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Mealey's Asbestos

  • August 18, 2025

    Judge Says Jury Can Hear Hysterectomy Evidence In Asbestos-Talc Case

    LOS ANGELES — A judge in Los Angeles set trial for Aug. 25 after denying a motion to exclude testimony that a woman’s mesothelioma spread to her ovaries necessitating a hysterectomy, saying the defendants may cross-examine any experts and physicians about the need for the procedure.

  • August 15, 2025

    Man: J&J Can’t Revoke Talc Documents’ Authenticity Agreement After Discovery

    BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Johnson & Johnson entities avoided formal discovery by agreeing to acknowledge the authenticity of produced business records in more than 40 asbestos cases and should not now be allowed to revoke that admission after the close of discovery in one of the cases, a man tells a judge in Connecticut in an Aug. 14 motion.

  • August 15, 2025

    Judge Won’t Limit Asbestos Trial By Ruling On Expert Pathology Issues

    LOS ANGELES — An asbestos coordinating judge said he would not tie a trial court’s hands by precluding a family from objecting if Johnson & Johnson entities cite tissue digestion studies in an asbestos-talc case and the trial court can determine whether a second expert’s deposition testimony can be shown to a jury, a California judge said in denying a motion.

  • August 13, 2025

    9-Year Delay In Asbestos Case Warranted Dismissal, Court Affirms

    JACKSON, Miss. — A nine-year period where a plaintiff litigated asbestos bankruptcy issues in a separate court but took no substantive steps in her tort litigation in Mississippi warranted a trial court’s dismissal of the action in its entirety for lack of prosecution, the Mississippi Court of Appeals said Aug. 12 in affirming.

  • August 12, 2025

    South Carolina Court Set To Consider New Trial Order In Asbestos-Talc Case

    COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Court of Appeals asked for the record on appeal and all final briefs and is set to decide whether a judge properly granted plaintiffs a new trial after they allegedly produced new evidence in an asbestos-talc case.

  • August 12, 2025

    Foster Wheeler Must Correct Asbestos Verdict Appeal, Pa. Superior Court Says

    PITTSBURGH — The Pennsylvania Superior Court directed a trial court to enter judgment in two cases consolidated with a third that produced a $3.8 million asbestos verdict plus delay damages and that liable party Foster Wheeler LLC can then appeal from the proper judgments.

  • August 12, 2025

    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, 2025

    Judge Won’t Certify Immediate Appeal In Asbestos Insurance Spat

    NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Louisiana said that while an immediate appeal might alleviate the need for trial later this year on claims between a settled asbestos defendant and its insured, the burden posed by any appeal outweighs that of the anticipated one-day trial from which an appeal could be taken.

  • August 11, 2025

    Talc, Other Expert Opinions Largely Admitted In Dentist’s Asbestos Suit

    LOS ANGELES — A California judge said punitive damages will be bifurcated according to California law but otherwise admitted testimony in a former dentist’s asbestos personal injury case, saying that experts may call upon training and experience and that studies on which they rely need not be identical to real world situations.  In a trial brief, a dental supply company told the court that any potential exposure from its periodontal packs in the late 1960s and 1970s would have been too small to cause mesothelioma.

  • August 07, 2025

    Oregon Talc Plaintiffs Say No Errors Worthy Of Reducing Damages, New Trial

    PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon appeals court denied a motion to expedite an asbestos-talc appeal by declining to deviate from a briefing schedule, while the couple that was awarded $260 million said there were insufficient grounds or evidence of misconduct to reduce the award or order a new trial.

  • August 06, 2025

    After Failed Attempt To Resolve Asbestos-Talc Question, Case Set For State Trial

    SAN FRANCISCO — An asbestos case is back in California state court and set for a September trial after a winding road took it to a federal bankruptcy court in Texas where removal was found procedurally improper and then to a federal court in California, where the parties agreed to remand.

  • August 07, 2025

    Judge Cites ‘Unique Relevance,’ Largely Declines To Strike Asbestos Witnesses

    LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California struck eight of 24 witnesses in an asbestos case but said the “unique relevance” of two others and the fact that the defendants appeared equally liable for an untimely deposition of a third warrants allowing their testimony.

  • August 06, 2025

    Judge Says Evidence Doesn’t Invoke Indemnity Clause In Asbestos Dispute

    RALEIGH, N.C. — A man’s testimony and pay records fall short of showing his asbestos exposure at a paper mill came while he was employed by a contractor under a 1971 contract requiring the contractor to indemnify the mill from related losses, a federal judge in North Carolina said in granting the latter summary judgment in a redacted Aug. 5 opinion.

  • August 06, 2025

    Florida Judge Permits Whole Genome Testing In Consumer Talc Meso Case

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Two defendants may obtain a blood sample to perform whole genome genetic testing of a 33-year-old mesothelioma sufferer, a judge in Florida said in granting the request and overruling the plaintiffs’ objection.

  • August 04, 2025

    Medical Provider Drops Fee Request In Asbestos Expert Subpoena Case

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — In a joint submission with an asbestos defendant, a medical provider on Aug. 1 said it would no longer seek attorney fees, saying that even though a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling didn’t eliminate the trial court’s award, it would withdraw its request on which it was awarded $44,610.45 in an effort to resolve the case.

  • August 04, 2025

    Wisconsin Sets Arguments In Premises Liability, Punitive Damages Asbestos Case

    MILWAUKEE — The Wisconsin Supreme Court set Sept. 8 for oral arguments in a case involving a brewery’s liability for asbestos injuries suffered by an employee of a contractor and whether punitive damages should be based on the total award or only on the share assigned to the party at trial.

  • August 01, 2025

    3rd Circuit Affirms Class Certification In J&J Asbestos Stock Suit

    PHILADELPHIA — A judge properly certified an asbestos talc securities class after finding that each of six disclosures about the safety of talc or the presence of asbestos in Johnson & Johnson talc led to a drop in the company’s stock price, a divided Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in a divided nonprecedential opinion affirming class certification.

  • August 01, 2025

    Contractor Prevails In Pulp Mill Asbestos Indemnity Suit

    RALEIGH, N.C. — A federal judge in North Carolina entered judgment in favor of a contractor in its dispute over indemnity for asbestos claims stemming from the building of a pulp mill after the court granted summary judgment in a sealed ruling.

  • July 30, 2025

    Punitive Damages Nixed In Maritime Asbestos Case, With Leave To Amend

    SAN FRANCISCO — Since a man’s alleged asbestos exposures occurred at least partly on vessels on navigable waters, his claims fall under maritime law, which does not recognize punitive damages, but he can amend his complaint to allege land-based exposures that would give rise to the damages, a federal judge in California said in granting a motion to dismiss.

  • July 30, 2025

    Massachusetts Jury Awards $42 Million In Asbestos Case Against Johnson & Johnson

    BOSTON — A Massachusetts jury on July 29 found Johnson & Johnson negligent and that it breached the implied warranty of merchantability and awarded a couple $42,608,300 for the husband’s mesothelioma caused by exposure to asbestos in Johnson & Johnson consumer talc in what sources said is believed to be the largest asbestos verdict in state history.

  • July 30, 2025

    Divided New York Court Finds Asbestos Causation Evidence Supports $3.3M Verdict

    BUFFALO, N.Y. — A divided New York appellate court said expert testimony that chrysotile asbestos causes mesothelioma is sufficient and affirmed a $3.3 million friction products asbestos verdict in the face of specific and general causation challenges by Ford Motor Co.

  • July 29, 2025

    Delaware Jury Awards $9 Million In Asbestos Shotgun Shell Case

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware jury awarded $9 million to a farmer’s estate and family in what is believed to be the first asbestos-related shotgun shell mesothelioma case to go to a verdict.

  • July 29, 2025

    California Panel Affirms Verdict, Rulings In Asbestos Pipe Case

    LOS ANGELES — A pipelayer has not met the “extremely high” burden required to overturn a jury verdict that found he qualified as a sophisticated user, that a pipe manufacturer was not negligent and that the trial court’s nonsuit on a fraudulent concealment claim was incorrect, a California appeals court said in an unpublished opinion.

  • July 28, 2025

    Judge: Exposure, Causation Evidence Passes Muster In Hawaii Maritime Asbestos Case

    HONOLULU — A man’s testimony and expert opinions about the extent and scope of his work as a boilermaker at Pearl Harbor Navy Shipyard sufficiently establish exposure at levels sufficient to have caused his lung cancer, and the manufacturers owed the man a duty for third-party parts, a federal judge in Hawaii said in granting a series of motions in part.

  • July 28, 2025

    Johnson & Johnson, Couple Battle Over Genetic Testing In Mesothelioma Case

    CHICAGO — A couple’s brief opposing a motion for genetic testing in a mesothelioma case as unfounded and unnecessary is “replete with mischaracterizations and fails to address the heart of the issue,” Johnson & Johnson told an Illinois judge in a reply brief in support of its motion for such testing.