Mealey's Discovery
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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 06, 2023
United States Urges 3rd Circuit Not To Stay Mandate In Microcaptive Info Case
PHILADELPHIA — Arguing that there is “no reasonable probability” the U.S. Supreme Court will either agree to review the case or hand down a reversal, the United States urged against staying a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals mandate pending an intended certiorari petition by the Delaware Department of Insurance (DDOI) in a case the Third Circuit panel said “pits Delaware’s authority to protect corporate privacy against the power of the IRS.”
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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 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
Fracking Company Says Bid To Quash Subpoena In Abandoned Wells Case Fails
WHEELING, W.Va. — A hydraulic fracturing company has filed a brief in West Virginia federal court contending that it should deny a landowner’s motion to quash a subpoena in a case pertaining to abandoned wells on jurisdictional grounds and because the landowner has not met his burden for resisting discovery.
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June 28, 2023
Monsanto, Plaintiffs Seek Discovery Protective Order In PCB Injury Lawsuit
BURLINGTON, Vt. — Monsanto Co. and school teachers and a spouse who have sued the company for injuries from exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in a school have moved in Vermont federal court for approval of a stipulated protective order governing discovery because the litigation may involve production of trade secrets, personal health information and other sensitive material.
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June 28, 2023
Illinois Agencies Compelled To Produce Documents In PCB Case Against Monsanto
CHICAGO — Illinois state agencies that were explicitly referenced in Illinois’ complaint against Monsanto Co. for the alleged statewide contamination of waterways by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) can be compelled to produce documents because the attorney general effectively controls the documents, an Illinois federal magistrate judge found in granting Monsanto’s motion to compel discovery.
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June 27, 2023
Stay Of 3rd Circuit Mandate Sought In Microcaptive Info Case Pending Review Bid
PHILADELPHIA — After the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied its rehearing petition in the case a panel said “pits Delaware’s authority to protect corporate privacy against the power of the IRS,” the Delaware Department of Insurance (DDOI) asked for issuance of the mandate to be stayed, saying it intends to seek review by the U.S. Supreme Court.
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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 26, 2023
Judge Says Admiral Will Not Testify In Water Pollution Case Against U.S. Navy
HONOLULU — A federal judge in Hawaii has granted a motion to quash a subpoena for an admiral in the U.S. Navy, ruling that the plaintiffs in a groundwater contamination lawsuit against the Navy have not established that the admiral has “unique, first-hand knowledge” with regard to the plaintiffs’ “proposed areas of inquiry or how each area of inquiry is essential” to the case.
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June 26, 2023
Magistrate Denies Insured’s Motion To Compel Appraisal Of Hurricane Sally Damage
MOBILE, Ala. — A federal magistrate judge in Alabama denied an insured’s motion to compel appraisal in a coverage lawsuit over Hurricane Sally damage to its 10 four-story residential condominium buildings in Gulf Shores, Ala., finding that appraisal is not appropriate at this time because the parties' dispute involves the cause of the insured’s loss and not just the amount of loss.
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June 26, 2023
Freddie Mac Sues Insurers, Seeking D&O Coverage For Costs Incurred By SEC Subpoenas
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. (Freddie Mac), sued its primary and excess directors and officers liability insurers for breach of contract and bad faith in a District of Columbia federal court, seeking coverage for underlying expenses that it incurred on behalf of its directors, officers and employees who were subpoenaed by the Securities Exchange Commission during an investigation and subsequent lawsuit.
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June 22, 2023
7th Circuit Affirms New Trial Denial In Testosterone Case Over Late Disclosure
CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) multidistrict litigation court did not err in denying a new trial request over the late disclosure of a Food and Drug Administration letter about studying whether TRT drugs have a risk of high blood pressure, saying high blood pressure was only one of several causal factors in a trial where a man claimed that Androderm caused his heart attack.
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June 21, 2023
Tobacco Companies Must Post Discovery From Juul MDL Online, Judge Says
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge granted a motion filed by public health groups and ruled that a 2006 order requiring Altria Group Inc. and Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM) to post evidence of their past deceptive marketing online also applies to discovery obtained from the companies during the recent multidistrict litigation against e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. (JLI).
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June 21, 2023
Panel Upholds Sanction, Kessler Findings By Florida Federal Judge In Patent Row
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A patent owner’s subsequent infringement action against the same defendant following dismissal with prejudice of litigation involving the same patents and accused product was precluded under the Kessler doctrine, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said June 21.
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June 20, 2023
Magistrate: Insured’s Discovery Approach In Irma Suit ‘Resembles A Shotgun Blast’
FORT MYERS, Fla. —A federal magistrate judge in Florida denied a condominium insured’s motion to compel discovery in a bad faith lawsuit seeking coverage for property damage caused by Hurricane Irma, finding that the insured’s broad discovery requests “necessarily capture a host of documents that would have little to no relevance” and its approach “resembles a shotgun blast,” which is not what Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26 envisions.
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June 15, 2023
J&J Wants 2nd Look At Magistrate Judge’s Quashing Of Talc Subpoenas
TRENTON, N.J. — A magistrate judge erred when she applied pre-1991 rules in finding third parties subject to a heightened standard for discovery and quashed subpoenas to law firms and attorneys seeking media communications, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) argues in a motion for reconsideration filed in a securities class action in a federal court in New Jersey.
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June 15, 2023
Railway: Plaintiff Delayed Asbestos Trust Claim, Didn’t Disclose Efforts
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — An asbestos plaintiff in Montana federal court intentionally delayed an asbestos trust claim for “strategic reasons” and failed to disclose related filings requested in discovery, a railway argues in a June 14 supplement to its response in support of a stay of a trial and opposition to summary judgment.
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June 15, 2023
Asbestos Expert’s Employer Seeks To Quash Study Subject Subpoena, Impose Sanctions
NEW YORK — Asbestos expert Jacqueline Moline’s employer on June 14 asked a court to quash a subpoena from a party to a suit, saying the information the defendant sought was already largely available and that production would violate health information privacy regulations and asking that the court impose sanctions.
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June 15, 2023
Trial Set In Suit Seeking Nonpublic Info On Holding Company’s Captive Reinsurer
WILMINGTON, Del. — A one-day trial in the Delaware Court of Chancery has been set for June 26 in a suit seeking nonpublic information regarding a captive reinsurer, with the parties filing a joint pretrial stipulation and the plaintiff filing a pretrial brief.
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June 13, 2023
Partial Production Of Arbitration Record Compelled In Suit Over Defense Costs
DETROIT — With a motion for declaratory judgment pending in a suit over defense costs, a Michigan federal judge has granted a reinsurer’s motion to compel partial, redacted production of a separate arbitration record.
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June 12, 2023
Asbestos-Talc Company, Man Argue Over Whether Promise Is Really A Promise At All
NEW YORK — A talc company responded to a man’s claim that it “feigned confusion,” telling a federal judge in New York that a man’s offer not to reference a 2020 study on asbestos and talc appears to be only a promise not to mention the study while allowing witnesses to discuss its findings all while waiting for opponents to open the door to its admission by challenging the testimony.
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June 12, 2023
Split Arkansas High Court Says Bayer CEO Must Testify In Roundup Cancer Lawsuit
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A divided Arkansas Supreme Court has denied Monsanto Co.’s attempt to excuse Werner Baumann, CEO of Monsanto’s parent company Bayer AG, from testifying in a glyphosate cancer case, ruling that a trial court did not misinterpret the Arkansas Rules of Civil Procedure and did not abuse its discretion when it initially ordered Baumann to appear.
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June 12, 2023
Pollution Liability Insurer Cannot Withhold Documents Prepared In Insured’s Defense
NEWARK, N.J. — A pollution liability insurer cannot assert attorney-client privilege or work product doctrine as a basis to withhold documents prepared while still involved in the defense of an underlying suit filed against its insured, a New Jersey federal magistrate judge said in partially granting the insured’s motion to compel.