Mealey's Asbestos
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May 16, 2025
Supreme Court Sets Timeline For Decision On Federal Officer Removal Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court set May 29 for consideration of a petition by oil companies challenging a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling remanding cases involving claims that World War II oil operations departed from prudent industry practices and violated state law.
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May 15, 2025
Third-Party Hospital: Ignore Tactics In Asbestos Spat, Impose Sanctions
NEW YORK — Calling an asbestos defendant’s argument in briefing a “desperation tactic” that is both “immature and unprofessional,” a third-party hospital says in a reply brief that a New York federal court should impose sanctions for the undue burden and expense the defendant’s voluntary actions caused.
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May 15, 2025
Bankruptcy Judge Asks District Court To Decide If Asbestos Was In Debtor’s Talc
HOUSTON — A Texas federal district court should decide the threshold question of whether any of the talc sold by BMI Oldco Inc. actually contained asbestos, before the talc mining company’s Chapter 11 case can go any further, the U.S. bankruptcy judge overseeing the case said in a May 14 report and recommendation issued sua sponte.
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May 15, 2025
Office Workers: Evidence Of Intentional Injury Warrants Reinstating Asbestos Case
SAN DIEGO — Evidence that San Diego knew that a building under renovation contained asbestos, that testing showed unhealthy levels of the fiber in the air and that it kept workers in the building rather than break a $1 million lease at the very least creates triable issues on whether it intentionally injured workers and demonstrates the type of malice permitting punitive damages, a group of office workers tells a California appellate court in seeking reversal of a summary judgment order.
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May 14, 2025
J&J Wants Discovery Into Talc MDL Litigation Funding
TRENTON, N.J. — Recent developments show that something “untoward” is going on, Johnson & Johnson entities say in a notice seeking discovery and to compel production of litigation financing behind one of the primary firms involved in the federal talc multidistrict litigation in New Jersey federal court.
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May 13, 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.
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May 13, 2025
California Jury Returns Asbestos Verdict For Johnson & Johnson
LOS ANGELES — A California state court jury returned a verdict for Johnson & Johnson on claims that its baby powder caused a man’s mesothelioma, mooting a trial issue about how the verdict form should list potentially liable nonparty entities.
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May 13, 2025
COMMENTARY: Leveraging Affirmative Defenses In California Asbestos Cases After Watts v. Pneumo Abex, LLC
By Emily Cuatto, Curt Cutting and Arianna Lopez
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May 12, 2025
Brewery Liable For Mesothelioma Under Wisconsin Law, Woman Says
MILWAUKEE — Wisconsin law requires owners who control a premises to provide a safe place for workers that cannot be delegated or wiped away by a contractor’s negligence, a woman told the Wisconsin Supreme Court in defending a $26.5 million asbestos verdict.
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May 12, 2025
Louisiana Jury Returns $3M Verdict For Family Of Mesothelioma Sufferer
NEW ORLEANS — After a judge excluded evidence of an expert’s altercation at a conference as providing “very little probative effect,” a Louisiana jury returned a verdict of just over $3 million to the family of a woman who died of mesothelioma after using Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder during her life.
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May 09, 2025
Talc MDL Judge Won’t Admit Proposed FDA Asbestos-Talc Testing Rule
TRENTON, N.J. — The Food and Drug Administration’s proposed rule governing the measuring and identification of asbestos in talc does not constitute a change in policy or binding authority, the federal judge overseeing the talcum powder multidistrict litigation in New Jersey said in denying a motion to supplement the record or for judicial notice.
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May 09, 2025
Old Asbestos Trust Claim Bars Claim Of Surviving Son, Bankruptcy Judge Says
CINCINNATI — The son of a man who died from mesothelioma after receiving a payment in 2001 from an asbestos trust in settlement of a nonmalignancy claim cannot have a malignancy claim for his father’s mesothelioma reviewed by the trust because the father’s settlement released the trust from future liability and the son sought review too late, an Ohio federal bankruptcy judge ruled.
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May 08, 2025
Canadian Court Grants Asbestos Corp. Protection As It Attempts Restructuring
THETFORD MINES, Quebec — A Canadian court on May 7 granted an application to apply legal protections to Asbestos Corp. Ltd. as the company filed a Chapter 15 bankruptcy in U.S. court in the hopes of restructuring.
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May 07, 2025
Talc Manufacturer Not Subject To Jurisdiction In Indiana, Court Says
INDIANAPOLIS — A Missouri talc manufacturer’s shipping of products to an Indiana warehouse at the direction of another company does not create personal jurisdiction in the state, an appeals court in Indiana said in reversing a ruling denying a motion to dismiss in a mesothelioma case.
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May 07, 2025
Asbestos Corp. Seeks Canadian Law Protections As It Attempts Restructuring
THETFORD MINES, Quebec — Asbestos Corp. Ltd. and its parent company announced May 6 that they would ask a court for legal protection under Canadian law as they attempt to restructure.
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May 07, 2025
English Court Affirms Adverse Inference, Asbestos Causation Ruling
LONDON — An automobile garage’s failure to preserve evidence did not require an adverse inference forcing the trial court to simply accept the claimant’s positions, an English appellate court said while affirming a conclusion that asbestos exposures at the garage did not play a material role in a woman’s mesothelioma.
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May 06, 2025
Defendant: New Discovery Shows Moline’s Talc-Only Study Was False
NEW YORK — Recent revelations show the identities of participants in asbestos expert Jacqueline Moline’s study on causation were always relevant but were withheld in an effort to further a litigation scheme, and the court should deny a motion for sanctions and instead award costs and fees associated with attempts to obtain what is now clearly relevant and discoverable evidence, an asbestos-talc defendant told a federal judge in New York on May 5.
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May 06, 2025
Asbestos Plaintiffs Point To More Support For Killing Government Immunity Defense
NEW ORLEANS — Yet another judge recently determined that asbestos workplace safety and warning claims are not subject to government immunity defenses, a family tells a federal judge in Louisiana in a supplemental brief admitted by the court.
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May 06, 2025
Georgia Enacts Measure Changing Discovery, Damages In Injury, Death Actions
ATLANTA — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law a wide-ranging bill substantially amending how the state’s courts handle civil practice, discovery and tort liability in the state; the measure stays discovery when a party moves for dismissal prior to filing an answer, limits the ability of injured parties to argue at trial about the amount of noneconomic damages in bodily injury and wrongful death cases and limits the recovery of attorney fees.
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May 05, 2025
Family Can’t Secure New Trial In Rhode Island Asbestos Case
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — While the evidence could have supported a verdict in favor of a mesothelioma sufferer's family and there were some anomalies at trial, the plaintiffs largely failed to object, and the jury was not improperly influenced into finding for the a fiber supplier, a Rhode Island justice said in denying a new trial and judgment as a matter of law.
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May 05, 2025
Louisiana Judge Excludes Testimony About Asbestos Expert’s Altercation
NEW ORLEANS — Weighing the potential prejudice against “very little probative effect,” a Louisiana judge said he would exclude deposition testimony about an asbestos expert’s altercation at a conference because there was very little connecting the fight to any aspect of the case.
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May 01, 2025
Government Contractor Status Can’t Sheild Shipyard From Asbestos Suit, Judge Says
NEW ORLEANS — The family of a deceased man is entitled to summary judgment on a shipyard’s government contractor defenses because their allegations that it failed to properly warn about dangers in the workplace or take necessary safety precautions are unconnected to the shipyard’s performance under Navy contracts requiring the use of asbestos, a federal judge in Louisiana said.
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May 01, 2025
Plaintiff Says J&J Falsely Portrayed Ruling On Expert Altercation Admission
PITTSBURGH — Contrary to Johnson & Johnson’s contention at a hearing, a judge did not recently admit evidence of an asbestos expert’s altercation during a trial, a plaintiff seeking a new trial told a Pennsylvania judge after a jury awarded her $22 million in punitive damages despite finding that the company’s products were not the cause of a man’s mesothelioma.
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May 01, 2025
J&J Affiliate Says New Evidence Shows Fraud By Asbestos Talc Study Author
TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff Pecos River Talc LLC says in a motion filed in New Jersey federal court seeking to revive its dismissed trade libel and fraud action against the author of a scientific study that it now has ample evidence to prove that the study’s conclusion that the mesothelioma of each of the 33 participants had to be caused by their talc use is false.
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May 01, 2025
J&J Entity Seeks Study Participants; Judge Won’t Reconsider Dismissal Ruling
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A federal judge on April 30 denied a motion for reconsideration of his ruling that a Johnson & Johnson entity adequately alleged that experts’ study linking mesothelioma to consumer talc disparaged the company and its products. In a separate development, Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Pecos River Talc LLC asked a federal judge to compel the three asbestos experts to produce the identities of 75 study participants who reportedly developed mesothelioma solely after exposure to consumer talc products, saying that the evidence is necessary to the prosecution of its injurious falsehood claim and that no privacy issue or law precludes identification.