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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.
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March 31, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — After a judge continued an upcoming trial, a family filed a second motion for remand of their asbestos case, saying with the federal defenses removed from the case and only complex causation and virile share issues remaining, the chosen state court forum is the best place for the litigation.
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March 31, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge lifted a ruling staying the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization’s (ADAO) action seeking information on remediation steps taken during the White House East Wing demolition and scheduled briefing on motions for summary judgment after the group complained a stay would leave the case in limbo.
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March 27, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — A shipyard opposed the addition of pre- and postjudgment interest on a $6,625,000 asbestos verdict after previously arguing that it was prejudiced by comments made during the trial and that the plaintiff never established negligence.
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March 24, 2026
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A duty exists under Kentucky negligence and product liability law to prevent foreseeable household exposures to asbestos that are “regular and repeated,” the Kentucky Supreme Court said in affirming a ruling reversing summary judgment for two defendants in an asbestos case and in finding that a summer job didn’t trigger workers’ compensation system exclusivity.
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March 24, 2026
LOS ANGELES — Johnson & Johnson (J&J), which is seeking to overturn a $40 million asbestos-talc verdict, asked a California court to revoke pro hac vicestatus of Beasley Allen Law Firm attorneys in coordinated litigation, saying they improperly associated with an attorney who previously worked with J&J. Meanwhile, two bellwether plaintiffs and J&J filed post-trial briefing over whether faulty instructions and juror misconduct produced the verdict and whether one of the plaintiff’s claims was untimely and should never have gone to trial.
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March 24, 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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March 24, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge ordered intervening insurers in an asbestos exposure liability suit to file an amended complaint to properly establish subject matter jurisdiction over claims related to coverage for the owners of the vessels named in an underlying asbestos bodily injury suit.
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March 24, 2026
LOS ANGELES — Parties to California’s coordinated asbestos-talc ovarian cancer litigation filed a joint report on the second wave of bellwether cases, with Johnson & Johnson entities urging the court to continue with existing and agreed-to rules for selecting the next trials while plaintiffs argue that living plaintiffs should be given priority. Meanwhile, the Johnson & Johnson entities said during a hearing that expert Jennifer Permuth would not be called during the second set of cases.
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March 19, 2026
By Scott M. Seaman, Pedro E. Hernandez and Peter J. Lewis
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March 23, 2026
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — It would not serve the interests of justice to allow Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles PC to continue participating in the coordinated asbestos-talc litigation after having been disqualified for collaborating with a former Johnson & Johnson attorney who worked on the same litigation, a New Jersey appellate court said in denying a stay of the ruling pending appeal to the state’s top court.