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April 28, 2026
BUFFALO, N.Y. — A New York justice erred in placing the initial burden of proving jurisdiction in a case alleging exposure to a product during a six-month stint in the state on a plaintiff rather than the moving defendant, a New York appellate court said in reversing summary judgment.
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April 28, 2026
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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April 28, 2026
CHICAGO — A jury in Illinois returned a defense verdict for Merck & Co. Inc. in what sources told Mealey Publications is the first asbestos-talc case to go to verdict in which the defendant primarily argued that the mesothelioma in question was the result of an inherited genetic mutation.
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April 23, 2026
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — Routine law firm activities such as prosecuting personal injury cases and rewarding attorneys for successful outcomes cannot form the basis for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) claims, The Gori Law Firm and several individual defendants told a federal judge in Illinois in seeking to dismiss the suit against them.
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April 23, 2026
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A court’s dismissal of claims giving rise to federal jurisdiction is not the same as recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent where a plaintiff excised those claims, a federal judge said in retaining jurisdiction over state law claims alleging asbestos exposure at a nursing school.
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April 22, 2026
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A defense verdict in which an employer raised the workers’ compensation exclusivity defense stands after a Missouri appellate court on April 21 denied reconsideration of its ruling affirming the jury and declined a request to transfer the case to the state’s top court for the second time.
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April 22, 2026
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals entered its mandate after declining to rehear its reversal of an $8 million combined judgment for the estates of two mesothelioma victims and directing the trial court to enter judgment for the defendant railroad company, which hauled asbestos-tainted vermiculite from a mine in Libby, Mont.
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April 21, 2026
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court declined to consider whether its dose-requirement precedent applies to single-exposure asbestos cases, with a concurring justice calling the lower court’s approach “troubling” and saying that the court eventually would have to address the issue.
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April 21, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania judge denied a pair of posttrial motions in the wake of a $250,000 asbestos-talc verdict, rejecting plaintiffs’ arguments that the award was too small given the suffering involved and Johnson & Johnson entities’ argument that causation was never established, according to separate docket entries.
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April 17, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Oil companies’ well drilling activities in Louisiana during World War II sufficiently relate to government contracts involving the production of aviation gasoline and trigger federal jurisdiction under 2011 amendments to the federal officer removal statute, the U.S. Supreme Court said April 17.
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April 17, 2026
MILWAUKEE — A reasonable jury could conclude that Pabst Brewing Co. owned and controlled the premises and work where a pipefitter contractor suffered exposure to asbestos for liability under state law, but punitive damages are capped by the amount actually recovered and not the total amount awarded by the jury, a majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court said in partially affirming a verdict.
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April 15, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A cosmetics company settled an asbestos-talc suit after a California judge excluded its expert’s testimony about the role a BAP1 gene mutation can have in mesothelioma but allowed testimony regarding the potential role of a second mutation and held a formal hearing on the issue.
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April 10, 2026
CONCORD, N.H. — A reinsurer removed to New Hampshire federal court on diversity jurisdiction grounds an amended suit brought by an insurer that ceded risk and alleges the reinsurer failed to pay more than $1.1 million under facultative reinsurance certificates tied to decades of asbestos-related claims against a valve manufacturer.
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April 10, 2026
WILMINGTON, Del. — A woman asserting an asbestos personal injury claim against a defunct gasket company failed to prove that the company’s certificate of cancellation should be nullified due to an improper dissolution, a Delaware vice chancellor ruled.
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April 07, 2026
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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April 07, 2026
BISMARCK, N.D. — Registering to do business in North Dakota does not constitute consent to jurisdiction nor does participation in a previously dismissed asbestos case prior to trial require the conclusion that a company waived jurisdictional defenses, Union Carbide Corp. tells the North Dakota Supreme Court in a response brief.
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March 26, 2026
By Connor Sears
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April 06, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 6 agreed to decide what courts have jurisdiction over constitutional challenges to veterans’ benefits statutes — which are often in play in asbestos cases — after a man injured during a training exercise saw his 80% disability rating reduced to 10% based on a felony conviction.
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April 06, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A former Hollywood cameraman and a theatrical lighting company settled prior to the punitive damages phase of an asbestos trial after a California jury found that the company acted with malice and awarded more than $33 million in pain and suffering damages.
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April 06, 2026
NEW YORK — Dueling medical and industrial hygiene experts create genuine issues about whether a company’s talc could have contained asbestos levels sufficient to cause a man’s mesothelioma, a New York justice said in denying a motion for summary judgment.
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April 06, 2026
SPOKANE, Wash. — In the wake of a judge once again reinstating a decade-old intentional injury mesothelioma case against a former employer based on recent Washington Supreme Court precedent, the defendant filed an answer and the federal judge in Washington overseeing the case set a hearing on its status.
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April 03, 2026
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict was not required to preserve a challenge to a workers’ compensation exclusivity defense in an asbestos case, and the court’s reliance on precedent to reach a contrary conclusion warrants reconsideration or transfer to the Missouri Supreme Court, a woman whose case has already been to the state’s top court once argues.
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April 01, 2026
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Supreme Court on March 31 declined to take up a case challenging an appellate court’s conclusion that there was insufficient evidence for it to review an asbestos summary judgment ruling. The appellant had argued that the Ninth District Ohio Court of Appeals’ tactic of simply ignoring appellate issues has become a problem.
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April 01, 2026
AUSTIN, Texas — In a letter to the Texas Supreme Court, a family urges the justices to issue an opinion on the proper causation standard in asbestosis cases during the current term, noting that the parties completed merits briefing in January 2025, before any of the other cases on the court’s docket, and that prompt resolution would ensure that an aged man suffering from the disease can have his day in court.
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March 31, 2026
TRENTON, N.J. — A firm on the asbestos-talc multidistrict litigation steering committee and one of its attorneys asked a federal magistrate judge in New Jersey on March 30 to stay his ruling disqualifying them, arguing that they are likely to prevail on their appeal of a ruling nationalizing a state rule on professional conduct.