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June 25, 2026
ST. LOUIS — Plaintiffs in an asbestos-talc suit urged a Missouri judge not to revoke pro hac vice status for Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles PC attorneys, saying plaintiffs should not have their right to retain counsel of their choosing disturbed by a novel and untimely theory that the counsel coordinated with a former attorney for defendant Johnson & Johnson.
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June 25, 2026
HOUSTON — A Texas federal judge adopted a bankruptcy court’s recommendation that he determine the threshold issue of whether any talc sold by Chapter 11 debtor BMI Oldco Inc. “contained sufficient quantity and form of asbestos to potentially cause mesothelioma or other asbestos-related diseases” before the talc mining company’s bankruptcy case can proceed to the reorganization plan stage.
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June 24, 2026
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A Connecticut federal bankruptcy judge lifted the automatic stay in the case of asbestos debtor The Nash Engineering Co. so a declaratory judgment action filed by two of its umbrella insurers to determine the rights and obligations of the debtor and insurers with respect to asbestos claims can proceed.
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June 23, 2026
TRENTON, N.J. — The withdrawal of two experts from multidistrict asbestos-talc litigation leaves the plaintiffs unable to offer any expert testimony on causation, Johnson & Johnson entities tell a federal judge in New Jersey in an order to show cause why the entire proceeding should not be dismissed with prejudice.
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June 23, 2026
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota judge entered a $1.78 million judgment against store-brand talc manufacturer Vi-Jon LLC after a jury awarded a couple $10.2 million after the husband was diagnosed with mesothelioma in his forties after decades-long exposure to asbestos in consumer talc products.
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June 23, 2026
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A woman claiming exposure to asbestos while at nursing school received permission from the court to proceed in forma pauperis in her appeal of a ruling allowing attorneys she sued for malpractice to withdraw as her counsel in the case.
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June 23, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California jury awarded three adult children $32 million for their mother’s death from mesothelioma, rejecting last remaining defendant Johnson & Johnson’s arguments that asbestos in automotive parts, cosmetics or exposures while living in Mexico City were the more likely cause of the disease.
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June 19, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — A woman’s lawsuit alleging that the United States knowingly exposed her husband to asbestos in NASA buildings falls within exceptions to the Federal Tort Claims Act and must be dismissed, a federal judge in Louisiana said.
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June 18, 2026
HOUSTON — A Texas federal bankruptcy judge entered findings of fact, conclusions of law and an order confirming the prepackaged plan of reorganization for cosmetics ingredients producer Miyoshi America Inc. less than two months after the company filed its Chapter 11 petition and the plan, which establishes a $20 million trust to evaluate and pay asbestos personal injury claims.
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June 16, 2026
MIAMI — Johnson & Johnson and a man whose wife died of ovarian cancer after exposure to talc allegedly contaminated with asbestos settled during a retrial of the case, according to court records.
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June 09, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Louisiana dismissed with prejudice an asbestosis case that featured interplay with a secondary diagnosis of traction bronchiectasis and expert testimony on a “contaminated house” theory after the parties informed the court they had resolved the matter.
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June 08, 2026
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — An asbestos claimant and Georgia-Pacific spinoff Bestwall LLC filed a joint letter asking the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to cancel mediation for the claimant’s appeal of the denial of her request for relief from the automatic bankruptcy stay to pursue her asbestos claims against the debtor in state court.
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June 08, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A jury hearing the second bellwether trial in consolidated ovarian-cancer cases in a California court found for Johnson & Johnson on June 5, finding no negligence on the company’s part for ovarian cancer alleged to have been caused by consumer talc use.
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June 04, 2026
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Asbestos plaintiffs with claims filed outside the two-year window for filings against a dissolved company are not viable, and therefore, the plaintiffs lack the ability to attempt to pierce the corporate veil, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said in reversing a lower appellate court.
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June 03, 2026
HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut law allows an employer to offset workers’ compensation liabilities against the amount of damages recovered for a man’s mesothelioma, even where the recoveries involved nonoccupational exposures, the Connecticut Supreme Court said in affirming a decision in favor of the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
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June 02, 2026
ST. LOUIS — Johnson & Johnson entities asked a Missouri court to revoke the pro hac vice status of Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles P.C. attorneys as it considers posttrial motions after a jury in 2021 rejected a trio of women’s claims that they developed ovarian cancer after genital talc use. The case has already been stalled twice due to bankruptcy filings.
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June 01, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 1 denied a petition for certiorari filed by asbestos claimants seeking review of the “Texas Two-Step” Chapter 11 case of Georgia-Pacific spinoff Bestwall LLC, which the claimants say filed for bankruptcy despite having billions of dollars available to pay shareholder dividends.
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May 28, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A company with billions of dollars to pay shareholders dividends has no place filing for bankruptcy, the Official Committee of Asbestos Claimants in the Chapter 11 case of Georgia-Pacific spinoff Bestwall LLC tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a reply brief in support of its petition for a writ of certiorari seeking dismissal of the case on bad faith grounds.
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May 21, 2026
HOUSTON — A second round of mediation has begun in the Chapter 11 case of asbestos talc debtor BMI Oldco Inc. in an attempt to reach a global resolution on a consensual plan of reorganization after the company and its Special Committee told a Texas federal bankruptcy judge that negotiations had stalled and that “a judicial mediation to close the gap among the parties” was needed.
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May 13, 2026
By Mary Margaret Gay, Sarah Beth Jones and Tricia Richardson
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May 12, 2026
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — An asbestos claimant has appealed a North Carolina federal judge’s ruling denying her request for relief from the automatic stay in the Chapter 11 case of Georgia-Pacific spinoff Bestwall LLC, telling the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a May 11 docketing statement that the appeal involves a question of first impression.
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May 12, 2026
MIAMI — A judge in Florida revoked the pro hac vice status of attorneys from Beasley Allen Law Firm in a Florida asbestos-talc case that is headed back to a jury after the first trial ended in a hung jury after a day and a half of deliberations about Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) liability for a woman’s ovarian cancer.
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May 12, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California judge entered an amended judgment of $40,126,125.19 in the first of the state’s bellwether asbestos-talc ovarian cancer cases after rejecting posttrial challenges to the verdict based on alleged jury misconduct, instructional error and the court’s failure to exclude a plaintiffs’ law firm from the case.
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May 11, 2026
WILMINGTON, Del. — The Delaware Supreme Court will decide in the coming months whether asbestos bankruptcy trusts must face a suit challenging document retention policies after hearing oral arguments pitting a claim that repeat litigants cannot hope to secure unlimited document preservation from a third party against the claim that an equitable bill allows for such preservation in the unique asbestos litigation setting.
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May 08, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge granted partial summary judgment to a man who suffers from asbestos-related injuries in his suit against the shipyard where he worked, as well as multiple entities, including the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA), finding “no reason to diverge” from prior decisions in the same court precluding the shipyard from “raising a government contractor defense” as to failure-to-warn and asbestos spread claims.