Mealey's Asbestos
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March 25, 2024
Asbestos Verdict Appeal Briefing Wraps As Kaiser Gypsum Exits
LOS ANGELES — In an appeal of a jury verdict, a California appeals court dismissed one asbestos defendant after a notice of settlement was filed, while briefing wrapped up over the appropriateness of the jury apportioning zero liability to a company it concluded was a substantial factor in a man’s mesothelioma.
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March 22, 2024
Merchant Marine Loses Appeal Of Expert, Summary Judgment Rulings In Asbestos Case
NEW ORLEANS — A former Merchant Marine’s concession that he had no memory of exposure to asbestos and simply assumed it based on the mineral’s widespread use falls short of the threshold for success and warranted exclusion of his experts and summary judgment in favor of various ship owners, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in affirming.
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March 22, 2024
Pennsylvania Top Court Set To Decide Application Of Occupational Law’s Exclusivity
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Similarly situated plaintiffs moved to appear at oral arguments after briefing wrapped up in a case where the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will decide whether the exclusivity provision in the state’s occupational disease law precludes a man’s tort action even when the four-year statute of limitations precludes him from recovering under the statute.
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March 21, 2024
Judge Orders BAP 1 Genetic Testing In California Asbestos Case
LOS ANGELES — Evidence of whether a man carries the BAP 1 genetic mutation and its potential role in his mesothelioma go to a core issue in an asbestos case and cannot be obtained in any other way, a California judge said in granting a motion to compel and ordering a saliva test and associated genetic testing.
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March 21, 2024
Plaintiff, W.R. Grace Trust Debate Proper Place For Tort Claim
MISSOULA, Mo. — W.R. Grace & Co.’s asbestos trust and a former nonbinding arbitration claimant briefed a Montana federal court on whether resolution of his tort claim simply seeks a declaration of the disease from which he suffers or would require interpretation of the bankruptcy trust’s distribution procedures and therefore falls under the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy court.
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March 19, 2024
English Court Affirms Employer Foreseeability Rulings In Asbestos Cases
LONDON — A trial court judge properly evaluated evidence in concluding that the pre-1960s exposures two individuals experienced did not rise to the level required to find that their injuries were foreseeable to their employers, an appellate court in England found in affirming dismissal of the actions.
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March 19, 2024
EPA Finalizes Rule Banning Last Remaining Uses Of Chrysotile Asbestos
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Environmental Protection Agency has banned the ongoing use of chrysotile asbestos, the last type of asbestos to have its importation, processing and distribution banned in the United States and the first time the government has finalized a rule under the 2016 amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), according to a March 18 press release by the agency.
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March 19, 2024
Retrial Of California Asbestos Case Ends In Defense Verdict
SAN FRANCISCO — A jury in San Francisco returned a defense verdict for John Crane Inc. in a mesothelioma case originally tried virtually to a hung jury during the coronavirus pandemic.
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March 18, 2024
Supplier Seeks Judgment In Asbestos Liability Case Involving Insolvent Insurer
NEW ORLEANS — A purported supplier of asbestos-containing products moved for partial summary judgment and filed a brief in support in an asbestos liability suit against it, the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA) and multiple other parties over a man’s exposure to asbestos resulting from his work at a shipyard, asserting that partial summary judgment should be granted because the purported supplier was not a “professional vendor.”
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March 13, 2024
Facing Revived Asbestosis Case, Employer Wants Deeper Look From Court
HOUSTON — In a motion for rehearing, an employer who saw claims in a Texas asbestosis case against it revived says the appellate court should now rule on the additional grounds it raised for summary judgment in the trial court.
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March 13, 2024
Panel: Instruction Didn’t Prevent Asbestos Plaintiffs From Arguing Ongoing Duty
SEATTLE — Even though a judge did not instruct a jury that a manufacturer operates under an ongoing duty to warn about the dangers of its product, nothing in the instructions that were given imposed a time limit on such a duty or prevented the plaintiffs from arguing that a crane company failed in its duty, a Washington appeals court said in affirming a defense verdict.
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February 27, 2024
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.
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March 12, 2024
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.
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March 12, 2024
Talc Study Evidence Crucial To Defending Case, Defendant Says
RICHMOND, Va. — A talc defendant defended its need for a list of mesothelioma study participants from a third party, saying in a brief to the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the evidence is the only way it has of refuting asbestos-talc claims at trial and that the burden of showing otherwise lies with the party seeking to quash the subpoena.
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March 11, 2024
Justice Stays, Severs Claims Against Insolvent Insurer In Asbestos Coverage Row
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — A New York state court justice granted a stay and severed proceedings as to the insured of an insolvent insurer in an estate’s asbestos liability case filed against numerous parties involved in the manufacture and distribution of asbestos-containing products, finding that the claims against the other defendants may go forward without causing undue burden to the estate of the decedent.
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March 08, 2024
Mistrial Declared After Florida Jury Hangs In Ovarian Cancer Talc Trial
MIAMI — A Florida asbestos trial ended in a hung jury after the jury twice told the judge that it could not reach a decision despite a day and a half of deliberations about Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) liability for the death of an anesthesiologist from ovarian cancer. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
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March 07, 2024
LTL Management Says Appellee Arguments Backing Chapter 11 Dismissal Fail
PHILADELPHIA — A New Jersey federal bankruptcy court wrongly imposed an insolvency requirement in dismissing the second Chapter 11 case of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC, and the U.S. trustee, asbestos claimants and other appellees “do little to defend the lower court’s misunderstanding,” the debtor says in its appeal to the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of the dismissal of its second attempt to reorganize through bankruptcy.
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March 07, 2024
J&J SEC Filing Announces Settlement Of States’ Talc Actions
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) announced that though negotiations were ongoing about the nonmonetary terms, it had reached an agreement in principle with 40 states and the District of Columbia settling claims over the marketing of its talcum powder, leaving suits by two states remaining.
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March 07, 2024
New York Court: Evidence Behind $23M Asbestos Verdict Meets Causation Standard
NEW YORK — A New York appeals court found that a man’s testimony about the work he performed with valves and expert testimony detailing the levels of resulting exposure and how that impacted his risk of mesothelioma satisfied Nemeth v. Brenntag N. Am. and affirmed asbestos jury awards of $13 million in past pain and suffering and $10 million for future pain and suffering.
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March 05, 2024
Florida Measure Revises Information Needed For Asbestos Suit
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Florida Senate bill requiring asbestos and silica plaintiffs to submit sworn disclosures about the use of cigarettes and the names and addresses of individuals who can testify regarding the exposures in question passed on a 29-6 vote on March 4.
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March 05, 2024
Reinsurer Seeks Reconsideration In Default Dispute In Settlement Reimbursement Case
OMAHA, Neb. — Arguing in part that “the prima facie standard only applies at the pre-trial stage,” a Brazil-based reinsurer has asked a Nebraska federal judge to reconsider denying its motion to set aside a default previously entered against it in the suit over reimbursement for a settlement reached with Montana regarding alleged asbestos exposure.
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March 05, 2024
Idaho Federal Judge Dismisses Criminal Count Brought Under CAA Asbestos Standards
POCATELLO, Idaho — The United States failed to allege a criminal offense arising from the Clean Air Act (CAA) in one count of its indictment against a man who allegedly violated the statute by failing to comply with certain asbestos standards when demolishing two buildings because the language of the CAA does not make failing to thoroughly inspect a building for asbestos a crime, an Idaho federal judge found in granting the man’s motion to dismiss in part.
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March 04, 2024
Parties Debate Consolidation Of Certain Injury Asbestos Cases Against Employer
HARTFORD, Conn. — Superficial similarities do not warrant consolidated trial of four asbestos cases against a former employer under the certain injury exception, and any such trial would leave the jury with the “herculean task” of sorting through the evidence to determine how it applies to the various exposures, work locations and time periods, an employer tells a Connecticut judge in a March 1 amended opposition.
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March 04, 2024
John Crane: Jurisdiction, Damages Ruling Basis Doom Seaman’s Asbestos Challenge
BOSTON — A court lacks jurisdiction over a case where a widow chose not to proceed under admiralty jurisdiction and where a judge didn’t decide defenses or liabilities, but even if the court considers the case, nonpecuniary damages are not available in a seaman’s case against a product supplier, John Crane Inc. tells the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a March 1 brief.
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March 04, 2024
J&J Special Master Wants Responsive Documents Prior To Decision On Subpoena
TRENTON, N.J. — The special master overseeing the federal Johnson & Johnson multidistrict asbestos talc litigation said a consulting firm should produce documents responsive to a subpoena seeking communications between it and law firms the defendant seeks to disqualify, after which the parties can confer about any resulting privileged documents prior to a ruling on a motion to quash.