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Mealey's Asbestos

  • April 01, 2025

    U.S. Bankruptcy Judge In Texas Dismisses Chapter 11 Case Of J&J’s Latest Debtor

    HOUSTON — A Texas federal bankruptcy judge on March 31 dismissed the Chapter 11 case of the latest Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff, Red River Talc LLC, after finding that the debtor’s plan of reorganization, which included a $9 billion asbestos trust, cannot be confirmed because voting on the plan cannot be certified due to irregularities and that the plan “contains impermissible nonconsensual third-party releases.”

  • March 31, 2025

    Canadian Asbestos Miner Can’t Secure Removal Of Judge From Asbestos Case

    LOS ANGELES — Allowing that Asbestos Corp. Ltd. (ACL) lacks any support for its “open-ended, unregulated, and chaotic notion” that it can seek removal of the judge presiding over the Los Angeles County asbestos litigation and that the idea runs counter to the “basic concept” of coordinated proceedings, a judge in California struck and denied the challenge.

  • March 28, 2025

    Citing Case Complexity, Judge Declines Jurisdiction Over State Law Asbestos Claims

    LOS ANGELES — Plaintiffs must disclose when they learned the identify of certain coworkers in an asbestos case, and a stipulation eliminating liability arising from government work and government contractor and immunity defenses stripped the case of federal jurisdiction, and the action’s complexity warrants remanding it to a Los Angeles County court, a federal judge in California said while retaining jurisdiction over only pending motions.

  • March 27, 2025

    Widow: Court Misinterpreted Delaware Law In Worker’s Mesothelioma Case

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Lower courts misinterpreted state law governing employee disability and ignored expert testimony about the extent of a man’s losses caused by his mesothelioma’s impact on his organs, a widow tells the Delaware Supreme Court.

  • March 27, 2025

    New York Justice: Asbestos Study Subpoena Challenge Wasn’t Contempt

    NEW YORK — An asbestos expert’s and hospital’s delay in producing the identities of asbestos-talc study participants while they challenged a ruling requiring compliance with the subpoena constitutes zealous advocacy rather than clear disobedience, a New York justice said in declining to find contempt on the grounds that doing so would “chill such advocacy” and that attorney fees weren’t appropriate.

  • March 26, 2025

    Justice: J&J Successors Can’t Escape Rhode Island Asbestos-Talc Suit

    PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Island law governs successor liability issues in an asbestos-talc case against Johnson & Johnson entities and precludes dismissing the case, a justice in the state said in denying the motion.

  • March 25, 2025

    Shipyard’s Employment Record Production Moots Motion To Compel

    NEW ORLEANS — A federal magistrate judge in Louisiana denied as moot a motion to withdraw a motion to compel production after a shipyard – through what it termed “great effort” – secured authorized release of employment records in a take-home asbestos case.

  • March 25, 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.

  • March 21, 2025

    Asbestos Ruling Didn’t Change New York Summary Judgment Standard, Justice Says

    NEW YORK — A cosmetics company filed notice that it would appeal a New York justice’s denial of its motion to renew and conclusion that an appellate ruling finding that Texas law applied to an asbestos case did not upend the long-established New York law or entitle the manufacturer to summary judgment.

  • March 21, 2025

    Florida Jury Awards $18M In Asbestos Case Against Brake Grinding Manufacturer

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida jury awarded $18 million to a woman suffering from malignant epithelioid mesothelioma, finding that brake grinding machine manufacturer Hennessy Industries Inc.’s negligence caused her take-home exposures and apportioning it 15% of the liability. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.

  • March 21, 2025

    Asbestos Pipe Maker Settles Delaware Case, Resolves Adverse Instruction Spat

    WILMINGTON, Del. — An asbestos pipe maker in the process of seeking reargument of a ruling granting an adverse instruction about the company’s destruction of corporate documents moved to dismiss the case, saying it resolved the case and a host of others.

  • March 21, 2025

    Federal Judge Dismisses RICO Case Against Asbestos Plaintiffs’ Firm

    CHICAGO — Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) claims brought against an asbestos plaintiffs’ law firm never adequately identify the enterprise in question or how the entities operated, a federal judge in Illinois said in dismissing the federal claims and declining to exercise jurisdiction over the remaining state law claims.

  • March 20, 2025

    New York Court Affirms Causation, Punitive Damages In Asbestos Boiler Case

    NEW YORK — Testimony from an industrial hygienist and thoracic surgeon satisfied the specific causation standard in New York, and there was no error in not precluding a boiler company from cross-examining the surgeon about exposures for which it had not established liability, a New York appellate court said while finding punitive damages appropriate and the damages not beyond what a reasonable person would expect.

  • March 20, 2025

    Discovery Violations Lead To Default, $16.2M Verdict In Washington Asbestos Case

    TACOMA, Wash. — A Washington judge hit Canadian mining outfit Asbestos Corp. Ltd. (ACL) with a $16.2 million verdict after entering default judgment against the company for failure to comply with discovery rulings.

  • March 19, 2025

    5th Circuit Affirms Tolling Of Asbestos FELA Suit Can’t Be Indefinite

    NEW ORLEANS — Any implied agreement indefinitely tolling the statute of limitations in a Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA) asbestos case runs afoul of Texas law precluding such arrangements, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said in affirming summary judgment for a railroad.

  • March 19, 2025

    J&J: Jury’s Defense Verdict, Punitive Damages Award Doesn’t Require New Trial

    PITTSBURGH — Evidentiary and expert rulings in an asbestos case largely favored the plaintiff, and a jury likely awarded her punitive damages despite finding no evidence of causation based on closing arguments and a verdict form that encouraged the jury to skip the page with instructions on those damages, Johnson & Johnson entities tells a Pittsburgh judge in opposing a new trial motion.

  • March 19, 2025

    Canadian Asbestos Miner Seeks Judge’s Removal After $1,000 Discovery Sanction

    LOS ANGELES — Asbestos Corp. Ltd. (ACL) filed a brief in a California court arguing that its peremptory challenge to the judge overseeing an asbestos case was timely after informing the court that it could not receive a fair hearing from the judge, who previously found that it “willfully and intentionally” failed to comply with court-ordered discovery.

  • March 18, 2025

    BNSF: Common Carrier, Federal Law Preclude Liability, $8M Asbestos Verdict

    SAN FRANCISCO — Railways carrying material under federal law are common carriers and can’t be held strictly liable, and federal law preempts state laws attempting to do so, BNSF Railway Co. tells a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel in a March 17 brief, hoping to erase an $8 million asbestos verdict stemming from its handling of asbestos-tainted vermiculite at the Libby, Mont., mine.

  • March 18, 2025

    Bankrupt Company Says Asbestos Suit Against Receiver Belongs In State Court

    COLUMBIA, S.C. — A bankrupt company tells a federal judge in South Carolina that a February ruling supports limiting precedent on federal jurisdiction to bankruptcy cases and instances where a removing entity was an actual party to the case, while urging the court to reject insurers’ attempts to remove an asbestos action against a receiver for Canadian-based Asbestos Corp. Ltd. (ACL).

  • March 18, 2025

    Company Urges Review Of Genetic Testing Ruling In California Asbestos Case

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A trial court evaluated a motion to compel simple and potentially conclusive genetic testing in a mesothelioma case under the standard for admissibility when it should have done so under the standard for relevance, a company told the California Supreme Court in a petition for review.

  • March 18, 2025

    Panel Says Underlying Asbestos Suits Are Covered Under Premises-Operations Policies

    FORT WORTH, Texas — The Second District Texas Court of Appeals affirmed a trial court’s ruling that an insurer has a continued duty to defend its insured against underlying asbestos bodily injury lawsuits because the trial court properly found that the underlying allegations fall within the policies’ premises-operations coverage and the insurer failed to show that its policies have been exhausted.

  • March 17, 2025

    Plaintiffs Say Recent Ruling Supports Summary Judgment On Government Immunity

    NEW ORLEANS — Yet another jurist has joined the chorus of judges rejecting a shipyard’s government immunity defense to claims that it failed to warn workers about the dangers of asbestos at its facility, a woman’s family told a federal court in Louisiana on March 14 in a supplemental brief on the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment.

  • March 17, 2025

    Asbestos Company Can’t Get Costs, Access To Expert In Voluntarily Dismissed Case

    NEW YORK — A mesothelioma sufferer cannot be required to continue litigating a five-year-old asbestos case against the lone remaining defendant in his case so that the company can depose an expert and avoid litigation costs in other cases against it, a federal judge in New York said in adopting a magistrate judge’s ruling and granting the plaintiff’s motion to dismiss the case with prejudice.

  • March 12, 2025

    Asbestos Case Disclaimer Defeats Removal, 9th Circuit Affirms

    PHOENIX — A district court did not err in declining to exercise maritime jurisdiction and remanding a case where a man disclaimed any liability related to asbestos exposures associated with the U.S. Navy, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held in an unpublished memorandum opinion.

  • March 12, 2025

    Judge: Shipyard Not Entitled To Government Contractor Immunity In Warning Case

    NEW ORLEANS — Neither the fact that the government required the use of asbestos nor compliance with general and minimum safety requirements entitles a shipyard to government contractor immunity from claims that it failed to warn workers about the dangers of asbestos at the facility, a federal judge in Louisiana said in granting a plaintiff summary judgment on the contractor defense.