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Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy

  • March 11, 2025

    Montana Senate Considers Relocating Asbestos Claims To New Court

    HELENA, Mont. — Legislation in the Montana Senate seeking creation of a three-judge government claims court that would have jurisdiction over constitutional and asbestos-related claims was passed on a second read after moving out of the Judiciary Committee.

  • March 10, 2025

    Talc Law Firm’s Action Belongs With First-Filed Case, Federal Judge Says

    JACKSON, Miss. — A federal judge in Mississippi said the advantages inherent in avoiding overlapping discovery and different rulings in different courts warranted transferring one law firm’s suit targeting a second law firm over asbestos-talc negotiations with Johnson & Johnson.

  • March 10, 2025

    Company Defends Claim As Parties Set Discovery Rules In Asbestos Expert Dispute

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A Johnson & Johnson subsidiary opposed reconsideration of a ruling allowing a single claim to proceed against three experts it accuses in a lawsuit of disparagement and false advertising based on their article linking mesothelioma to exposure to talc, while the parties asked a federal judge in Virginia to permit bifurcated discovery, with the first phase involving fact questions and the second involving damages, which the subsidiary also opposed.

  • March 05, 2025

    J&J Subsidiary, Experts Move For Bifurcated Discovery In Asbestos Study Suit

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A Johnson & Johnson subsidiary and three experts it accuses of disparagement and false advertising based on an article they published linking mesothelioma to exposure to talc asked a federal judge in Virginia to bifurcate discovery, with the first phase involving fact questions and the second involving damages.

  • March 05, 2025

    Talc Claimants, J&J Debtor Debate Propriety Of Bankruptcy Venue Ruling

    HOUSTON — An appeal by certain asbestos talc claimants’ counsel of a Texas federal bankruptcy judge’s denial of their motion to transfer venue for the Chapter 11 case of the latest Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff, Red River Talc LLC, should be dismissed because the counsel have not satisfied any of the grounds for leave to appeal, the debtor says in a reply brief in support of its motion to dismiss the appeal.

  • February 25, 2025

    Bankruptcy Judge Grants Talc Supplier Presperse Extensions Of Exclusive Periods

    TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey federal bankruptcy judge gave raw materials supplier and Chapter 11 debtor Presperse Corp. six more months to have the exclusive right to file an amended plan of reorganization after the company’s lone insurer objected to the plan’s disclosure statement and disputed insurance coverage for asbestos personal injury claims.

  • February 25, 2025

    Asbestos Expert’s Opinion Among Issues In Appeal Of $43M Plus Verdict

    LOS ANGELES — Parties and amicus curiae recently wrapped briefing in a California appeal turning on expert testimony, including expert William Longo’s identification of asbestos in talc products and whether the causation evidence supported a verdict of more than $32.8 million in total compensatory damages and another $10.3 million in punitive damages.

  • February 24, 2025

    2nd Circuit Grants Revlon Talc Claimants’ Request For Direct Appeal

    NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued a mandate and order granting asbestos talc claimants’ petition for a direct appeal of a New York federal bankruptcy judge’s decision barring the claimants from pursuing claims against former debtor Revlon Inc. under the discharge and injunction provisions of its confirmed Chapter 11 plan of reorganization.

  • February 21, 2025

    Magistrate Restricts Access In Asbestos Coverage Dispute Involving Insolvent Insurer

    OMAHA, Neb. — A Nebraska federal magistrate judge granted a motion filed by National Indemnity Co. (NICO) to restrict access to documents containing expert reports in its suit seeking to enforce obligations by defendants it calls reinsurers — one of which is now insolvent — for liability NICO incurred related to claims for asbestos exposure.

  • 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 20, 2025

    Talc Debtor Cyprus Mines Seeks To Extend Injunction Protecting Parent Company

    WILMINGTON, Del. — With a $505 million global settlement in place and an “overwhelming” majority of asbestos talc claimants voting to accept a plan of reorganization, talc supplier and Chapter 11 debtor Cyprus Mines Corp. says in a motion and brief in Delaware federal bankruptcy court that an injunction barring claims against its immediate parent should be extended for six months while it conducts discovery in preparation for the plan’s confirmation hearing.

  • 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

    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

    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 10, 2025

    Federal Judge OKs Stay For Asbestos Claimant Pending Appeal Of Similar Case

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. —A North Carolina federal judge has agreed to stay an appeal by an asbestos personal injury claimant of a bankruptcy court’s decision not to lift the automatic stay in the Chapter 11 case of Ingersoll-Rand and Trane spinoffs Aldrich Pump LLC and Murray Boiler LLC until a similar appeal is decided by the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • 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 06, 2025

    FCR, Others Object To Reorganization Plan Of J&J’s Latest Debtor

    HOUSTON — The legal representative for future asbestos personal injury claimants in the Chapter 11 case of the latest Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff, Red River Talc LLC, filed one of several objections to confirmation of the latest version of the debtor’s plan of reorganization in Texas federal bankruptcy court, saying the plan “does not provide ‘reasonable assurance’ that present and future claimants will be treated substantially the same.”

  • 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 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

    Asbestos Claimant Seeks Pause Of Stay Relief Denial Appeal Pending Similar Case

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. —An asbestos personal injury claimant asks a North Carolina federal court to stay his appeal of a bankruptcy court’s decision not to lift the automatic stay in the Chapter 11 case of Ingersoll-Rand and Trane spinoffs Aldrich Pump LLC and Murray Boiler LLC until a similar appeal is decided by the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • January 28, 2025

    Smith Law Says Beasley Allen Suit Over Talc Dust Up Doesn’t Upend Its Action

    JACKSON, Miss. — A law firm told a federal judge in Mississippi that its lawsuit against a second asbestos-talc firm was more akin to one for defamation and that neither res judicata nor the first-to-file rule required dismissal or transfer of the action.

  • January 27, 2025

    Pa. Top Court Permits Torts For Time-Barred Occupational Disease Claimants

    HARRISBURG, Pa. — The bargain between employees and employers in the occupational disease system cannot countenance completely extinguishing an asbestos claim that would be time-barred by the law, a divided Pennsylvania Supreme Court said in affirming lower courts while relying on the same logic it applied in the workers’ compensation system setting a decade ago.

  • January 27, 2025

    Magistrate Denies Insurer’s Bids To Compel Discovery In Asbestos Coverage Dispute

    BUFFALO, N.Y. — A federal magistrate judge in a single order denied an insurer’s motions to compel discovery in four similar suits against insurers filed by the estates of people who died purportedly from asbestos exposure, seeking payment of judgments entered against an asbestos mine, finding that though discovery of negotiations resulting in a funding agreement is related to the agreement’s impact, the disclosure of the agreement “is sufficient.”