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

Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy

October 22, 2025
Supplier Presperse Corp. Looks To Close Chapter 11 Talc Case

TRENTON, N.J. — Former talc supplier Presperse Corp. seeks a final decree closing its Chapter 11 case in New Jersey federal bankruptcy court, saying the case has been “fully administered” and all talc personal injury claims have been channeled by an injunction to the asbestos trust established by the plan.
October 22, 2025
Louisiana High Court Won’t Review Asbestos Liability Row With Guaranty Association

NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana Supreme Court denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA) seeking review of an appellate court’s reversal of a ruling granting summary judgment to an insurer and to LIGA but denying a motion for partial summary judgment filed by family members in a dispute over their deceased relative’s death purportedly from asbestos exposure.
October 21, 2025
Judge: J&J Won’t Get Access To Asbestos Expert’s Lab But Can Depose Employee

TRENTON, N.J. — Allowing Johnson & Johnson entities to inspect expert William Longo’s laboratory at this stage would be too burdensome, but they may depose one of his employees on past testing methods, the judge overseeing the federal multidistrict talc litigation in New Jersey said Oct. 20 in partially sustaining objections to a special master’s ruling.
October 21, 2025
California Asbestos-Talc Bellwether Parties Brief General Causation

LOS ANGELES — Plaintiffs in consolidated talc litigation in California told the judge that their experts’ general causation opinions involving talc and asbestos are supported by the evidence and regulatory bodies and should not be excluded. Johnson & Johnson and Red River Talc LLC filed replies arguing that the plaintiffs are misrepresenting the situation.
October 21, 2025
J&J Fails In Bid To Secure New Trial After $25M Asbestos-Talc Verdict

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A Connecticut judge turned away challenges to expert testimony, jury instructions and a bevy of other issues in denying Johnson & Johnson entities’ request for a new trial or to set aside a $25 million asbestos-talc verdict.
October 20, 2025
South Carolina Jury Finds For J&J In Asbestos-Talc Case

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina jury returned a verdict for Johnson & Johnson entities in an asbestos-talc mesothelioma trial, finding that the companies were not negligent or strictly liable for the man’s disease .
October 20, 2025
J&J Spinoff Decries Law Firm’s Fee Request After Bankruptcy Case Dismissed

HOUSTON — A law firm that once represented a committee of asbestos talc claimants who were opposed to the Chapter 11 plan of reorganization for the latest Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff, Red River Talc LLC, cannot seek compensation from the bankruptcy estate for its later representation of an official committee of claimants who were in favor of the plan because its retention was never approved and the firm lacks standing to seek retention on its own, the debtor says in an objection to the firm’s final fee application in Texas federal bankruptcy court.
October 16, 2025
Asbestos Screening Firm Judgment Case To Remain In Federal Court, Judge Says

MISSOULA, Mont. — A federal judge in Montana denied the United States’ request for remand of a portion of a writ of execution in a case against a Montana asbestos screening firm, saying the government’s “unusual and conflicting arguments” did not persuade him to alter the established plan for resolving the case.
October 14, 2025
New York Federal Judge Orders Talc Study Author To Participate In Discovery

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge denied a motion by an asbestos plaintiffs’ expert to quash a subpoena for documents and deposition testimony in a discovery dispute with Johnson & Johnson spinoff Pecos River Talc LLC, finding that the requested discovery is relevant and would not be burdensome to produce.
October 13, 2025
Couple: New Trial Motion Coming After Defense Verdict In Asbestos-Pipe Case

OAKLAND, Calif. — A couple whose asbestos-pipe case a California jury rejected earlier this year filed notice on Oct. 10 stating that they intend to move for a new trial, citing irregularities in the proceedings and errors of law that led a jury to find that a company’s product performed as a consumer would expect and that the company was not negligent.
October 09, 2025
Liquidation Trust Files Complaint, Says Insurers Owe Coverage For Talc Claims

WILMINGTON, Del. — More than 30 insurers are obligated to provide coverage for underlying personal injury lawsuits stemming from exposure to asbestos in talc products because there are no exclusions or limitations in the policies that preclude coverage for the underlying claims, the liquidation trust for Avon Products Inc. and its debtor affiliates says in a complaint filed in Delaware Superior Court.
October 10, 2025
Delaware Bankruptcy Judge Confirms Avon Entities’ Liquidation Plan

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal bankruptcy judge has issued an order confirming the fourth amended Chapter 11 plan of liquidation for the U.S. divisions of cosmetics giant Avon after the debtors and certain insurers filed plan revisions at the direction of the bankruptcy judge involving the insurers’ rights and the operation of an asbestos personal injury trust.
October 09, 2025
U.S. Supreme Court Seeks Response In South Carolina Asbestos Receivership Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 8 requested responses to a petition challenging a South Carolina justice’s appointment of a receiver over the insurance assets of a solvent Canadian company as a sanction for its failure to participate in discovery in an asbestos action.
October 08, 2025
Pennsylvania Top Court Hears Argument On Liability For Dravo Asbestos Claims

HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Oct. 7 heard oral arguments about whether Dravo LLC’s dissolution imposed a two-year cap on asbestos claims or whether corporate actions left its parent company liable for those claims.
October 08, 2025
Los Angeles Jury Awards $966M For Asbestos-Talc Related Mesothelioma

LOS ANGELES — A California jury awarded $966 million — including $950 million in punitive damages — in an asbestos-talc case against Johnson & Johnson after finding the company negligent and that it failed to disclose the danger its products posed.
October 07, 2025
Kaiser Gypsum Opposes Dental Company’s Post-Verdict Settlement Request

LOS ANGELES — California law does not permit a good faith settlement finding for a dental supply company that reached the agreement after a jury found it liable for a man’s asbestos exposure and awarded damages but before a punitive damages phase, a joint compound manufacturer told a California judge.
October 06, 2025
Honeywell Divests Of Legacy Asbestos Liabilities As Planned Division Continues

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Honeywell International Inc. announced in a press release that it has divested itself of Bendix-brand legacy asbestos liabilities with a capitalized corporate liability acquisition platform assuming the risk and indemnifying the company.
October 02, 2025
Judge Awards $10 Million In Punitive Damages In J&J Asbestos-Talc Case

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A Connecticut judge on Oct. 1 added $10 million in punitive damages to a $15 million verdict, saying the evidence showed that the company employed sub-standard testing and choose to accept only evidence that supported the conclusion that its products were free of asbestos.
September 25, 2025
Talc Asbestos Claimants Decry Absence Of Section 524(g) Measures In Reorganization

NEW YORK — All three “erroneous holdings” made by a New York federal bankruptcy judge in approving a Chapter 11 reorganization plan for cosmetics icon Revlon Inc. and affiliates without mandating the establishment of an asbestos personal injury trust “require[] reversal,” 42 individuals who developed an asbestos disease after the bankruptcy petition was filed say in their appellants’ reply brief in the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
September 23, 2025
Massachusetts Jury Awards $80 Million For Asbestos-Clay Exposures

MIDDLESEX, Mass. — A Massachusetts jury found American Art Clay Co. Inc. liable for exposing a woman to asbestos in talc-based clay products and awarded her widower $80 million, including $60 million in punitive damages.
September 23, 2025
Insurer, Reinsurer File Joint Dismissal Motion In Mine Coverage Dispute

OMAHA, Neb. — National Indemnity Co. (NICO) and a reinsurer it sued for breach of contract and declaratory judgment jointly moved in Nebraska federal court to dismiss the reinsurer with prejudice as part of NICO’s suit to enforce its reinsurers’ obligations for incurred liabilities related to asbestos exposure stemming from a Montana mine.
September 22, 2025
Insurers Appeal Subrogation Ruling In Bankruptcies Of Imerys Asbestos Talc Parties

WILMINGTON, Del. — An appeal by a group of insurers of asbestos talc debtors Imerys Talc America Inc. and Cyprus Mines Corp. who say they have subrogation rights to the proceeds of the debtors’ $280 million settlement with other insurers was docketed in the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
September 19, 2025
Pipe Maker’s RICO Case Against Asbestos Counsel Reopened By Judge

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois reinstated a pipe maker’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO)case against counsel for asbestos plaintiffs, finding that proposed amendments could potentially cure defects that led to dismissal of the complaint.
September 19, 2025
Claimants Seek Rehearing In Georgia-Pacific Debtor’s Bankruptcy Dismissal Row

RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals directed Georgia-Pacific spinoff and debtor Bestwall LLC to respond to a petition for rehearing en banc in which the asbestos claimants’ committee in the Chapter 11 case argues that the court’s decision affirming denial of the committee’s bid to dismiss the case goes against U.S. Supreme Court precedent.
September 18, 2025
J&J Wants Causation Experts, Longo’s Testing Excluded From Coordinated Talc Cases

LOS ANGELES — Following a partial win on upcoming bellwether trials, Johnson & Johnson entities asked the Los Angeles judge overseeing coordinated asbestos-talc ovarian cancer proceedings to exclude the plaintiffs’ general causation experts and expert William Longo’s testing and opinions, saying the experts twist and misreport findings and are not reliable.