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Mealey's Asbestos

  • February 21, 2025

    Ohio Enacts Bill Targeting Over-Naming In Asbestos Suits

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — Individuals wishing to pursue asbestos tort claims in Ohio will have 60 days from the filing of a suit to provide a sworn statement detailing the grounds for each claim and defendant under legislation recently enacted in the state.

  • February 21, 2025

    Asbestos Doctors Seek Reconsideration Of LLT’s Sole Claim Surviving Dismissal

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Three asbestos experts asked a federal judge to reconsider his conclusion that a paper they published on asbestos-talc causation was about Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder product after the judge dismissed two of the three claims saying timeliness and evidence issues doomed two of the three claims and left only the claim alleging product disparagement.

  • February 19, 2025

    J&J Subsidiaries Dispute Asbestos-Talc Liability In Connecticut Court

    BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Companies created in the wake of Johnson & Johnson’s attempts to get out from under asbestos-talc litigation tell a Connecticut judge in a Feb. 18 reply that they didn’t inherit any of those liabilities and cannot be held liable under applicable Texas law.

  • February 19, 2025

    Oil Companies Seek Review Of Ruling Remanding WWII Improper Drilling Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals contradicted precedent created in asbestos cases and erred in imposing a “crabbed view” of federal officer removal that requires a causal nexus or contractual root to the conduct in question, oil companies accused of improper drilling during World War II tell the U.S. Supreme Court in a petition for certiorari.

  • February 19, 2025

    Judge Dismisses 2 Of 3 Claims In Suit Against Asbestos Experts

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Timeliness and evidence issues doom two of the three claims a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary brings against a trio of asbestos experts who authored a report linking talc to mesothelioma, leaving only a product disparagement claim based on the conclusion that a published study targeted the company’s talcum powder without naming it and that the attention the study received likely caused lower sales and higher litigation costs, a federal judge in Virginia said in partially dismissing the action.

  • February 14, 2025

    Judge: Imprecise Product ID Enough To Keep Asbestos Drilling Mud Claims Alive

    BATON ROUGE, La. — While understandably imprecise, a man’s recollection about the drilling mud products he used 40 years ago allows one to infer that he used a defendant’s product, and compliance with federal regulations does not preclude a failure-to-warn claim, a federal judge in Louisiana said in partially denying summary judgment to the defendant company.

  • February 14, 2025

    Parties Oppose EPA’s Sought-After Stay Of Asbestos Ban Rule Challenges

    NEW ORLEANS — The Environmental Protection Agency asked the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to stay a challenge to an asbestos ban so that it can comply with an executive order requiring review of all rules issued in the past four years.  But in a Feb. 13 opposition, an asbestos disease support group and a workers’ group told the court that the case is developed enough that it can proceed toward oral argument while the review occurs and without delay to a case requiring a quick resolution.

  • February 14, 2025

    Man Defends Denial Of Fees In Asbestos Case He Wants Dismissed

    NEW YORK — As asbestos disease plaintiff said Feb. 13 that a magistrate judge properly recommended denying attorney fees and costs to a defendant company that he hopes to dismiss with prejudice because the company lumped both together in its request and failed to support either.

  • February 14, 2025

    CertainTeed Debtor Says Denial Of Stay Relief Should Be Upheld By 4th Circuit

    RICHMOND, Va. —The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should affirm a bankruptcy court’s decision not to lift the automatic stay so asbestos claimants could proceed with their state court lawsuits against CertainTeed spinoff DBMP LLC because “the Bankruptcy Court did not abuse its discretion” in rejecting the claimants’ argument that DBMP’s Chapter 11 case was filed in bad faith, the debtor says in a response brief.

  • February 13, 2025

    Brewery: No Liability For Asbestos-Related Injuries Of Contractor’s Employee

    MILWAUKEE — A premises owner is generally not liable for asbestos-related injuries suffered by an employee of an independent contractor under state law, a brewery told the Wisconsin Supreme Court in urging it to either vacate a judgment after a verdict in excess of $26.5 million or, at the very least, reduce punitive damages to comply with state law.

  • February 12, 2025

    California Judge Limits Testing In Mesothelioma Case To BAP1 Gene

    OAKLAND, Calif. — An asbestos defendant may perform genetic testing in an asbestos case, but because expert testimony suggests that science has shown that only a BAP1 mutation can independently cause mesothelioma, the testing will be limited to that single issue, a judge in California said in partially granting a motion to compel production of a sample for testing.

  • February 11, 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.

  • February 07, 2025

    Justice Won’t Sanction Plaintiff For Bringing Failed Asbestos-Talc Claims

    NEW YORK — While a man’s asbestos-talc claim ultimately fails, a recent bankruptcy that he claimed revealed connections between a defendant and the conduct in question was sufficient grounds to file the suit, a New York justice said in dismissing a complaint but declining to issue sanctions.

  • February 07, 2025

    Conflicting Experts Leave Company Stuck In HVAC Asbestos Lung Cancer Suit

    NEW YORK — The presence of conflicting expert opinions about both asbestos exposure and causation in a man’s lung cancer case leaves sufficient issues of fact to deny summary judgment, a New York justice said.

  • February 05, 2025

    Judge Partially Grants Motion To Reopen Discovery In Asbestos Case

    OAKLAND, Calif. — Providing time limits for expert depositions and saying that there does not appear to be any resulting prejudice, a judge granted a motion to reopen discovery in a California asbestos case.

  • February 05, 2025

    Asbestos-Containing Pipe Maker Seeks To Escape Spoliation Jury Instruction

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A plaintiff and an asbestos-containing pipe defendant briefed a motion for reconsideration of a summary judgment ruling in Delaware court, with the plaintiff saying the company born “under the spectre of asbestos” cannot rely on “institutional ignorance” to explain away document destruction while the company told the court that the evidence destruction was inadvertent but that an adverse jury instruction issued in response would destroy any chance at a fair trial.

  • February 04, 2025

    New York Justice Won’t Reconsider Summary Judgment After Recent Asbestos Precedent

    NEW YORK — An asbestos-talc company points to nothing in recent appellate court opinions that warrants reconsidering a ruling denying it summary judgment nor does it explain why it is only now producing experts in support, a New York justice said in denying a motion to renew a summary judgment motion.

  • February 04, 2025

    Judge Finds Diligence Lacking After Asbestos Plaintiff’s Late Document Filing

    SEATTLE — Clerical errors and technology problems do not explain away misfiled documents in an asbestos case and the fact that it took three weeks to realize the error suggests a lack of diligence, a federal judge in Washington said Feb. 3 in denying a motion from relief from expert deadlines.

  • February 03, 2025

    Dismissal With Prejudice Warrants Award Of Costs, Asbestos-Talc Defendant Says

    NEW YORK — Voluntary dismissal with prejudice is “tantamount” to a judgment on the merits and warrants an award of costs or an explanation why such costs are not appropriate, a talc defendant told a federal judge in New York in a limited objection to a magistrate judge’s recommendation that the asbestos case be dismissed.

  • January 31, 2025

    Burned Building Owner May Not Conduct Presuit Depositions,10th Circuit Says

    DENVER — The owner of a building that was destroyed in a fire was properly denied a petition to depose employees of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), which rented the building from him, before filing a complaint, a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, finding that the petitioner did not satisfy the narrow criteria for presuit discovery under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 27.

  • January 31, 2025

    Vanderbilt Minerals Withdraws Appeal Of ‘Battle Of The Experts’ Talc Ruling

    NEW YORK — A New York appellate court granted a motion by asbestos-talc defendant Vanderbilt Minerals LLC to withdraw its appeal of a ruling in which a justice concluded that the “battle of the experts” in the case created issues about whether cleavage fragments found in a second company’s putty were naturally occurring in talc or were asbestos.

  • January 31, 2025

    Auto Dealership Asbestos Case Belongs In New York, Court Affirms

    NEW YORK — A New York appellate court found that state rules and due process support a justice’s conclusion that an asbestos case alleging exposure during visits to various automobile dealerships in Florida and New York can be litigated in the latter jurisdiction.

  • January 30, 2025

    Asbestos Plaintiff Facing New Trial Wants Consolidation With Wrongful Death Case

    LOS ANGELES — Plaintiffs in an ongoing personal injury asbestos action set for retrial after a “fatally inconsistent” verdict and a related wrongful death case told a California court that the two actions should be consolidated because they share the identical alleged exposures, causes of action and defenses.

  • January 29, 2025

    Court: Questions Exist Over Whether Workers’ Comp Bars Minnesota Asbestos Suit

    ST. PAUL, Minn. — Because sufficient questions remain about the connection between a man’s mesothelioma and his employment the state’s workers’ compensation exclusivity provision does not bar a man’s action, a Minnesota appeals court held in an unpublished opinion affirming a district court on different grounds.

  • January 28, 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.