Mealey's Asbestos
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August 04, 2025
Wisconsin Sets Arguments In Premises Liability, Punitive Damages Asbestos Case
MILWAUKEE — The Wisconsin Supreme Court set Sept. 8 for oral arguments in a case involving a brewery’s liability for asbestos injuries suffered by an employee of a contractor and whether punitive damages should be based on the total award or only on the share assigned to the party at trial.
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August 01, 2025
3rd Circuit Affirms Class Certification In J&J Asbestos Stock Suit
PHILADELPHIA — A judge properly certified an asbestos talc securities class after finding that each of six disclosures about the safety of talc or the presence of asbestos in Johnson & Johnson talc led to a drop in the company’s stock price, a divided Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in a divided nonprecedential opinion affirming class certification.
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August 01, 2025
Contractor Prevails In Pulp Mill Asbestos Indemnity Suit
RALEIGH, N.C. — A federal judge in North Carolina entered judgment in favor of a contractor in its dispute over indemnity for asbestos claims stemming from the building of a pulp mill after the court granted summary judgment in a sealed ruling.
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July 30, 2025
Punitive Damages Nixed In Maritime Asbestos Case, With Leave To Amend
SAN FRANCISCO — Since a man’s alleged asbestos exposures occurred at least partly on vessels on navigable waters, his claims fall under maritime law, which does not recognize punitive damages, but he can amend his complaint to allege land-based exposures that would give rise to the damages, a federal judge in California said in granting a motion to dismiss.
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July 30, 2025
Massachusetts Jury Awards $42 Million In Asbestos Case Against Johnson & Johnson
BOSTON — A Massachusetts jury on July 29 found Johnson & Johnson negligent and that it breached the implied warranty of merchantability and awarded a couple $42,608,300 for the husband’s mesothelioma caused by exposure to asbestos in Johnson & Johnson consumer talc in what sources said is believed to be the largest asbestos verdict in state history.
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July 30, 2025
Divided New York Court Finds Asbestos Causation Evidence Supports $3.3M Verdict
BUFFALO, N.Y. — A divided New York appellate court said expert testimony that chrysotile asbestos causes mesothelioma is sufficient and affirmed a $3.3 million friction products asbestos verdict in the face of specific and general causation challenges by Ford Motor Co.
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July 29, 2025
Delaware Jury Awards $9 Million In Asbestos Shotgun Shell Case
WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware jury awarded $9 million to a farmer’s estate and family in what is believed to be the first asbestos-related shotgun shell mesothelioma case to go to a verdict.
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July 29, 2025
California Panel Affirms Verdict, Rulings In Asbestos Pipe Case
LOS ANGELES — A pipelayer has not met the “extremely high” burden required to overturn a jury verdict that found he qualified as a sophisticated user, that a pipe manufacturer was not negligent and that the trial court’s nonsuit on a fraudulent concealment claim was incorrect, a California appeals court said in an unpublished opinion.
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July 28, 2025
Judge: Exposure, Causation Evidence Passes Muster In Hawaii Maritime Asbestos Case
HONOLULU — A man’s testimony and expert opinions about the extent and scope of his work as a boilermaker at Pearl Harbor Navy Shipyard sufficiently establish exposure at levels sufficient to have caused his lung cancer, and the manufacturers owed the man a duty for third-party parts, a federal judge in Hawaii said in granting a series of motions in part.
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July 28, 2025
Johnson & Johnson, Couple Battle Over Genetic Testing In Mesothelioma Case
CHICAGO — A couple’s brief opposing a motion for genetic testing in a mesothelioma case as unfounded and unnecessary is “replete with mischaracterizations and fails to address the heart of the issue,” Johnson & Johnson told an Illinois judge in a reply brief in support of its motion for such testing.
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July 24, 2025
5th Circuit: Enclave Doctrine Bars Asbestos-Based Military Housing Claims
NEW ORLEANS — A magistrate judge properly concluded that the federal enclave doctrine barred a host of claims in a dispute over asbestos and other contamination of military housing and that claims under Texas consumer protection law did not fall within an exception, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said affirming a summary judgment ruling in a recently published opinion.
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July 23, 2025
Judge Awards $98,280 In Attorney Fees For Asbestos Screening Appeal
MISSOULA, Mont. — BNSF Railway Co. is entitled to $98,280 in attorney fees on appeal after prevailing in its case alleging that a medical screening company submitted false claims to a Medicare program for Libby, Mont., residents diagnosed with asbestos-related disease, a Montana federal judge ruled.
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July 22, 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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July 22, 2025
Asbestos Verdicts & Settlements: January 2024 – December 2024
Every year, Mealey’s Litigation Report: Asbestos compiles, analyzes and reports on verdict information appearing in the report from the previous calendar year. The following report contains that information.
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July 22, 2025
California Jury Returns Asbestos Verdict For Auto Parts Companies
LOS ANGELES — A California jury returned a defense verdict for three automobile parts defendants in an asbestos case, finding that a man’s exposure was not a substantial factor in his lung cancer.
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July 22, 2025
Asbestos Defendant Wants Sanctions For Late Disclosure Of Talc Bottle
SEATTLE — American International Industries told a Washington State judge that the problems created by the failure to disclose a bottle of talc before testing are not cured by withdrawing the evidence and resulting opinion and that evidentiary and monetary sanctions are required.
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July 22, 2025
Talc Testing, Evidence Rulings At Heart Of $63.4M Verdict Appeal
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A trial court gave plaintiffs in an asbestos-talc suit an “uneven playing field” by allowing them to introduce expert causation testimony for the first time at opening statements and then slowly narrowing the available defenses, Johnson & Johnson entities tell the South Carolina Court of Appeals in challenging a $63.4 million verdict.
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July 21, 2025
Judge Allows Beasley Allen’s Participation In Consumer Talc MDL
TRENTON, N.J. — The Beasley Allen Law Firm may participate in the asbestos-talc multidistrict litigation over the objections of Johnson & Johnson entities, a New Jersey federal judge overseeing the MDL said during a hearing while turning away arguments that the firm had an improper relationship with one of the company’s former attorneys.
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July 18, 2025
W.R. Grace Trust, Asbestos Suit Parties Resolve Tort Actions
MISSOULA, Mont. — A federal judge in Montana granted motions to voluntarily dismiss two tort cases by Libby, Mont., residents who sued the WRG Asbestos Personal Injury Trust after failing to meet the requirements for a claim.
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July 18, 2025
Judge Grants Dismissal Of Action Alleging ‘Egregious’ Talc Witness Contact
LOS ANGELES — A California judge granted a company’s request for dismissal without prejudice of its action claiming an asbestos plaintiff-side law firm violated legal rules by improperly contacting, and taking a statement from, a corporate witness without the knowledge or consent of his counsel.
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July 17, 2025
Parties Wrap Briefing In J&J Talc Asset Transfer Case
TRENTON, N.J. — Plaintiffs allege that various transfers and attempts at bankruptcy moved Johnson & Johnson assets around but never assert that the moves left insufficient funds to pay asbestos-talc claims, Johnson & Johnson entities tell a federal judge in New Jersey in a reply to a motion to dismiss rebutting plaintiffs’ argument that they have standing to pursue their claims.
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July 16, 2025
Magistrate Judge: Admission By J&J Spinoff That Talc Contains Asbestos Not Needed
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A Virginia federal magistrate judge has determined that plaintiff-side experts whose scientific study shows a connection between talc use and asbestos disease cannot conduct discovery in a trade libel suit filed against them by Johnson & Johnson spinoff Pecos River Talc LLC to determine whether the company knew that repeated exposure to cosmetic talc can cause mesothelioma.
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July 16, 2025
Connecticut Court Rejects Jurisdiction Over Canadian Firm In Asbestos Talc Case
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A Connecticut judge dismissed asbestos-related claims against Canadian company Asbestos Corp. Ltd. (ACL), ruling that the court lacks jurisdiction due to insufficient evidence linking the company’s activities to the state.
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July 16, 2025
4th Circuit Dismisses Asbestos Subpoena Appeal; Sanction Issue For Trial Court
RICHMOND, Va. — An appeal of a ruling finding that a third-party subpoena imposed an undue burden on a medical provider was mooted by dismissal of the underlying asbestos case, and while the parties still disagree about the appropriateness of the resulting sanctions, that issue is not before the court, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in a mandate dismissing the appeal.
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July 15, 2025
Judge Won’t Revisit Asbestos Rulings; Parties Can Brief Yearsley
SHREVEPORT, La. — A federal judge in Louisiana declined to reconsider two rulings denying summary judgment in nuclear weapons specialist’s asbestos case but said unresolved issues can be addressed in future briefing on immunity under Yearsley v. W.A. Ross Const. Co., 309 U.S. 18, 20 (1940).