Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy
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October 31, 2023
Responding To J&J, Plaintiffs Downplay New Jersey Asbestos-Talc Experts Ruling
TRENTON, N.J. — A ruling on a trial court’s role in admitting asbestos-talc expert testimony was wrong in several respects and will soon be on further appeal, but Johnson & Johnson’s citation to it “reflects a profound misunderstanding about the fraud, fraudulent concealment, and fraud on the court” claims in the current case against it, two plaintiffs say in an Oct. 30 letter brief.
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October 26, 2023
J&J Says Ruling Rejecting Asbestos-Talc Experts Bolsters Class Dismissal Motion
TRENTON, N.J. — Recent precedent overturning an asbestos verdict and rejecting expert testimony that the fibers detected in talc were asbestiform further supports a motion to dismiss a class action claiming that Johnson & Johnson concealed the presence of the mineral in its products, the company tells a federal judge in New Jersey in an Oct. 25 letter.
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October 25, 2023
Judge: Bankruptcy Stays Attorney Fees Motion In Asbestos Diagnosis Case
MISSOULA, Mont. — Because a railway’s motion for attorney fees in the wake of its successful pursuit of a False Claims Act case came before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) asbestos program provider’s bankruptcy, the request constitutes a claim against the debtor and falls under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code’s automatic stay, a federal judge in Montana said.
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October 23, 2023
Connecticut Court Breathes Life Back Into Asbestos Tort Against Employer
HARTFORD, Conn. — A divided Connecticut appeals court revived an asbestos tort action against an employer on Oct. 20, finding evidence that the company knew of the dangers of asbestos at its facility and never disclosed them while touting the need to follow federal regulations to others as its own testing repeatedly, if only infrequently, demonstrated that its failures to follow those regulations placed the case within the intentional tort exception to workers’ compensation exclusivity.
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October 23, 2023
Bankruptcy Judge Denies Stay Relief For State Law Claims Against Georgia-Pacific
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A bid by a man with mesothelioma and his wife to bypass the automatic stay in the Chapter 11 case of Georgia-Pacific (GP) spinoff Bestwall LLC so they can pursue claims against GP in a New Jersey court failed when a North Caolina bankruptcy judge denied their motion for relief from the stay.
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October 19, 2023
Asbestos Talc Debtor’s Settlement With Truck Driver OK’d By Bankruptcy Judge
WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal bankruptcy judge approved an $85,000 settlement that an affiliate co-debtor of talc mining company Cyprus Mines Corp. and talc supplier Imerys Talc America Inc. agreed to pay to a truck driver in Vermont who was injured in a slip-and-fall accident.
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October 19, 2023
Johnson & Johnson Entities Want Asbestos-Talc Allegations Stricken From Complaint
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Various Johnson & Johnson entities asked a Connecticut judge to strike asbestos-talc allegations from a complaint, saying that they never manufactured or sold baby powder and that liability for that conduct lies solely with LTL Management LLC.
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October 18, 2023
Chief Bankruptcy Judge Stripped Of Cases After Attorney Relationship Disclosed
HOUSTON — A chief bankruptcy judge who served as a HONX Inc. asbestos bankruptcy mediator and oversaw a fracking bankruptcy will no longer hear cases after the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals filed an official complaint against him in the wake of the disclosure of a romantic relationship with a lawyer employed by counsel that appeared before him.
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October 18, 2023
Mediator Approved For Insurance Disputes In Imerys, Cyprus Mines Bankruptcies
WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal bankruptcy judge approved a request by insurers of Chapter 11 asbestos talc debtors Imerys Talc America Inc. and Cyprus Mines Corp. to appoint a mediator for insurance issues in ongoing negotiations among the debtors and claimants on a plan of reorganization after extending the mediation through the end of the year.
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October 17, 2023
BNSF’s Common Carrier Argument In Libby, Mont., Asbestos Case Fails
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Montana Supreme Court precedent collaterally estops Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co. (BNSF) from arguing that as a common carrier it is immune from suit for certain Libby-related asbestos activities, a federal judge in Montana said Oct. 16.
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October 16, 2023
Johnson & Johnson Spinoff, Talc Study Authors Argue Merits Of Fraud Claims
TRENTON, N.J. — Dismissal is warranted for fraud claims leveled by Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) former bankrupt affiliate LTL Management LLC against three pathologists over their study of mesothelioma patients because the company lacks standing, the court lacks jurisdiction and the claims fail as a matter of law, the doctors argue in a reply brief filed in New Jersey federal court in support of their motion to dismiss.
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October 16, 2023
Court Won’t Force Filing Of Asbestos Attorney’s Employment Allegations
LOS ANGELES — Redacted allegations in an employment action between an asbestos attorney and the firm he said fired him for complaining about witness coaching were never before the trial court and therefore can’t be unsealed, and the public has no interest in allegations shared only between parties to litigation, a California appeals court said Oct. 13 in denying a company’s request to unseal the redacted complaint.
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October 13, 2023
High Court Grants Cert For Insurer’s Challenge To Kaiser Gypsum Asbestos Bankruptcy
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 13 granted a petition for certiorari filed by the primary insurer of Chapter 11 asbestos debtors Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. over a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that the insurer lacks standing to challenge the debtors’ reorganization plan.
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October 13, 2023
J&J Says Quick Asbestos-Talc Verdict Doesn’t Warrant New Trial
ST. LOUIS — Plaintiffs complaining that a jury returned a verdict in an asbestos-talc case too quickly point to no precedent that supports the conclusion that a jury must deliberate for any specific amount of time and simply want a redo at trial, two Johnson & Johnson entities tell a Missouri judge in opposing a motion for new trial.
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October 13, 2023
Confirmation Hearing For Bankruptcy Plan Of Hess Unit HONX Postponed
HOUSTON — The confirmation hearing for the Chapter 11 reorganization plan of Hess Corp. affiliate HONX Inc. has been postponed by a Texas federal bankruptcy judge at the request of Hess, the debtor and asbestos claimant representatives.
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October 12, 2023
J&J Affiliate, Asbestos Talc Study Author Spar Over Fraud Claims
TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC’s arguments against dismissal of its trade libel, fraud and trademark law violation claims against the author of an asbestos talc study only serve to show that the company fails to state any valid claims and that her study “is a protected scientific opinion that is not actionable as a matter of law,” the author says in a reply in support of dismissal filed in New Jersey federal court.
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October 11, 2023
Johnson & Johnson Debtor Seeks Direct Appeal Of Dismissal To 3rd Circuit
TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge on Oct. 10 stayed briefing in the appeal by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC of dismissal of its second Chapter 11 case until the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decides whether to grant the company’s request for a direct appeal to that court.
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October 10, 2023
'Visibly Angry’ Juror Caused $8.8M Asbestos Verdict, Pipe Maker Says
LOS ANGELES — “Serious juror misconduct” by two jurors who interjected their own anger and biases into an asbestos trial and a verdict form that fatally failed to include potentially liable nonparties require a Los Angeles court to grant a new trial, an asbestos pipe manufacturer told the court after a nearly $9 million verdict.
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October 06, 2023
J&J Entities Must Face Asbestos-Talc Liabilities, New Jersey Judge Says
TRENTON, N.J. — A man adequately alleges that asbestos-talc liabilities followed the assets and operations from Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. to various entities resulting from Johnson & Johnson restructuring and placing LTL Management LLC into bankruptcy, a New Jersey judge said in denying a motion to dismiss.
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October 04, 2023
New Jersey Court Faults Asbestos-Talc Expert Admissions, Topples $224M Award
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Given the apparent defects in expert opinions a trial judge improperly admitted three asbestos experts in a talc case without first holding a hearing on whether their methodologies and opinions were reliable, a New Jersey appeals court said Oct. 3 in reversing a $223.8 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson and remanding for a new trial.
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October 03, 2023
Talc Mining Company Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Over Asbestos Claims
HOUSTON — Talc mining company Barretts Minerals Inc. (BMI) filed a Chapter 11 petition on Oct. 2 in Texas federal bankruptcy court looking to sell the business and use the proceeds to help fund a trust to pay asbestos claims, saying the business can no longer afford to litigate an increasing number of lawsuits alleging personal injuries caused by exposure to talc purportedly contaminated with asbestos.
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October 02, 2023
Kaiser Gypsum Insurer Says Cert Needed For Dispute Over Standing
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that the primary insurer of Chapter 11 asbestos debtors Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. lacks standing to challenge the debtors’ reorganization plan “exacerbates a conflict among the [U.S. circuit courts] and defies the straightforward text of the Bankruptcy Code,” the insurer says in a reply brief in support of its petition for certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court.
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September 29, 2023
Ford Stuck With $20M Asbestos Verdict After Court Finds No Error
ST. LOUIS — None of the nine issues Ford Motor Co. raised in an appeal of a $20 million asbestos verdict demonstrate an error, a Missouri appeals court said in affirming the verdict without a written opinion.
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September 21, 2023
Talc Study Authors Move To Dismiss Suit By Johnson & Johnson Spinoff
TRENTON, N.J. — Fraud claims leveled by Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) former bankrupt affiliate LTL Management LLC against three pathologists over their study of mesothelioma patients and their use of talcum powder should be tossed because the allegations “are not only implausible, but frivolous,” the doctors say in a motion to dismiss in New Jersey federal court.
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September 20, 2023
Asbestos Talc Study Author Seeks Dismissal Of Suit By J&J Former Debtor
TRENTON, N.J. — Claims for trade libel, fraud and federal trademark law violations asserted by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC against the author of an asbestos talc study should be dismissed because they are all meritless, the author says in a motion in New Jersey federal court.