Mealey's Asbestos
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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: Experts Not Opining On Decedent’s Condition Not Fatal To Admissibility
SEATTLE — Experts retained in a case alleging that a fireman and pipe fitter was exposed to asbestos while aboard a Navy ship can testify even though their reports did not contain any review or analysis specific to the decedent’s condition because general causation testimony may be helpful to a jury, a federal judge in Washington ruled days after granting summary judgment to one valve maker.
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July 10, 2023
Justice: Manufacturer Can’t Stop The Press Of New York Asbestos Suit
NEW YORK — A printing press manufacturer largely relies on a “very small detail” regarding the potential period of asbestos exposure and unsupported testimony regarding its sales records and has not met the heavy burden of proof on summary judgment, a New York justice said.
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July 10, 2023
California Jury Awards $8.8M In Asbestos Cement Pipe Case
LOS ANGELES — A California jury found for plaintiffs on a variety of asbestos-related claims and awarded in excess of $8.5 million for exposure stemming from cement pipe used by the city of Newport Beach.
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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 10, 2023
J&J Debtor Again Files Fraud Suits Over Asbestos Talc Studies, Articles
TRENTON, N.J. — After leveling fraud claims against the author of an asbestos talc study, Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) bankrupt affiliate LTL Management LLC on July 7 filed suit in New Jersey federal court against three pathologists who conducted a follow-up study of malignant mesothelioma patients and their use of talcum powder, saying the debtor “was gravely harmed” by “false statements” the doctors made about their work.
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July 07, 2023
Judge Severs Cruise Line From Asbestos Case For Arbitration Ruling, Remands
DALLAS — Because of complicated issues involving potential arbitration of employment-based asbestos claims, the best course of action is to sever the case against a cruise line and remand the balance of the case so two depositions in Italy can proceed, a federal magistrate judge in Texas said.
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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 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 05, 2023
Worker Can’t Get Pennsylvania Law Applied To Delaware Asbestos Case
WILMINGTON, Del. — Delaware workers’ compensation law and its exclusive remedy provision apply to a man’s asbestos case against a former employer, even though the exposure occurred in Pennsylvania, a Delaware judge said in denying reargument for a summary judgment ruling.
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July 03, 2023
Judge: 1 Valve Maker Escapes Asbestos Case, While 2nd Must Face Claims
SEATTLE — Testimony that the U.S. Navy outfitted a similar but different vessel with a company’s products does not establish asbestos exposure or overcome summary judgment, but the record and allegations that a second company knew or should have known of the dangers the use of third-party parts with its products posed do, a federal judge in Washington said in denying summary judgment to one of two defendants on June 30.
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July 03, 2023
Asbestos Jurisdiction Case Resolved; Supreme Court Denies Petition In Georgia Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 denied certiorari for a case involving whether an automobile tire defect claim belonged in Georgia after recently issuing an opinion on jurisdiction in an asbestos case the parties cited in briefing.
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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
Montana Jury Finds Against Screener In ACA-Asbestos Medicare Program Fight
MISSOULA, Mont. — A Montana jury on June 28 found that a medical screening company violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by knowingly submitting fraudulent asbestos-disease claims under a provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicare program designed for residents of Libby, Mont., and awarded $1,081,265.
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June 28, 2023
Talc Company Fights Successor Liability After $20M Asbestos Verdict
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — While a jury may draw inferences from evidence, nothing a jury in an asbestos-talc case heard could allow it to impose liability on one talc company for the actions of a company it purchased, Vanderbilt Minerals LLC told a Connecticut judge on June 27.
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June 28, 2023
Judge Delays Asbestos Case In Wake Of Order Questioning Trial Readiness
SAN FRANCISCO — A judge on June 27 pushed a California asbestos retrial already delayed once because of a surge in coronavirus cases into July after holding a hearing and discharging an order to show cause why the parties were not trial ready, according to a docket entry.
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June 28, 2023
Judge Again Excludes Senator’s Testimony In ACA-Asbestos Program Trial
MISSOULA, Mont. — A federal judge in Montana affirmed her decision to exclude the testimony of a former senator instrumental in the crafting of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid program designed for Libby, Mont., residents exposed to asbestos, saying his opinions are not relevant to whether a diagnosing center acted in good faith.
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June 27, 2023
Supreme Court Permits Consent-By-Registration In Employee’s Asbestos Suit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pennsylvania law requiring that companies consent to jurisdiction when registering to do business permits a Virginia resident’s asbestos suit against the Virginia-based railroad that formerly employed him in Ohio and Virginia, a divided U.S. Supreme Court said June 27.
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June 27, 2023
Family Genetic History At Issue In California Asbestos Trial
LOS ANGELES — Responding to a motion in limine seeking to exclude expert testimony, Johnson & Johnson and subsidiary LTL Management LLC told a California judge that comments and evidence about a family history of cancer and heart disease are relevant to a man’s mesothelioma case, even if the cancers in question differ from the one the man suffers from.
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June 27, 2023
Judge Lifts Stay, Remands Case Based On New Occupational Asbestos Disease Precedent
PITTSBURGH — Recent precedent permitting a claimant blocked from the state’s occupational disease compensation system to bring a common-law claim against an employer warrants lifting a stay and remanding the case, a federal judge in Pennsylvania said.
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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 27, 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.
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June 26, 2023
Successor Claims Against Asbestos Boiler Company Proceed, New York Court Says
NEW YORK — Questions remain about whether an asset sale and merger sought to “fraudulently extinguish” a company’s asbestos liabilities, a New York court said in affirming a lower court ruling finding successor liability allegations sufficient.
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June 26, 2023
Boiler Company, Man Square Off In 9th Circuit Briefing On Asbestos Case
SAN DIEGO — A jury should have heard relevant and admissible testimony from corporate representatives but not that the U.S. Navy was the end user of asbestos-containing boilers, a man tells the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a June 23 reply brief.