Mealey's Asbestos : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Asbestos

May 29, 2025
J&J Entity, Experts Debate Need For Study Identities, Asbestos-Talc Causation

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Discovery into whether there is asbestos in talc and if it causes mesothelioma is irrelevant to a trade libel case accusing experts of falsely identifying individuals with only talc-based exposures, a Johnson & Johnson entity argues in an opposition to a motion to compel filed in a federal court in Virginia. Meanwhile, the experts urged the court to block the company’s attempts at a “freewheeling investigation” into the study participants, saying coded production of only facts about the individuals sufficiently protects the participants’ privacy.
May 29, 2025
Asbestos Briefing Focuses On Boundaries Of Government Contractor Defense

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California heard arguments on an omnibus motion for summary judgment on government contractor immunity and other defenses asserted by five defendants in a maritime asbestos case and said she would take the matter under submission.
May 29, 2025
Asbestos Release Bars Later Bladder Cancer Claim, Maryland Court Says

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A release covering asbestos and other toxin-related claims and specifically listing diseases including cancer bars a subsequent lawsuit over a rail worker’s bladder cancer, the Maryland Appellate Court said in an unreported opinion affirming summary judgment for two defendants.
May 28, 2025
Asbestos Defendant Conceded Mesothelioma Diagnosis, Couple Says

OAKLAND, Calif. — A defendant’s counsel’s comments about genetics and causation of mesothelioma and kidney cancer during trial constitute a judicial admission that a man suffers from the disease and should be treated by the court as such, a couple prosecuting an asbestos case tells a judge in California in a May 27 trial brief.
May 27, 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.
May 27, 2025
Defendants Want 24 Fact Witnesses Stricken From Asbestos Case As Untimely

LOS ANGELES — Plaintiffs disclosed two dozen fact witnesses just days before the close of fact discovery, including at least two identified through advertisements, in violation of federal rules and a court order, defendants told a federal judge in California in asking that the court strike the witnesses.
May 27, 2025
COMMENTARY: A Fork In The Road To Justice In Pennsylvania

By Tracey McDevitt Hagan and Molly Reilly
May 23, 2025
Citing Differences, Judge Won’t Consolidate Siblings’ California Asbestos Cases

ALAMEDA, Calif. — A California judge declined to consolidate two siblings’ asbestos cases, concluding in a tentative order that trying a take-home asbestos case with the much longer and direct exposures in the second case posed too much of a risk of prejudice.
May 23, 2025
South Carolina Top Court Affirms Discovery Sanction, Receiver For Atlas Turner

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A wealth of evidence supports a trial court’s decision striking defendant Atlas Turner Inc.’s answer as a sanction for discovery abuses in an asbestos case, and the company’s “moral fraud” warranted appointing a receiver over its insurance assets, the South Carolina Supreme Court said in narrowing but otherwise affirming the rulings.
May 23, 2025
Louisiana Federal Judge Stays Claims Against Insurer In Asbestos Bodily Injury Suit

NEW ORLEANS — Claims alleged against an insurer in an asbestos bodily injury suit filed in Louisiana federal court will be stayed until a Massachusetts federal court resolves the issue of whether the insurer is responsible for policies issued to the executive officers of a shipyard where a decedent was exposed to asbestos because a stay of the claims will not prejudice the plaintiffs’ ability to seek coverage from the shipyard’s proper insurer, a Louisiana federal judge said in granting the insurer’s motion to stay.
May 22, 2025
California Judge Bars Kidney Cancer Claims In Mesothelioma Trial

OAKLAND, Calif. — A jury on May 21 heard opening arguments in a mesothelioma case after a California judge issued a tentative ruling barring a couple from pursuing claims related to a man’s kidney cancer but said if an expert opines on a possible genetic role in the disease the couple may inquire about any role asbestos could play.
May 22, 2025
Judge Says Law Firms In Talc Tort Contract Dispute Can Arbitrate Some Claims

JACKSON, Miss. — A federal judge in Alabama ordered two asbestos-talc personal injury law firms to arbitrate contract and fraudulent suppression claims in the wake of their agreement but said the court would retain jurisdiction over specific performance claims.
May 22, 2025
Montana Legislation Relocating Asbestos Claims Fails In Fiscal Committee

HELENA, Mont. — Montana legislation seeking creation of a three-judge government claims court that would have jurisdiction over constitutional and asbestos-related claims failed to pass the Senate Committee on Finance and Claims and failed.
May 21, 2025
J&J Affiliate’s New Evidence Not Material, Talc Study Author Says

TRENTON, N.J. — A motion filed by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff Pecos River Talc LLC in New Jersey federal court seeking to revive its dismissed trade libel and fraud action against the author of a scientific study should be rejected because the company’s new evidence is not material and will not change the disposition of the case, the study author argues in an opposition brief.
May 20, 2025
Panel Finds No Error In Lower Court’s Coverage Determinations In Asbestos Suit

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A trial court did not err in making coverage determinations based on two policies produced by a receiver who was appointed to manage asbestos bodily injury claims filed against an insured, because the insurer failed to submit any evidence to support its argument that some of the policies’ terms changed over the years and were not identical to the two policies produced by the receiver, the South Carolina Court of Appeals said.
May 20, 2025
Parties To Libby, Mont., Fraudulent Claim Verdict Brief Attorney Fee Award

MISSOULA, Mont. — Parties to Libby, Mont., fraudulent screening diagnosis case responded to a judge’s request for briefing on a pending motion for attorney fees in the wake of what the judge termed “significant developments” since the $1.4 million judgment against the medical provider for allegedly submitting fraudulent claims under a Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) program specifically designed for the asbestos-plagued town.
May 19, 2025
Government Contractor Immunity Win Can’t Secure Asbestos Case Remand, Judge Says

NEW ORLEANS — A ruling granting summary judgment on a shipyard’s government immunity defenses in an asbestos case does not eliminate federal jurisdiction or require remand of the case, a federal judge in Louisiana said in denying a man’s motion to remand.
May 19, 2025
Judge Reconsiders, Finds Asbestos Letter To EPA Meets Delaware Standard

WILMINGTON, Del. — A couple’s evidence that a man worked with a company’s automotive brakes approximately half the time he was on the job, combined with a regulatory letter the company sent detailing its ongoing use of asbestos-containing brakes, meet the causal nexus standard in Delaware, a state judge said in granting reconsideration of an order awarding the company summary judgment.
May 19, 2025
Florida Court Briefed On Jurisdiction Over J&J Entities

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A man and a trio of Johnson & Johnson entities recently resumed briefing in a case challenging whether companies created in the wake of attempts to resolve talc-related liabilities through bankruptcy can be subject to jurisdiction in Florida.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.