Mealey's Asbestos
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November 02, 2023
California High Court Rejects Asbestos-Talc Experts Ruling Case
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Supreme Court on Nov. 1 denied Johnson & Johnson’s petition for review asking the court to decide the standard applied to evidentiary rulings, the admission of nonwitness expert opinions and how courts should evaluate cases alleging exposure to asbestos in products not designed to contain asbestos.
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November 02, 2023
Federal Judge Won’t Compel Asbestos Trust Claims Under North Dakota Law
FARGO, N.D. — Nothing in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure permits a court to enforce a North Dakota law mandating the filing of claims with asbestos bankruptcy trusts given that such claims are not required where the costs would exceed recovery, and since the plaintiffs responded to interrogatories by stating that they have not filed any such claims, the court lacks any grounds to compel further response, a federal judge in North Dakota said.
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November 02, 2023
Asbestos-Talc Companies: Supplemental Report Improperly Contains New Information
NEW YORK — A man opposing a motion to preclude supplementation of an expert report “hopes that this court has amnesia” about the lack of epidemiological evidence linking talc and mesothelioma or that other courts have found asbestos expert Jacqueline Moline’s opinions spurious, defendant companies tell a federal judge in New York.
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November 01, 2023
Parties Debate Whether Asbestos Liability Provision Is ‘Elephant In A Mousehole’
WILMINGTON, Del. — The Delaware Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Nov. 1 on whether an asset purchase agreement between Bayer AG and Merck & Co. Inc. left the latter responsible for asbestos-talc liabilities for the time it operated consumer talc operations or sunset the liabilities after seven years.
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October 31, 2023
Conclusory Affidavit Can’t Free Porsche From Asbestos Case, N.Y. Court Says
NEW YORK — An affidavit stating that an automaker was not distributing asbestos-containing products during the period of a man’s exposure is conclusory and not grounds on which to grant summary judgment, a New York appeals court said in affirming the denial of summary judgment to the automaker.
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October 31, 2023
Responding To J&J, Plaintiffs Downplay New Jersey Asbestos-Talc Experts Ruling
TRENTON, N.J. — A ruling on a trial court’s role in admitting asbestos-talc expert testimony was wrong in several respects and will soon be on further appeal, but Johnson & Johnson’s citation to it “reflects a profound misunderstanding about the fraud, fraudulent concealment, and fraud on the court” claims in the current case against it, two plaintiffs say in an Oct. 30 letter brief.
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October 31, 2023
Irish Appellate Court Revives Take-Home Asbestos Case
BELFAST, Northern Ireland — An appellate court in Northern Ireland revived a man’s case claiming that he developed pleural plaques after exposure to asbestos on his father’s work clothing.
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October 30, 2023
Asbestos Exclusion Cannot Be Construed As Bar To Coverage, Judge Says
ROME, Ga. — A Georgia federal judge denied an insurer’s motion to dismiss its insured’s suit seeking a declaration that coverage is owed for an underlying asbestos bodily injury suit after determining that the asbestos exclusion in the insurer’s policies must be construed in favor of the insured because the insured has stated a claim for which relief can be granted as the insured maintains that its talc products do not contain asbestos.
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October 30, 2023
Man: Attempts At Striking J&J Asbestos-Talc Allegations Premature, At Best
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A motion to strike asbestos-talc allegations against various Johnson & Johnson entities ignores the complicated and fact-intensive nature of the request in what amounts to a premature summary judgment motion, but regardless, the fact-filled complaint suffices under Connecticut law, demonstrates grounds for imposing successor liability and, even if Texas law applied to the case, would not shield the defendants from liability, a man told a Connecticut judge on Oct. 27.
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October 30, 2023
New Jersey Appeals Court Won’t Reconsider Asbestos-Talc Expert Admission Ruling
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — In four orders, the New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division denied motions for reconsideration, leaving stand a ruling reversing the admission of expert testimony that led to a $224 million verdict and remanding for a new trial.
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October 27, 2023
Missouri Asbestos Defendant Seeks Appeal Of Workers’ Comp Exclusivity Ruling
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Because a man with personal knowledge of an insurance contract authenticated the document, a trial court imposed an undue burden on an employer seeking summary judgment under the workers’ compensation system’s exclusivity provision, a company tells a Missouri appeals court in an application for transfer to the state’s high court.
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October 26, 2023
J&J Says Ruling Rejecting Asbestos-Talc Experts Bolsters Class Dismissal Motion
TRENTON, N.J. — Recent precedent overturning an asbestos verdict and rejecting expert testimony that the fibers detected in talc were asbestiform further supports a motion to dismiss a class action claiming that Johnson & Johnson concealed the presence of the mineral in its products, the company tells a federal judge in New Jersey in an Oct. 25 letter.
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October 26, 2023
Kentucky High Court Grants Review, Consolidates J&J Talc Testimony Cases
FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Kentucky Supreme Court granted a cross-motion for review and consolidated two cases involving whether a corporate representative’s testimony about his personal use of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) talc products was relevant in an asbestos-talc case after a lower court granted a new trial based the testimony’s admission.
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October 25, 2023
Damages Analysis Requires Looking At Past Awards, Louisiana High Court Says
NEW ORLEANS — Appellate courts analyzing whether a verdict constitutes an abuse of discretion must consider past awards, otherwise the process lacks any objective measure and appellate review becomes “redundant and unnecessary,” a divided Louisiana Supreme Court said in cutting an asbestos award to $5 million.
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October 25, 2023
New York Top Court Won’t Reconsider Rejecting $120M Asbestos-Talc Appeal
NEW YORK — The New York Court of Appeals on Oct. 24 denied a motion for reargument of a motion for leave to appeal a finding that there was insufficient expert testimony that exposure would have significantly exceeded background levels for a jury’s $120 million asbestos verdict against two Johnson & Johnson entities.
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October 25, 2023
Judge: Bankruptcy Stays Attorney Fees Motion In Asbestos Diagnosis Case
MISSOULA, Mont. — Because a railway’s motion for attorney fees in the wake of its successful pursuit of a False Claims Act case came before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) asbestos program provider’s bankruptcy, the request constitutes a claim against the debtor and falls under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code’s automatic stay, a federal judge in Montana said.
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October 24, 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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October 23, 2023
Connecticut Court Breathes Life Back Into Asbestos Tort Against Employer
HARTFORD, Conn. — A divided Connecticut appeals court revived an asbestos tort action against an employer on Oct. 20, finding evidence that the company knew of the dangers of asbestos at its facility and never disclosed them while touting the need to follow federal regulations to others as its own testing repeatedly, if only infrequently, demonstrated that its failures to follow those regulations placed the case within the intentional tort exception to workers’ compensation exclusivity.
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October 23, 2023
Bankruptcy Judge Denies Stay Relief For State Law Claims Against Georgia-Pacific
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A bid by a man with mesothelioma and his wife to bypass the automatic stay in the Chapter 11 case of Georgia-Pacific (GP) spinoff Bestwall LLC so they can pursue claims against GP in a New Jersey court failed when a North Caolina bankruptcy judge denied their motion for relief from the stay.
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October 20, 2023
Plaintiff Will Appeal Maritime Asbestos Consortium, Punitive Damages Ruling
BOSTON — A widow told a federal judge in Massachusetts on Oct. 19 that she plans interlocutory appeals of the judge’s conclusion that maritime law precludes loss of consortium and punitive damage claims and says that finding pending motions moot as a result of the ruling would be premature. In its own status report filed the same day, defendant John Crane Inc. (JCI) says the ruling conclusively decides 10 pending evidentiary motions.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.