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Mealey's Asbestos

  • November 25, 2025

    Justice Says Hospital Must Produce Evidence About Meso-Talc Study

    NEW YORK — Northwell Health Inc. must produce all the information it has about two studies performed by expert Jacqueline Moline investigating mesothelioma sufferers whose only known exposure to asbestos was allegedly through talc, a New York justice said in granting a motion to compel.

  • November 25, 2025

    3rd Circuit: Investors Didn’t Plausibly Allege Misstatements In Stock-Drop Suit

    PHILADELPHIA — A Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of investors’ class action complaint against a health care company and two of its executives for allegedly issuing misleading statements that caused the company’s stock to drop, finding the investors failed to plausibly allege that the challenged statements were materially misleading by omission.

  • November 25, 2025

    Judge Defers New Trial, Interest Rulings After Asbestos Shotgun Shell Verdict

    WILMINGTON, Del. — The Delaware judge overseeing a shotgun shell asbestos case that resulted in a $9 million verdict took under advisement a motion for new trial and a motion to alter judgment to include prejudgment interest and placed four similar cases into the trial schedule for late 2026.

  • November 25, 2025

    Delaware Judge Moves Asbestos Shotgun Shell Trials Into Late 2026

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware judge moved four shotgun shell asbestos cases set for trial in February 2026 to later in the year after the parties said it would be beneficial to delay the cases pending a ruling on new trial and any possible appeal in a similar case that produced a $9 million verdict.

  • November 24, 2025

    Company Challenges Service On Motion To Reinstate Meso Employment Injury Case

    SPOKANE, Wash. — A plaintiff mistakenly served the wrong entity with a motion to vacate a decade-old judgment in a worker’s deliberate injury mesothelioma case, leaving the proper defendants without any chance to oppose the motion, the successor to Alcoa Inc. told a federal judge in Washington on Nov. 21 in seeking to have the ruling reinstating the case stricken and the motion refiled.

  • November 24, 2025

    Company Points To More Evidence Supporting Mesothelioma-Talc Subpoena

    NEW YORK — A fourth ruling confirms that a subpoena properly targeted information about a study of individuals who developed mesothelioma and whose only known exposure to asbestos was through talc, a company told a federal judge in New York in opposing a sanctions.

  • November 20, 2025

    Judge Won’t Stay Remand Of Asbestos Case While GE Appeals

    LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A federal judge in Kentucky declined to stay remand of an asbestos case while a defendant appeals a decision sending the case back to state court, saying the company is unlikely to prevail on its argument that it is entitled to federal officer removal where the plaintiff disclaimed such liability and that delay serves to harm the plaintiff.

  • November 19, 2025

    Delaware Court Stays Case During Asbestos Bankruptcy Document Appeal

    WILMINGTON, Del. — The Delaware Chancery Court granted a stipulated stay on Nov. 18 after certifying an interlocutory appeal of its ruling allowing asbestos litigants to proceed on their case seeking to enjoin asbestos bankruptcy trusts from destroying claims documents.

  • November 18, 2025

    J-MM Revives RICO Claims Against Asbestos Litigation Firm

    CHICAGO — In a newly refiled complaint, J-M Manufacturing Co. Inc. (J-MM) claims that the Simmons Hanley Conroy and Sokolove law firm and its partners and lawyers operate a complex nationwide scheme that funnels asbestos cases to the firm, which then crafts a narrative on which its clients can rely.

  • November 18, 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.

  • November 18, 2025

    Louisiana: Companies’ Crude Oil Conduct Not Tied To Federal Refining Contracts

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Oil companies’ drilling for crude oil in Louisiana falls outside World War II-era oil refining authorized by the federal government and therefore does not create federal jurisdiction under the amended federal officer removal statute, the state and various local governments told the U.S. Supreme Court in a pair of respondent’s briefs in a case with close ties to asbestos litigation.

  • November 14, 2025

    J&J Asks Court To Delay Judgment After $966M Asbestos-Talc Verdict

    LOS ANGELES — Johnson & Johnson defended its request that a California court not enter judgment on an asbestos verdict that included $950 million in punitive damages, arguing that it would be unfair to make what it calls a clearly unconstitutional award enforceable.

  • November 14, 2025

    Couple Can’t Link Truck Maker To Asbestos, Judge Says

    BOSTON — A couple at best shows that a man installed asbestos-containing gaskets during his career as a mechanic, but not that the work would have led to asbestos exposure, a federal judge in Massachusetts said in granting Mack Trucks Inc. summary judgment.

  • November 13, 2025

    Split Summary Judgment Issued In Indemnification Dispute Over Asbestos Cases

    MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Tennessee federal judge issued a split summary judgment order in an indemnity dispute centered on the continuity of insurance and reinsurance agreements executed between 1983 and 1995, denying a paper manufacturer’s request for declaratory relief, allowing its breach of contract claim against an insurer to proceed and granting summary judgment in favor of the manufacturer on the insurer’s two counterclaims.

  • November 12, 2025

    Judge Rebuffs Bid For Declaratory Relief Involving Asbestos Case Removal

    NEW ORLEANS — Because a mesothelioma sufferer’s declaratory relief action seeking to bar removal under the government contractor or derivative immunity doctrines would not completely resolve any disputes, a federal judge in Louisiana dismissed the suit.

  • November 12, 2025

    J&J Entity, Medical Group Debate Motion To Compel In Asbestos-Talc Study Case

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York will decide whether a subpoena to a health care provider seeks relevant information about the authors of an asbestos-talc study or is simply “a huge net” hoping to find something among millions of emails and other documents after briefing on a motion to compel ended with a Johnson & Johnson spinoff’s reply in support of the motion.

  • November 11, 2025

    Judge Nixes Intentional Tort, But Not Neighborhood Exposure, Asbestos Claims

    NEW ORLEANS — Evidence that a man played on family property that testing showed contained asbestos suffices to deny summary judgment on that potential cause of his mesothelioma, but there is insufficient evidence that a shipyard knew that the asbestos-related dangers at its facility would cause his disease to allow that claim to proceed, a federal judge in Louisiana said in a pair of Nov. 10 rulings.

  • November 10, 2025

    General Electric Defends Stay During Appeal Of Asbestos Remand Ruling

    LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Federal officer removal is designed to prevent government-led companies from having to litigate in state court, and a stay while the company appeals a remand ruling in an asbestos case is entirely consistent with congressional intent, General Electric Co. tells a federal judge in Kentucky.

  • November 10, 2025

    Vanderbilt Must Face Asbestos-Talc Glaze Case, California Judge Says

    LOS ANGELES — Neither evidence that a glazing product didn’t contain a company’s talc during certain periods nor the lack of evidence of shipments of the company’s talc to the San Jose, Calif., facility shifts a company’s burden in a mesothelioma case, a California judge said in denying summary judgment and adjudication on Nov. 7.

  • November 07, 2025

    Judge Reinstates Decade-Old Meso Case After Employer Injury Standard Change

    SPOKANE, Wash. — A federal judge in Washington reinstated a mesothelioma case after nearly a decade, saying the Washington Supreme Court’s recent conclusion that plaintiffs can meet the deliberate injury standard by showing the employer knew an injury was “virtually certain” to occur justified reopening the case.

  • November 07, 2025

    Insured Appeals $348,000 Award In Asbestos Indemnity Coverage Case

    NEW ORLEANS — An insurance company filed a notice indicating that it would appeal a decision finding it liable for the defense of an asbestos suit in a case in which a federal judge in Louisiana awarded $348,000 for breach of contract but finding that its arguments were not frivolous.

  • November 05, 2025

    Expert Opposes Sanction For Asbestos-Talc Study Email Destruction

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — There was no way to know that defendants would want an expert’s emails about a study, more than three years before the filing of a trade libel case, and even if the originals were deleted, Pecos River Talc LLC never investigated whether it could obtain the evidence through other means, an asbestos-talc expert tells a federal judge in Virginia in opposing sanctions for evidence spoliation.

  • November 04, 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.

  • November 04, 2025

    Special Master: Hospital Must Comply With Subpoena On Mesothelioma-Talc Study

    NEW YORK — A medical provider already ordered to comply with a subpoena seeking information related to the identities of individuals in expert Jacqueline Moline’s mesothelioma-talc studies cannot avoid compliance with an identical subpoena in a different case, a special master in New York said in recommending that the court grant a motion to compel.

  • November 04, 2025

    Judge Awards Insured $348,000 In Asbestos Indemnity Coverage Case

    NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Louisiana, declining to reconsider his decision holding an insurer liable for defense costs in an asbestos case, said he would award $348,000 for breach of contract but rejected arguments that the insurer’s conduct constituted bad faith or misrepresentations about the policy.