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Mealey's Asbestos

  • January 14, 2026

    Atlas Turner Hit With Default Judgment After Attorney, Defense Admissions

    GRAND FORKS, N.D. — A federal judge in North Dakota granted a motion for default judgment against Atlas Turner Inc. on Jan. 13 after an attorney acknowledged the company received the motion but informed the plaintiffs that the company wouldn’t be replacing counsel and lacked the financial resources to continue defending asbestos cases in the United States.

  • January 14, 2026

    Reinsurers, Insurers Ask To Seal Summary Judgment Briefs In Indemnification Case

    TRENTON, N.J. —  The parties in a dispute between insurers and reinsurers over indemnification for asbestos bodily injury claims moved to seal confidential information as part of their cross-motions for summary judgment in a New Jersey federal court, stating that the filings contain nonpublic, competitively sensitive business information and that disclosure would cause competitive harm.

  • January 14, 2026

    J&J, Man Debate Trial Readiness, Need To Delay Maine Asbestos Trial

    PORTLAND, Maine — Johnson & Johnson entities responded to a plaintiff’s motion for a continuance by saying that lack of trial preparedness or resources is no reason to continue the asbestos case’s March trial date.

  • January 13, 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.

  • January 13, 2026

    Supreme Court Won’t Review Receiver’s Appointment In South Carolina Asbestos Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 12 declined to review a South Carolina judge’s ruling appointing a receiver over Canadian defendant Atlas Turner Inc.’s asbestos-related insurance assets, a practice the company described in its briefing as “astonishing.”

  • January 13, 2026

    Burnham Divests Asbestos Liabilities To Funded Subsidiaries

    LANCASTER, Pa. — Burnham Holdings Inc. (BHI) announced it would restructure, divest its asbestos-related liabilities and take other steps to streamline and optimize operations.

  • January 13, 2026

    Judge Allows But Limits Reliance On Moline’s Mesothelioma-Talc Studies

    OAKLAND, Calif. — A woman may rely on the more recent of expert Jacqueline Moline’s articles involving alleged cases of talc-only mesotheliomas in establishing that mined talc can contain asbestos and that asbestos can remain even after the milling process, but not to establish the likelihood of contracting mesothelioma through cosmetic talc use, a judge in California said in partially granting a motion in limine seeking to exclude reliance on the studies.

  • January 07, 2026

    COMMENTARY: Turning The Page: How Legislative Reform And Judicial Changes Are Reshaping Asbestos Litigation In The Mountain State

    By Thomas M. Hancock and Marc E. Williams

  • January 12, 2026

    Asbestos Cases Feature In Oral Arguments Over Federal Officer Removal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a case echoing asbestos litigation, oil companies and Louisiana on Jan. 12 sparred during oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court over whether well drilling activities in the state were sufficiently related to World War II-era contracts involving the production of aviation gasoline to trigger federal jurisdiction under 2011 amendments to the federal officer removal statute.

  • January 12, 2026

    Plaintiffs Settle With CVS After Talc Email Ruling, Seek Sanction On Last Defendant

    OAKLAND, Calif. — A pair of plaintiffs settled with a pharmacy after a California judge said he would admit an email in which an employee told co-workers what he learned about the dangers of consumer talc products.  The plaintiffs then asked the judge to sanction a second defendant for failing to produce a knowledgeable witness.

  • January 12, 2026

    John Crane Appeals $10 Million Judgment In Oregon Asbestos Case

    PORTLAND, Ore. — John Crane Inc. (JCI) filed a notice indicating that it would appeal an Oregon judge’s entry of a $10,284,000 limited judgment against it in an asbestos case involving the company’s gaskets.

  • January 12, 2026

    Merck Wants Expert’s Testing Materials In Asbestos Talc Case

    CHICAGO — A couple must produce the grids and other materials on which an expert relied in an asbestos-talc case so that the expert’s opinions can be fairly evaluated and challenged, a company told an Illinois judge.

  • January 12, 2026

    New York Appellate Court Won’t Stay Asbestos Case Pending Appeal

    NEW YORK — A New York appellate court declined to stay trial court proceedings while it considers a ruling denying summary judgment to American Honda Motor Co. in an asbestos case.

  • January 12, 2026

    New York Court Won’t Stay Case Pending Talc Company’s Appeal

    NEW YORK — A New York appellate court denied a motion to stay an asbestos-talc case pending appeal of a motion denying summary ruling, finding genuine issues of material fact about whether the company’s product was part of the CoverGirl product line.

  • January 09, 2026

    Asbestos Group Seeks FOIA Disclosures On East Wing Demolition

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government refuses to disclose whether demolition of the White House’s East Wing disrupted asbestos or what measures were put in place to protect workers, visitors and those nearby, the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) alleges in a Jan. 7 lawsuit filed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

  • January 08, 2026

    Judge Will Allow J&J Affiliate To Amend Complaint Against Talc Study Author

    TRENTON, N.J. — The New Jersey federal judge hearing a fraud case filed by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff and Chapter 11 debtor Pecos River Talc LLC against the author of a scientific study on asbestos in talc products told the parties that she intends to grant the debtor relief from her dismissal of the suit and allow it to amend its complaint after the company presented new evidence.

  • January 07, 2026

    Blood Draw For Genetic Testing Meets Federal Rules, Judge In Asbestos Case Says

    NEW ORLEANS — Because the cause of mesothelioma is in controversy and there is no other means of obtaining the genetic information the defendant contends could be an independent cause, a blood draw for genetic testing is appropriate, a federal judge in Louisiana said Jan. 6 in granting a motion to compel.

  • January 07, 2026

    Wrongful Death Claim’s Viability, Scope Of Brief At Issue In Maine Asbestos Case

    PORTLAND, Maine — A loss of consortium claim requires the injured party to be dead, and Maine law doesn’t require a separate wrongful death claim, a widower argues in a Jan. 6 motion to strike arguments in a supplemental brief outside that narrow issue in an asbestos-talc case.

  • December 26, 2025

    Exposure, Causation At Heart Of Briefing In Dominican’s Asbestos Case

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A pair of companies seeking summary judgment told a judge in Delaware that there was insufficient evidence that a man who immigrated from the Dominican Republic worked with their products let alone was exposed to asbestos at sufficient levels to cause disease under applicable California law.

  • December 24, 2025

    Couple Says Lawyer Knew Of Motion To Reinstate Asbestos Intentional Injury Case

    SPOKANE, Wash. — While a company complains that it was never served with a motion to reinstate an asbestos case against it alleging intentional injury to an employee, it concedes that electronic service is all that is required and the record shows that its listed attorney received notice of the motion, a couple tells a federal judge in Washington in opposing a motion for reconsideration.

  • December 24, 2025

    Canadian Company Says Asbestos Receivership Ruling Requires Review

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A judge’s ruling appointing a receiver over a foreign company’s insurance assets regardless of where those assets exist was improper and conflicts with various other court rulings, a Canadian asbestos defendant tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a reply in support of its petition for a writ of certiorari.

  • December 24, 2025

    Woman: Asbestos Link Clear, Genetic Testing Unnecessary In Mesothelioma Case

    NEW ORLEANS — A family history of diseases with clear links to asbestos exposures does not warrant permitting a blood draw to identify potential genetic causes that even if established would not relieve the defendant of its liability, a woman tells a federal judge in Louisiana in opposing a motion to compel.

  • December 24, 2025

    Asbestos-Based Claims Against Employer Proceed, Connecticut Justice Says

    BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A man’s asbestos-based negligence claims are governed by a special statute of limitations, and the product liability claim may proceed even though it differs from recent precedent allowing employees to sue their employers for known injuries, a Connecticut justice said in denying a motion to strike.

  • December 23, 2025

    Maryland Jury Awards Nonprofit CEO Nearly $1.56B From J&J For Mesothelioma

    BALTIMORE — A Maryland jury on Dec. 22 awarded a mesothelioma sufferer who operates a nonprofit supporting children $1.5 billion in punitive damages plus compensatory damages for asbestos exposure linked to Johnson & Johnson entities’ talc products.

  • December 22, 2025

    Minnesota Jury Awards $65.5 Million For Talc-Related Mesothelioma

    ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota jury on Dec. 19 awarded a 37-year-old woman and her husband more than $65.5 million for peritoneal mesothelioma she developed after exposure to asbestos in Johnson & Johnson consumer talc.