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Mealey's Asbestos

  • November 14, 2025

    J&J Asks Court To Delay Judgment After $966M Asbestos-Talc Verdict

    LOS ANGELES — Johnson & Johnson defended its request that a California court not enter judgment on an asbestos verdict that included $950 million in punitive damages, arguing that it would be unfair to make what it calls a clearly unconstitutional award enforceable.

  • November 14, 2025

    Couple Can’t Link Truck Maker To Asbestos, Judge Says

    BOSTON — A couple at best shows that a man installed asbestos-containing gaskets during his career as a mechanic, but not that the work would have led to asbestos exposure, a federal judge in Massachusetts said in granting Mack Trucks Inc. summary judgment.

  • November 13, 2025

    Split Summary Judgment Issued In Indemnification Dispute Over Asbestos Cases

    MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Tennessee federal judge issued a split summary judgment order in an indemnity dispute centered on the continuity of insurance and reinsurance agreements executed between 1983 and 1995, denying a paper manufacturer’s request for declaratory relief, allowing its breach of contract claim against an insurer to proceed and granting summary judgment in favor of the manufacturer on the insurer’s two counterclaims.

  • November 12, 2025

    Judge Rebuffs Bid For Declaratory Relief Involving Asbestos Case Removal

    NEW ORLEANS — Because a mesothelioma sufferer’s declaratory relief action seeking to bar removal under the government contractor or derivative immunity doctrines would not completely resolve any disputes, a federal judge in Louisiana dismissed the suit.

  • November 12, 2025

    J&J Entity, Medical Group Debate Motion To Compel In Asbestos-Talc Study Case

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York will decide whether a subpoena to a health care provider seeks relevant information about the authors of an asbestos-talc study or is simply “a huge net” hoping to find something among millions of emails and other documents after briefing on a motion to compel ended with a Johnson & Johnson spinoff’s reply in support of the motion.

  • November 11, 2025

    Judge Nixes Intentional Tort, But Not Neighborhood Exposure, Asbestos Claims

    NEW ORLEANS — Evidence that a man played on family property that testing showed contained asbestos suffices to deny summary judgment on that potential cause of his mesothelioma, but there is insufficient evidence that a shipyard knew that the asbestos-related dangers at its facility would cause his disease to allow that claim to proceed, a federal judge in Louisiana said in a pair of Nov. 10 rulings.

  • November 10, 2025

    General Electric Defends Stay During Appeal Of Asbestos Remand Ruling

    LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Federal officer removal is designed to prevent government-led companies from having to litigate in state court, and a stay while the company appeals a remand ruling in an asbestos case is entirely consistent with congressional intent, General Electric Co. tells a federal judge in Kentucky.

  • November 10, 2025

    Vanderbilt Must Face Asbestos-Talc Glaze Case, California Judge Says

    LOS ANGELES — Neither evidence that a glazing product didn’t contain a company’s talc during certain periods nor the lack of evidence of shipments of the company’s talc to the San Jose, Calif., facility shifts a company’s burden in a mesothelioma case, a California judge said in denying summary judgment and adjudication on Nov. 7.

  • November 07, 2025

    Judge Reinstates Decade-Old Meso Case After Employer Injury Standard Change

    SPOKANE, Wash. — A federal judge in Washington reinstated a mesothelioma case after nearly a decade, saying the Washington Supreme Court’s recent conclusion that plaintiffs can meet the deliberate injury standard by showing the employer knew an injury was “virtually certain” to occur justified reopening the case.

  • November 07, 2025

    Insured Appeals $348,000 Award In Asbestos Indemnity Coverage Case

    NEW ORLEANS — An insurance company filed a notice indicating that it would appeal a decision finding it liable for the defense of an asbestos suit in a case in which a federal judge in Louisiana awarded $348,000 for breach of contract but finding that its arguments were not frivolous.

  • November 05, 2025

    Expert Opposes Sanction For Asbestos-Talc Study Email Destruction

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — There was no way to know that defendants would want an expert’s emails about a study, more than three years before the filing of a trade libel case, and even if the originals were deleted, Pecos River Talc LLC never investigated whether it could obtain the evidence through other means, an asbestos-talc expert tells a federal judge in Virginia in opposing sanctions for evidence spoliation.

  • November 04, 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.

  • November 04, 2025

    Special Master: Hospital Must Comply With Subpoena On Mesothelioma-Talc Study

    NEW YORK — A medical provider already ordered to comply with a subpoena seeking information related to the identities of individuals in expert Jacqueline Moline’s mesothelioma-talc studies cannot avoid compliance with an identical subpoena in a different case, a special master in New York said in recommending that the court grant a motion to compel.

  • November 04, 2025

    Judge Awards Insured $348,000 In Asbestos Indemnity Coverage Case

    NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Louisiana, declining to reconsider his decision holding an insurer liable for defense costs in an asbestos case, said he would award $348,000 for breach of contract but rejected arguments that the insurer’s conduct constituted bad faith or misrepresentations about the policy.

  • November 03, 2025

    Oil Company Disputes Need For Rehearing In Appeal Of Dismissed Asbestos Case

    JACKSON, Miss. — An oil company told a Mississippi appellate court that a woman merely rehashes already rejected arguments about why she didn’t pursue her asbestos personal injury case that was pending for nine years and isn’t entitled to reconsideration of a ruling affirming dismissal for lack of prosecution while she litigated parallel bankruptcy-related issues.

  • November 03, 2025

    Woman Disputes Need For Stay During Appeal Of Asbestos Case Remand Ruling

    LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A woman tells a federal judge in Kentucky that General Electric Co. is unlikely to prevail on its claims of entitlement to federal jurisdiction and would not be harmed by allowing the case to proceed while it appeals a remand order.

  • October 31, 2025

    Woman To N.C. Top Court: Ignore Attempt To Undo Workers’ Comp Case Revival

    RALEIGH, N.C. — Neither the results of a bellwether trial nor a consent decree governing how those asbestos cases should proceed binds a workers’ compensation case filed during the pendency of the trial, a widow tells the North Carolina Supreme Court in urging it to deny a petition challenging a ruling allowing her to present evidence.

  • October 31, 2025

    J&J Appeals After New Trial Effort Denied In $25M Asbestos-Talc Case

    BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Johnson & Johnson filed a notice that it would appeal a Connecticut verdict in which the judge awarded $10 million in punitive damages and declined to grant a new trial in the wake of a $25 million asbestos-talc verdict against the company and various related entities.

  • October 30, 2025

    Florida Jury Awards $20 Million In Asbestos-Talc Mesothelioma Case Against J&J

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida jury awarded $20 million to a man for his father’s death from mesothelioma caused by exposure to asbestos in Johnson & Johnson talc-based consumer products, sources told Mealey Publications.

  • October 30, 2025

    New York Top Court Turns Away Causation, Damages Challenge In Asbestos Case

    NEW YORK — The New York Court of Appeals denied a motion for leave to appeal in a case in which a lower court found that testimony from an industrial hygienist and thoracic surgeon satisfied the specific causation standard in New York and that precluding a boiler company from cross-examining the surgeon about exposures for which it had not established liability was not an error.

  • October 30, 2025

    Judge Dismisses Claims In Asbestos Liability Suit Against Guaranty Association

    BATON ROUGE, La. — After parties filed a status report indicating a resolution of claims, a Louisiana federal judge dismissed claims against certain of the parties in an asbestos liability suit against individuals and multiple entities, including the Louisiana Guaranty Association (LIGA), alleging that a man’s workplace exposure to asbestos particles resulted in his lung disease and death.

  • October 29, 2025

    Delaware Vice Chancellor Allows Challenge To Asbestos Trust Record Rules

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Companies frequently named in asbestos litigation likely have only one avenue to obtain information on plaintiffs’ asbestos trust claims crucial to the defense of suits and may continue with their challenge to trust rules that would preserve those filings for only a year, a Delaware vice chancellor said in denying a motion to dismiss.

  • October 27, 2025

    Kentucky Top Court: Carrier Liable For Workers’ Claim Despite Late Date Switch

    FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky workers’ compensation law binds the carrier responsible for the last injurious exposure to asbestos in a workers’ compensation case, even though that insurer did not participate in previous proceedings as a result of a change to the last date of exposure, the Kentucky Supreme Court said in affirming a lower appellate court ruling.

  • October 27, 2025

    Asbestos Defendant Points To Recent Rulings In Defending Expert Subpoena

    NEW YORK — A trio of courts recently affirmed the validity of subpoenas targeting asbestos expert Jacqueline Moline, and those rulings support the conclusion that a previous effort to subpoena the expert was not sanctionable conduct, a defendant tells a federal judge in New York in opposing a hospital’s motion for sanctions.

  • October 23, 2025

    Judge Stays Remand Of Asbestos Case As GE Appeals Ruling

    LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A federal judge in Kentucky stayed a remand order and reopened an asbestos case against General Electric Co. for briefing on an emergency motion for stay as the defendant launched an appeal of the ruling finding that a disclaimer stripped federal officer issues from the case.