Newsletter RSS

Mealey's Asbestos

  • March 24, 2026

    Kentucky Supreme Court Affirms Duty To Prevent Take-Home Asbestos Exposures

    LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A duty exists under Kentucky negligence and product liability law to prevent foreseeable household exposures to asbestos that are “regular and repeated,” the Kentucky Supreme Court said in affirming a ruling reversing summary judgment for two defendants in an asbestos case and in finding that a summer job didn’t trigger workers’ compensation system exclusivity.

  • March 24, 2026

    With Challenge To $40M Verdict Pending, J&J Wants Pro Hac Vice Statuses Revoked

    LOS ANGELES — Johnson & Johnson (J&J), which is seeking to overturn a $40 million asbestos-talc verdict, asked a California court to revoke pro hac vicestatus of Beasley Allen Law Firm attorneys in coordinated litigation, saying they improperly associated with an attorney who previously worked with J&J.  Meanwhile, two bellwether plaintiffs and J&J filed post-trial briefing over whether faulty instructions and juror misconduct produced the verdict and whether one of the plaintiff’s claims was untimely and should never have gone to trial.

  • March 24, 2026

    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 24, 2026

    Insurers Must File Amended Complaint To Establish Jurisdiction, Judge Says

    NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge ordered intervening insurers in an asbestos exposure liability suit to file an amended complaint to properly establish subject matter jurisdiction over claims related to coverage for the owners of the vessels named in an underlying asbestos bodily injury suit.

  • March 24, 2026

    California Talc Parties Debate 2nd Wave Of Bellwether Trials

    LOS ANGELES — Parties to California’s coordinated asbestos-talc ovarian cancer litigation filed a joint report on the second wave of bellwether cases, with Johnson & Johnson entities urging the court to continue with existing and agreed-to rules for selecting the next trials while plaintiffs argue that living plaintiffs should be given priority.  Meanwhile, the Johnson & Johnson entities said during a hearing that expert Jennifer Permuth would not be called during the second set of cases.

  • March 23, 2026

    New Jersey Appeals Court Won’t Stay Beasley Allen Talc MDL Disqualification

    ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — It would not serve the interests of justice to allow Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles PC to continue participating in the coordinated asbestos-talc litigation after having been disqualified for collaborating with a former Johnson & Johnson attorney who worked on the same litigation, a New Jersey appellate court said in denying a stay of the ruling pending appeal to the state’s top court.

  • March 19, 2026

    Missouri Court Affirms Verdict In Mesothelioma Case For Former Employer

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A judge properly instructed a jury on the issue of whether an employer’s workers’ compensation insurance covered mesothelioma claims, and an attorney’s testimony explaining why a company would obtain insurance in a state where it had no employees was offered as rebuttal testimony, not expert opinion, a Missouri appeals court held in affirming a defense verdict.

  • March 18, 2026

    Delaware Judge Finds Evidence Supports Asbestos Shotgun Shell Verdict

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A $9 million verdict in a case alleging exposure to asbestos in shotgun shell basewads stands after a Delaware judge denied a motion for judgment or new trial, finding that an estate established that the manufacturers could both be liable and should have known of the dangers and that exposure cleared the bar for liability.

  • March 17, 2026

    Hotel Tile Experiment Questions Draw Mistrial Motion In New York Asbestos Case

    NEW YORK — Trial questions to a defendant’s representative about whether he ever worked with the company’s asbestos-containing tile and whether a court ever referred counsel for the company to a health agency after the two scored and snapped asbestos-containing tile in a hotel room go to the witnesses’ credibility and are not grounds for a mistrial, a man argues in an opposition brief filed in a New York case.

  • March 17, 2026

    Illinois Court Finds Striking Instruction Cured Missing Asbestos Expert Issue

    MOUNT VERNON, Ill. — Courts assume that a jury follows instructions, and a judge’s declaration that an expert was in contempt and direction that the jury “erase” the testimony of an asbestos witness who testified for more than two hours and then failed to appear for cross-examination sufficiently remedied any prejudice, an Illinois appeals court said in a March 13 unpublished decision.

  • March 17, 2026

    J&J Prevails In Effort To Erase $950M Punitive Damages Talc Verdict

    LOS ANGELES — A California judge granted judgment notwithstanding the verdict on a $950 million punitive damages award against Johnson & Johnson (J&J) in an asbestos-talc case, finding that while the plaintiff family members established causation, they had not demonstrated malicious conduct or that J&J had a duty to disclose, adding that the award was also likely inflated by attorney misconduct.

  • March 13, 2026

    COMMENTARY: America 250: A History Of Insurance And Insurance Coverage Law And Litigation In The United States, Part 1

    By Scott M. Seaman, Pedro E. Hernandez and Peter J. Lewis

  • March 12, 2026

    Judge: Jury Will Be Told Asbestos Expert Should Have Preserved Emails

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A federal judge in Virginia said that as a sanction, a jury will be instructed that an expert had a duty to preserve emails between asbestos-talc study collaborators when he destroyed them, but said a motion seeking to compel interrogatory responses about litigation funding is denied for being untimely.

  • March 12, 2026

    J&J: No Need For Surreply On Motion To Exclude Asbestos-Talc Causation Expert

    PORTLAND, Maine — Johnson & Johnson entities and a man who claims that his wife died of mesothelioma after nearly daily use of its consumer talc products briefed a court on whether a surreply was necessary after briefing on a motion to exclude his causation expert.

  • March 10, 2026

    Ohio Parties Debate Whether Court Should Have Reviewed Asbestos Ruling

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — Parties filed jurisdictional briefs before the Ohio Supreme Court over whether an appellate court improperly declined to address a summary judgment challenge in asbestos case, with the appellant complaining that ignoring issues has been the court’s habit of late and the appellee saying the plaintiff simply didn’t present enough evidence for its consideration.

  • March 10, 2026

    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 10, 2026

    Florida $20M Asbestos-Talc Verdict Stands As Judge Denies Posttrial Motions

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida judge denied posttrial motions seeking additur, judgment notwithstanding the verdict and new trial in an asbestos case, leaving in place a $20 million verdict in the case of a physician who died of mesothelioma after lifelong use of consumer talc products.

  • March 10, 2026

    New Jersey Judge Won’t Stay Beasley Allen Talc Disqualification

    ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The judge overseeing New Jersey multicounty talc litigation declined to stay his ruling disqualifying Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles PC while the firm appeals to the New Jersey Supreme Court a ruling that reversed his original decision finding that their collaboration with a former Johnson & Johnson attorney was not improper.

  • March 10, 2026

    Florida Judge: No Jurisdiction Over PTI Defendants In Asbestos Case

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida judge granted a motion to dismiss six defendants that allegedly blended and packaged branded consumer talc and then granted the plaintiffs leave to amend.

  • March 06, 2026

    Asbestos Case Granted Preference; Genetics At Issue In Summary Judgment Motion

    LOS ANGELES — A California judge granted trial preference to a retired biologist who allegedly developed mesothelioma, rejecting objections that she is cancer-free and that the only evidence of her ailments is her counsel’s declaration, while a separate defendant moved for summary judgment, arguing that genetic mutations — not asbestos — caused her disease.

  • March 06, 2026

    Additur, JNOV Briefed After Pennsylvania Jury Awards $250,000 For Ovarian Cancer

    PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania jury’s $7,148 award for a woman’s four years of suffering with ovarian cancer as a result of exposure to asbestos-tainted talc as part of its $250,000 verdict “is not a verdict.  It is a number that is out of touch with the reality of the suffering,” plaintiffs argue in seeking additur.  But in a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV), two Johnson & Johnson entities argue that the plaintiffs had not demonstrated that talc caused her disease, let alone conduct warranting punitive damages.

  • March 04, 2026

    Stalking Horse Sale Debated In Talc Company’s New Chapter 11 Case

    SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A New York federal bankruptcy court should approve a request by new Chapter 11 debtor Vanderbilt Minerals LLC to allow a stalking horse bidder and bid procedures for the sale of most of the debtor’s assets over the objections of counsel for asbestos claimants and the U.S. trustee so potential bidders have timely information on the sale, the debtor says in a March 4 reply to the objections.

  • March 04, 2026

    New Evidence Revives J&J Spinoff’s Trade Libel Suit Against Talc Study Author

    TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge hearing a trade libel case filed by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff Pecos River Talc LLC against the author of a scientific study on asbestos in talc products has granted the spinoff relief from the judge’s dismissal of the suit and allowed it to amend its complaint after the company presented new evidence.

  • March 03, 2026

    Insured’s Breach Of Contract Claim In Asbestos Dispute Should Proceed, Panel Says

    CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacated and remanded a district court’s decision to grant a motion to dismiss an insured’s amended complaint seeking coverage for underlying asbestos liabilities, determining that the insured adequately states a claim for breach of contract.

  • March 02, 2026

    Judge Won’t Bar Daubert Exclusion Questioning, But Asbestos Soil Expert Is Out

    NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Louisiana said she would not impose a blanket prohibition on trial questions about whether experts were excluded in other asbestos cases but warned counsel not to go into excessive detail about the rulings in those cases.  Days earlier, the judge said a shipyard should have known that it had a duty to preserve soil samples tested by an expert who had yet to be deposed in an asbestos case rapidly approaching trial, excluding the expert and any expert opinions relying on her soil testing.