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Mealey's Asbestos

May 05, 2025
Louisiana Judge Excludes Testimony About Asbestos Expert’s Altercation

NEW ORLEANS — Weighing the potential prejudice against “very little probative effect,” a Louisiana judge said he would exclude deposition testimony about an asbestos expert’s altercation at a conference because there was very little connecting the fight to any aspect of the case.
May 01, 2025
Government Contractor Status Can’t Sheild Shipyard From Asbestos Suit, Judge Says

NEW ORLEANS — The family of a deceased man is entitled to summary judgment on a shipyard’s government contractor defenses because their allegations that it failed to properly warn about dangers in the workplace or take necessary safety precautions are unconnected to the shipyard’s performance under Navy contracts requiring the use of asbestos, a federal judge in Louisiana said.
May 01, 2025
Plaintiff Says J&J Falsely Portrayed Ruling On Expert Altercation Admission

PITTSBURGH — Contrary to Johnson & Johnson’s contention at a hearing, a judge did not recently admit evidence of an asbestos expert’s altercation during a trial, a plaintiff seeking a new trial told a Pennsylvania judge after a jury awarded her $22 million in punitive damages despite finding that the company’s products were not the cause of a man’s mesothelioma.
May 01, 2025
J&J Affiliate Says New Evidence Shows Fraud By Asbestos Talc Study Author

TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff Pecos River Talc LLC says in a motion filed in New Jersey federal court seeking to revive its dismissed trade libel and fraud action against the author of a scientific study that it now has ample evidence to prove that the study’s conclusion that the mesothelioma of each of the 33 participants had to be caused by their talc use is false.
May 01, 2025
J&J Entity Seeks Study Participants; Judge Won’t Reconsider Dismissal Ruling

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A federal judge on April 30 denied a motion for reconsideration of his ruling that a Johnson & Johnson entity adequately alleged that experts’ study linking mesothelioma to consumer talc disparaged the company and its products. In a separate development, Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Pecos River Talc LLC asked a federal judge to compel the three asbestos experts to produce the identities of 75 study participants who reportedly developed mesothelioma solely after exposure to consumer talc products, saying that the evidence is necessary to the prosecution of its injurious falsehood claim and that no privacy issue or law precludes identification.
April 30, 2025
Judge Sets Asbestos Shotgun Shell Case For Trial As 2nd Suit Settles

WILMINGTON, Del. — There will be no consolidated trial of two shotgun shell asbestos cases later this summer after the plaintiffs in one of the Delaware cases notified the court that the action settled. The judge recently set the second case for trial in July.
April 30, 2025
New York High Court Denies Appeal In Asbestos Subpoena, Instructions Case

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The New York Court of Appeals denied motion for leave to appeal in an asbestos case, turning away a challenge to a trial judge’s ruling quashing a subpoena seeking corporate testimony about events 50 years prior and a separate opinion affirming rejection of a jury instruction on an employer’s potential role as an intervening cause of a man’s mesothelioma.
April 28, 2025
Employer: Industrial Board Properly Accepted Mesothelioma Expert’s Opinion

WILMINGTON, Del. — The industrial board properly chose one expert’s opinions about the level of impairment a man suffering from mesothelioma experienced over another's in determining the award in a workers' compensation case, an employer told the Delaware Supreme Court in a response brief.
April 24, 2025
J&J Entity Wants Talc-Only Meso Study Participants Revealed

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Pecos River Talc LLC asked a federal judge to compel three asbestos experts to produce the identities of 75 study participants who reportedly developed mesothelioma solely after exposure to consumer talc products, saying the evidence is necessary to the prosecution of its injurious falsehood claim and that no privacy issue or law precludes identification.
April 23, 2025
Judge Adopts Report And Settlements, Dismisses Insurers In Asbestos Coverage Row

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A New York federal judge adopted a magistrate judge’s combined report and recommendation to settle estates’ claims with insurers and dismiss the claims against them in four similar suits filed by the estates of people who died purportedly from asbestos exposure, seeking payment of judgments entered against an asbestos mine, finding no error in the magistrate judge’s report and recommendation.
April 23, 2025
Parties Agree Asbestos Subpoena Appeal Moot, Lay Out Paths For Sanction Ruling

RICHMOND, Va. — A medical provider and an asbestos defendant in briefing agreed that dismissal of an asbestos case mooted the appeal of a ruling quashing a subpoena but offered the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeal different paths forward on the remaining issue of sanctions.
April 22, 2025
Court Seeks Response To Nonparty’s Sanction Request In Dismissed Asbestos Case

NEW YORK — Dismissal of an asbestos-talc action does not moot a request for attorney fees as a sanction for repeated subpoenas and litigation against a third party, a New York federal magistrate judge said in ordering asbestos-talc defendant American International Industries (AII) to respond to a hospital operator’s motion.
April 22, 2025
Talc Tort Funding Targets Must Respond To Subpoena, Magistrate Judge Says

JACKSON, Miss. — A federal magistrate judge in Alabama granted in a text-only order a motion for reconsideration of a stay of discovery in a dispute between asbestos-talc law firms and then issued a written order denying a motion for a protective order and said nonparty litigation funding sources must respond to subpoenas.
April 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.
April 18, 2025
Asbestos Tort Targets Ask Delaware Court To Enjoin Trust Document Destruction

WILMINGTON, Del. — A CertainTeed LLC affiliate and various Johnson & Johnson entities asked a Delaware judge to enjoin the destruction of asbestos bankruptcy trust documents they say are relevant to current and future cases. In the wake of the motion the Delaware Chancery Court on April 17 set a hearing on a motion to expedite consideration.
April 18, 2025
California Supreme Court Grants Motion To Dismiss Genetic Testing Petition

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Supreme Court on April 17 granted an unopposed motion to dismiss a petition for review contending that a trial court improperly evaluated a motion to conduct simple and potentially conclusive genetic testing in a mesothelioma sufferer’s asbestos case under the standard for admissibility when it should have done so under the standard for relevance.
April 18, 2025
Pipe Maker: ‘Insider’ Evidence Shows Asbestos Trust Fraud, Attorney Bounty Programs

CHICAGO — Newly revealed “insider” evidence of fraudulent claims, bounty programs, obstruction of justice and efforts at defrauding asbestos bankruptcy trusts warrants amending a judgment dismissing Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) claims against a law firm and attorneys, pipe manufacturer J-M Manufacturing Co. Inc. told a federal judge in Illinois.
April 18, 2025
Evidence, Expert Rulings Led To $18M Asbestos Verdict, Brake Machine Firm Says

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida circuit court judge’s improper admission of an unauthenticated video the plaintiff found online titled “Don’t Blow It” that included references to uncited studies and articles by actors and was hearsay, and other rulings involving experts, jury instructions and attempts to cure comments made during closing arguments led to an $18 million asbestos verdict, a brake grinding machine manufacturer tells the court in a motion for a new trial. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
April 18, 2025
Judge Dismisses Cosmetics Firm From Asbestos-Talc Suit, Won’t Sanction Plaintiff

NEW YORK — While ultimately unsuccessful, a woman’s attempt to link one company under the umbrella of others through evidence recently revealed in an asbestos bankruptcy gives at least some grounds for adding an otherwise untimely defendant, a New York justice said in granting one defendant’s motion to dismiss but denying sanctions.
April 17, 2025
Appeal Of Joint Compound Asbestos Suit Withdrawn After Parties’ Stipulation

NEW YORK — A New York appellate court withdrew an appeal challenging denial of summary judgment in a dispute over exposure to asbestos fibers in joint compound after the parties filed a stipulation with the court.
April 17, 2025
Beasley Allen Firm Says Stay Of Discovery Impedes Talc-Funding Case

JACKSON, Miss. — Staying discovery into relevant evidence of litigation funding threatens the completeness of an amended complaint that must be filed in less than a month, an asbestos-talc law firm says in a motion for reconsideration.
April 15, 2025
Settled Asbestos Defendant Blames Dilatory Resolution On Insurer’s Conduct Alone

NEW ORLEANS — An insurer misinterpreted and misrepresented the provisions of its own policy and the insurer’s actions delayed payment after a settlement in an asbestos case and it should not be rewarded for such bad faith conduct, an insured told a federal judge in Louisiana on April 14 in seeking to add a crossclaim for penalties and attorney fees.
April 15, 2025
Judge Won’t Exclude Latest EPA Asbestos Ban Attempt From Trial

OAKLAND, Calif. — The government’s most recent attempt at banning asbestos may be used to cross examine and impeach witnesses as it likely goes to the awareness of the dangers of asbestos, but an overturned 1989 rule may not be used as it would only serve to confuse the jury, a judge in California said in a tentative ruling.
April 15, 2025
Nonparty Hospital Operator Wants Rule 45 Sanction Ruling In Dismissed Asbestos Case

NEW YORK — An asbestos case’s dismissal with prejudice does not strip a federal court in New York of jurisdiction over a motion seeking attorney fees as a sanction for repeated subpoenas and litigation against a third party, a hospital operator tells the court in a motion for sanctions against a defendant company.
April 14, 2025
Attorneys General Urge Asbestos Trusts To Hold Off On Claim Document Destruction

Attorneys general from 15 states in an April 11 letter to 10 asbestos bankruptcy trusts express their concern that the trusts’ document retention policies would result in the destruction of data detailing compensation payments and other documents about past claims that could be discoverable and relevant to ongoing and future litigation.