Mealey's Personal Injury : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Personal Injury

September 16, 2025
Ladder Company Awarded Summary Judgment After Expert Deemed Inadmissible

ST. LOUIS — A ladder manufacturer secured a summary judgment award after a Missouri federal judge found that a man’s expert was unqualified to render an opinion on a manufacturing defect under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.
September 16, 2025
Oregon Jury Awards $33 Million In Shipyard Laborer’s Asbestos Gaskets Case

PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon jury awarded a former shipyard laborer $33 million after he developed mesothelioma from exposure to asbestos in John Crane Inc. gaskets and packing, attributing 30% of the liability to the company after finding that the conduct of four of 15 nonparties was also a substantial factor in causing the disease.
September 15, 2025
3M Removes AstroTurf PFAS Case Brought By Former Pro Baseball Players’ Widows

PHILADELPHIA — The 3M Co. on Sept. 12 removed to Pennsylvania federal court a lawsuit brought against it and other makers or suppliers of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) by former players and some widows of former players for the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team who allege that the companies are liable for wrongful death and other harm due to the presence of PFAS in the artificial turf that was used for the surface of the baseball field in Veterans Stadium, the team’s former home stadium. 3M argues that the federal officer removal statute applies because the alleged PFAS contamination is linked to its manufacture of the firefighting agent aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) for the U.S. military and says the players’ alleged injuries stem from the fact that they drank local water, which is tainted with AFFF.
September 12, 2025
Dental, Drywall Companies Hit With $29M Asbestos Verdict By California Jury

LOS ANGELES — A California jury on Sept. 11 awarded $29 million to a man with mesothelioma, finding that joint compound and dental supply companies were liable and that the dental supplier acted with malice.
September 12, 2025
Federal Trade Commission Opens Investigation Into Chatbot Safety

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the wake of lawsuits accusing artificial intelligence chatbots of improper conduct, including contributing to children’s deaths by suicide, the Federal Trade Commission announced Sept. 11 that it was launching an investigation into the measures seven artificial intelligence chatbot companies take to monitor how children and teens use the technology.
September 09, 2025
Wound Dressing Maker Removes Complaint Alleging Infection To N.C. Federal Court

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — The manufacturer of a wound and burn dressing that was the subject of a voluntary recall has removed to a federal court in North Carolina a complaint filed by woman who alleges that her foot became severely infected after using the product.
September 09, 2025
New York Attorney General, Landlords Reach $515,000 Settlement In Lead Case

BUFFALO, N.Y. — New York Attorney General Letitia James has reached a $515,000 settlement with landlords in Buffalo, N.Y., that funds lead hazard remediation and creates a relief fund for tenants poisoned by lead paint. The consent order and judgment was entered in New York state court.
September 09, 2025
N.Y. Jury Awards $12.25M In Environmental Asbestos Case Against Vanderbilt

CANTON, N.Y. — A New York jury awarded a woman more than $12 million for mesothelioma she developed after she was exposed to asbestos while living in the vicinity of Vanderbilt Minerals LLC’s talc mine, sources told Mealey Publications.
September 08, 2025
Tobacco Companies Say 2 Hawaii Smokers Can’t Seek Punitive Damages

Tobacco companies that are seeking dismissal of two personal injury lawsuits filed against them in Hawaii state courts by smokers with bladder cancer argue that the plaintiffs’ claims for punitive damages are barred by the doctrine of res judicata based on Hawaii’s entry into the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) with tobacco companies and that their other claims are not sufficiently alleged.
September 05, 2025
Dead Smoker’s Daughter Seeks Review After Tobacco Company Wins Appeal

BOSTON — The daughter of a dead smoker filed an application to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court for further appellate review (FAR) after the Massachusetts Appeals Court affirmed a trial court’s dismissal of her lawsuit against a tobacco company for causing the smoker’s lung cancer and death after smoking for more than 25 years, for which a jury awarded no damages.
September 03, 2025
Appeal In Smoker’s Death Dismissed After $9.3M Judgment Satisfied

A Florida appellate court dismissed an appeal filed by tobacco company R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (RJR) of a more than $9.3 million verdict against it for causing the death of a smoker from coronary artery disease (CAD) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) after the parties confirmed before the trial court that the full judgment has been satisfied.
September 03, 2025
California Panel Publishes Sophisticated User Ruling In Asbestos Pipe Case

LOS ANGELES — A California appellate court granted a request to publish a recent decision in which the court upheld a jury verdict finding a pipelayer qualified as a sophisticated user of asbestos-containing pipe and that the manufacturer was not negligent.
September 02, 2025
Judge Vacates New Graphic Warning Rule For Tobacco Products

BRUNSWICK, Ga. — A Georgia federal judge on Aug. 29 granted summary judgment in favor of a tobacco company and several retailers and vacated the Food and Drug Administration’s final rule requiring graphic warnings on all tobacco products pursuant to the Tobacco Control Act (TCA) after finding FDA’s “failure to disclose the raw data for its studies” violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
August 29, 2025
Putative Class Action Against Ankle Monitor Maker Filed In Colo. Federal Court

DENVER — A man who claims that he developed chronic pressure injuries as a result of wearing a court-ordered alcohol monitoring ankle bracelet sued the device manufacturer on Aug. 28 in a Colorado federal court and seeks to represent a nationwide class of individuals alleging similar injuries.
August 28, 2025
Parents Claim Intentional ChatGPT Design Choices Led To Son’s Suicide

SAN FRANCISCO — OpenAI entities intentionally designed ChatGPT to emotionally engage with users but without implementing sufficient safeguards, leading the AI to encourage a teenager to isolate from his family and commit suicide, his parents say in a California lawsuit alleging strict liability, negligence, wrongful death and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).
August 27, 2025
150 Plaintiffs Sue PFAS Makers Alleging Wrongful Death, Other Injuries From PFAS

CHARLESTON, S.C. — One hundred and fifty plaintiffs filed a joint short-form complaint in South Carolina federal court on Aug. 26, arguing that E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., 3M Co. and others are liable for a variety of injuries stemming from exposure to the firefighting agent known as aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), which contains per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
August 20, 2025
COMMENTARY: A Survey Of State Laws Regulating Third-Party Litigation Funding

By Mark A. Behrens and Christopher E. Appel
August 25, 2025
Machine Maker Secures Summary Judgment After Judge Says Experts Are Out

CHICAGO — Summary judgment for the manufacturer of a drain cleaning machine is appropriate in a case brought by a man who claims that a defect in the machine caused his injuries, an Illinois federal judge held Aug. 22 after finding that the testimony from two experts retained by the injured man is unreliable and irrelevant.
August 22, 2025
Panel: Ga. Trial Court Erred Allowing FELA Case To Proceed Without Expert Testimony

ATLANTA — A Georgia trial court erred in refusing to grant summary judgment to Norfolk Southern Railway Co. because its employee, who claims that strenuous work on the railroad caused his injuries, lacked expert testimony to prove medical causation, the state appeals court held in reversing.
August 22, 2025
Illinois Enacts Consent-To-Jurisdiction Law For Toxic Tort Suits

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Under legislation signed into law by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, foreign corporations registering to do business in the state will have consented to general jurisdiction in toxic tort suits.
August 21, 2025
No Contract Existed Between University And Student Who Died In COVID-19 Isolation

NEWARK, N.J. — Finding that the parents of a college sophomore who died from an epileptic seizure while in a university COVID-19 isolation dormitory failed to allege the existence of a valid contract between the student and the university, a New Jersey federal judge on Aug. 20 granted the university’s motion and dismissed with prejudice the parents’ lawsuit seeking damages for breach of contract.
August 20, 2025
Expert On Injuries Out, But Judge Says Dashcam Video Not Enough For Summary Judgment

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky federal judge denied a motion for summary judgment in a car accident case after finding that “genuine factual disputes exist regarding” whether a trucking company and its driver are responsible but ruled that an expert retained by a passenger cannot testify as to injuries because her opinions are speculative and unreliable.
August 18, 2025
Monsanto: $175M Glyphosate Award Broke With Precedent, Warranting Review

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Monsanto Co. has filed a petition for review in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court arguing that a lower court “broke with decades of precedent” when it affirmed a $175 million jury award to a couple in a glyphosate cancer lawsuit. Monsanto maintains that the lower court’s decision amounts to “fashioning a new legal standard under which the most coercive ex parte pressure to reach a verdict will never be found prejudicial.”
August 14, 2025
Expert Can Testify That Marijuana Use, Not Defective Helmet, Caused Brain Injuries

SHERMAN, Texas — A neuropsychologist who opines that a man’s cognitive and neurological impairments were, at least in part, caused by his use of marijuana and not solely the result of wearing an allegedly defectively designed motorcycle helmet during an accident can testify after a Texas federal judge rejected the man’s efforts to bar her testimony under Federal Rules of Evidence 702 and 403.
August 12, 2025
Depo-Provera MDL Judge Rejects Bid To Modify Common Benefits Guidelines

PENSACOLA, Fla. — A Florida federal judge denied a motion to modify an order, which established common benefit preliminary procedures and guidelines, filed by a law firm that represents one plaintiff in the Depo-Provera multidistrict litigation, a group of cases alleging that a long-lasting injectable contraceptive caused women to develop intracranial meningiomas, a type of brain tumor.