Mealey's Asbestos
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June 28, 2024
Citing Spizzirri, Insurer Asks 7th Circuit To Dismiss Appeal In Arbitration Estoppel Row
CHICAGO — Arguing that Smith v. Spizzirri renders deficient “the basis for this Court’s appellate jurisdiction,” an insurer filed a June 27 motion in the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to dismiss reinsurers’ fully briefed appeal concerning the effects of prior arbitration involving asbestos-related liabilities.
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June 28, 2024
Australia Jury Hands Record-Setting Verdict In Mesothelioma Case
BRISBANE, Australia — An Australia jury awarded a record-setting $2 million to a man suffering from mesothelioma from handling James Hardie & Coy Pty Limited asbestos-containing products, sources told Mealey Publications.
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June 28, 2024
Oregon Court Reverses $10M Asbestos Award Based On California Workers’ Comp Law
PORTLAND, Ore. — A trial court erred in granting a plaintiff partial summary judgment after concluding that it was the defendant’s burden to demonstrate that California’s workers’ compensation exclusivity provision applied to an asbestos case, the Oregon Court of Appeals said in an unpublished opinion, reversing a $10 million loss-of-consortium award.
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June 27, 2024
Judge Denies Directed Verdict On Negligence Claims Against Libby, Mont., Railway
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Libby, Mont., plaintiffs made a prima facie showing that a railway failed to exercise proper care in the handling of asbestos around its railyard, causing it to contaminate surrounding areas, a federal judge in Montana said June 26 in denying a directed verdict after an $8 million verdict.
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June 27, 2024
Asbestos Defendant Says Proper Bond Will Be Filed After Asbestos Verdict Dispute
LOS ANGELES — Parties to a more than $3 million judgment in an asbestos case appear to have resolved a dispute over the bond required for an appeal, with the defendant saying a proper bond should be filed before a hearing next month.
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June 26, 2024
Judge Allows Discovery Into Successor Status In Asbestos Valves Case
NEW ORLEANS — Because the only evidence of whether a company qualifies as the successor-in-interest of another is in the possession of the defendant, its motion to dismiss implicates evidence outside the pleadings and requires limited discovery into the question, a federal judge in Louisiana said in denying a motion.
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June 26, 2024
2 Stipulated Dismissals Granted In Insurer’s Suit Over Asbestos Liabilities Row
OMAHA, Neb. — Two defendants referred to as reinsurers in a suit National Indemnity Co. (NICO) filed over a $157.2 million settlement it reached with Montana regarding alleged asbestos exposures have been dismissed with prejudice under a joint stipulation that a Nebraska federal judge granted June 24.
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June 26, 2024
Special Master Rejects J&J’s Motion To Inspect Asbestos Expert’s Lab
TRENTON, N.J. — The special master in the New Jersey federal court multidistrict litigation involving Johnson & Johnson talc denied a motion to inspect asbestos expert William Longo’s lab, saying the “unprecedented” request seeks irrelevant information and would be unduly annoying.
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June 25, 2024
Judge Says Removal Timely In Asbestos Coverage Suit Against Guaranty Association
NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge on June 24 denied a motion to remand filed by a man’s family members who sued numerous parties, including the Louisiana Guaranty Association (LIGA) as the purported statutory obligor for a now-insolvent insurer, alleging that the man’s death from mesothelioma resulted from his workplace asbestos exposure, finding that removal of the case to federal court was both permissible and timely.
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June 25, 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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June 24, 2024
Court Requests Response In Texas Asbestos Causation Case
HOUSTON — The Texas Supreme Court on June 21 asked plaintiffs to respond to a petition for review after the Chamber of Commerce of the United States and others argued in an amicus curiae brief that an appellate court ruling creating a separate causation standard announced in a take-home de minimis asbestos exposure case threatens to return the state to a time when it was overrun by suspect asbestos and silica claims.
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June 21, 2024
Louisiana Court Affirms Jury’s $2.75M Asbestos Awards To Daughters
NEW ORLEANS — Recent Louisiana Supreme Court precedent requiring some objective measure when awarding surviving children damages does not alter the conclusion that trial evidence of the “devastating effects” two daughters experienced from their father’s death from mesothelioma supports a jury’s award of $2.75 million to each, a Louisiana appeals court said.
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June 21, 2024
Asbestos Expert Warns: Employee Deposition Threatens His ‘Golden Years’
ATLANTA — A non-testifying employee of asbestos expert William Longo and his lab warned that a magistrate judge’s ruling denying a motion to quash an untimely and irrelevant subpoena would doom him to spending his “golden years” giving depositions in asbestos litigation across the country.
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June 20, 2024
J&J Says Talc Plaintiffs Lack Power, Precedent To Block Bankruptcy
TRENTON, N.J. —Talc plaintiffs waited too long to raise meritless claims of allegedly fraudulent corporate restructurings and lack the power to ask a district court to prevent a bankruptcy filing, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and related entities tell a federal court in New Jersey in opposing injunctive relief.
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June 19, 2024
California High Court Reverses, Says Vertical Exhaustion Applies To Policies
SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court reversed an appeals court’s ruling in a long-running asbestos insurance coverage dispute after determining that a vertical exhaustion method, rather than a horizontal exhaustion method, must be applied to excess policies that sit over an insured’s primary policies because the language of the excess policies and the insured’s reasonable expectations support a vertical exhaustion method.
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June 19, 2024
J&J Can’t Strike Talc Claims; Defendants Want ‘Improper’ Trial Conduct Excluded
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Various Johnson & Johnson (J&J) entities failed in their bid to strike asbestos-talc allegations against them in a Connecticut court when the judge found sufficient allegations of successor liability. Meanwhile, briefing wrapped up June 18 on the defendants’ two attempts at precluding the plaintiff from “improper conduct,” such as tacking an oversized poster to a courtroom wall and stacking books on the counsels’ table to “build a fort with them.”
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June 18, 2024
In Latest Suit, Women Seek Medical Monitoring Over Johnson & Johnson Talc
TRENTON, N.J. — Women filed a putative class action in a New Jersey federal court against various Johnson & Johnson (J&J) entities on June 17 alleging fraud and misrepresentation among other claims and seeking medical monitoring for all women who used talc-based products on their genital area over a four-year period starting in 1960 and have not yet filed suit against the companies.
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June 18, 2024
J&J Seeks Delay In Judgment, $1.95M In Monthly Interest In Asbestos-Talc Case
PORTLAND, Ore. — Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and a subsidiary told a judge in Oregon that its posttrial motions in the wake of a $260 million asbestos-talc jury verdict will bring to light the “persistent misconduct” that led to the verdict and asked for a stay of the judgment and resulting $1.95 million per month in interest while the court resolves the motions. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
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June 18, 2024
Judge: Amended Work History Changes Remove Causal Nexus, Federal Jurisdiction
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — Corrections to work history removed a pump company from allegations of military exposure, severing the connection needed for federal officer removal, a federal judge in Illinois said in remanding the case.
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June 17, 2024
Chamber Group Says Texas Asbestosis Ruling Threatens Litigation Stability
HOUSTON — In an amicus curiae brief, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America and others told the Texas Supreme Court that an appellate court ruling creating a separate causation standard announced in a take-home de minimis asbestos exposure case threatens to return the state to a time when it was overrun by suspect asbestos and silica claims.
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June 14, 2024
J&J Can Depose Asbestos Expert Longo’s Employee, Special Master Says
TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson entities may depose the lab employee who performed the testing on which expert William Longo relies, the special master in New Jersey involved in the federal multidistrict litigation involving asbestos-talc claims said.
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June 13, 2024
Widow Didn’t Satisfy Burden In Asbestos Benefits Case, West Virginia Court Says
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The presumption of occupational exposure in a workers’ compensation case is rebuttable and still requires the claimant to meet the burden of proving that exposure to asbestos caused the injury in question, a West Virginia appeals court said in affirming the denial of benefits for a widow.
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June 13, 2024
Talc Plaintiffs Seek To Confine Proposed J&J Bankruptcy To New Jersey
TRENTON, N.J. — A federal judge in New Jersey in a June 12 docket entry expedited briefing on talc plaintiffs’ motion seeking to enjoin Johnson & Johnson or its subsidiaries from declaring bankruptcy anywhere other than New Jersey. The plaintiffs in the case claim that Johnson & Johnson performed a series of fraudulent transfers and bad faith bankruptcy filings to escape asbestos-talc liabilities.
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June 12, 2024
States, J&J Settle Talc Marketing Claims For $700 Million
TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson on June 11 agreed to pay $700 million to resolve investigations by 42 states and the District of Columbia into its marketing of baby powder and related talc products, various sources told Mealey Publications.
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June 11, 2024
Asbestos Boiler Company Can’t Stay New York Cases During Punitive Damages Appeal
NEW YORK — A company’s concerns about potential verdicts while it appeals a punitive damages award are exaggerated, and any stay while it litigates the issue would “severely prejudice” plaintiffs who are literally on their death beds, a New York justice said in denying the company’s request.