution Of The Asbestos Plaintiff Exposure Profile

By Sarah Beth Jones, Malea Higdon and Mary Margaret Gay
August 22, 2023
N.Y. Justice Denies Reargument Of Jurisdiction Ruling In Barber’s Asbestos Case

NEW YORK — A former barber’s asbestos suit claiming that his wife developed mesothelioma after exposure to asbestos may proceed against a talc company after a New York justice denied a motion seeking to reargue a ruling, finding that the company was properly served in the state.
August 18, 2023
Amici Say Potential Fraud Warrants Unsealing Lawyer’s Complaint

LOS ANGELES — A bankrupt asbestos defendant and an industry group, acting as amici curiae, tell a California court that the possibility that an asbestos attorney’s lawsuit against his former employer could reveal ongoing fraud and misconduct warrants unsealing the unredacted version of his complaint.
August 18, 2023
Illinois Wrongful Death Statute Expanded To Permit Punitive Damages

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois will immediately begin permitting punitive damages in wrongful death actions after the state’s governor signed legislation amending the state’s wrongful death act.
August 18, 2023
Kentucky Court Denies Rehearing In 1960 Household Duty Asbestos Case

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Kentucky Court of Appeals on Aug. 17 denied a petition for rehearing in a docket entry, leaving stand a ruling holding that defendants owed a duty to a household member to prevent asbestos exposure by the late 1960s, that a judge improperly excluded deposition testimony by an expert regarding asbestos in talc and that the state’s 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.
August 17, 2023
No Evidence Of Bankruptcy Trust Shenanigans, Judge Says

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — While a railroad claims that plaintiffs are intentionally delaying submissions to the W.R. Grace & Co. bankruptcy trust, the evidence shows that resolution of those types of claims can take upward of 20 years, a federal judge in Montana said in declining to stay the case and finding that a railroad could not attempt to pin liability on W.R. Grace, settled defendants or the state of Montana under state law.
August 17, 2023
Judge: Supreme Court Ruling On Jurisdiction Can’t Keep Talc Case In California

LOS ANGELES — A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling finding Pennsylvania’s business registration statute sufficient for jurisdiction does not assist California asbestos plaintiffs because the state lacks a similar statute, a Los Angeles County judge said in granting three defendants’ motion to quash service of summons.
August 16, 2023
Bankruptcy Dismissal Lifts Stay Of Asbestos-Talc Appeal, J&J Admits

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Dismissal of the LTL Management LLC bankruptcy and its automatic stay provision means a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals case involving allegations that two talc companies violated the California unfair competition law (UCL) by advertising their products as pure despite knowing that they were contaminated with asbestos may proceed, LTL Management said in an Aug. 15 status update.
August 16, 2023
Delaware Supreme Court Considers Who Owns Asbestos-Talc Liabilities

WILMINGTON, Del. — Merck & Co. Inc. and Bayer AG wrapped briefing with both sides telling the Delaware Supreme Court that the clear language of an asset purchase agreement supports its interpretation of whether asbestos-talc liabilities stayed with the seller or sunset after seven years.
August 16, 2023
Justice: Asbestos Expert’s Study Can’t Free Boiler Company From Punitive Damages

NEW YORK — An expert’s single study about asbestos provides too little and too general evidence and does not rise to the level required to grant summary judgment on a man’s punitive damages claim, a New York justice said.
August 15, 2023
Judge Affirms Order Quashing Asbestos-Talc Subpoena To Medical Provider

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A magistrate judge properly concluded that a subpoena seeking information related to an asbestos-talc study for use in other litigation was only minimally related to the case and would place an undue burden on the party, a federal judge in Virginia said Aug. 14 in affirming the ruling.
August 14, 2023
With Punitive Damages Pending, Parties Settle $20M Asbestos-Talc Case

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — After the parties filed briefs on the appropriateness of punitive damages in the wake of a $20 million asbestos-talc verdict, one of the defendants told a Connecticut judge on Aug. 11 that the parties had resolved the case, mooting pending post-trial motions.
August 11, 2023
Asbestos Referral Fee Ruling Sends ‘Embarrassment’ Of Case Back To 4th Circuit

BALTIMORE — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals will once again confront a case a judge on the court previously described as “an embarrassment to the legal profession,” after lawyers and law firms hit with more than $1 million in fees and costs for “never once” complying with court-ordered discovery in a dispute over asbestos case referrals filed a notice of appeal on Aug. 10.
August 10, 2023
Asbestos Screener At Heart Of Libby, Mont., False Claims Verdict Files Bankruptcy

MISSOULA, Mont. — The Libby, Mont., asbestos disease screener hit with $5.8 million in damages and penalties for filing false claims under a special Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) program created under Medicare has declared bankruptcy.
August 10, 2023
Tennessee Court: Asbestos Law Covers Woman’s Exposure-Linked Property Claims

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee’s broad asbestos litigation law applies to and procedurally bars a woman’s property damage claims, especially because those claims all intersect with alleged fear of an asbestos-related disease, a state appeals court said while reversing dismissal of strict liability claims stemming from asbestos allegedly released during the rupture of a chemical company’s steam pipe.
August 09, 2023
Justice Seals Communications With Liquidated Insurer, But Not Asbestos Settlement

NEW YORK — A New York justice found no good reason to seal or redact the amount a liquidator settled asbestos claims for, but said communications among the liquidator, counsel and the referee who oversaw the settlements included discussion of litigation strategy and would be sealed.
August 09, 2023
South Carolina Briefing Addresses Causation Standard, Cumulative Exposure

CHARLESTON, S.C. — An expert’s testimony that cumulative exposure adds to the dose of asbestos that contributes to disease isn’t the same as the theory that every exposure leads to disease, a conclusion the expert specifically rejected, and the courts below didn’t adopt Pennsylvania law on causation, a man told the South Carolina Supreme Court in a respondent brief while also defending the trial court’s additur ruling.
August 08, 2023
Judge Permits Amendment In Wake Of 5th Circuit’s LHWCA Ruling

NEW ORLEANS — A recent ruling by the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals finding that the Longshore Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act did not preempt state asbestos tort claims warrants allowing a man to amend his complaint to include direct asbestos exposure claims he originally included but disclaimed based on the law, a federal magistrate judge in Louisiana said.
August 04, 2023
COMMENTARY: New Research Finds That Nearly Half The Mesotheliomas Occurring Today Are Likely Not Caused By Asbestos Exposure

By William L. Anderson
August 07, 2023
Lack Of Living Beneficiary Dooms Maritime Asbestos Case, Federal Judge Says

PHILADELPHIA — Federal regulations identifying potential beneficiaries support dismissing maritime law claims for lack of jurisdiction were a man allegedly exposed to asbestos aboard a ship and all his dependents have died, a federal judge in Pennsylvania said Aug. 4.