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Mealey's Asbestos Bankruptcy

  • April 23, 2026

    Gori Law Firm Calls Conduct Routine In Pipe Company’s RICO Case

    EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — Routine law firm activities such as prosecuting personal injury cases and rewarding attorneys for successful outcomes cannot form the basis for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) claims, The Gori Law Firm and several individual defendants told a federal judge in Illinois in seeking to dismiss the suit against them.

  • April 23, 2026

    Discharge Granted In Chapter 11 Case Of Hollywood Cosmetics Company

    LOS ANGELES — Reorganized Chapter 11 asbestos talc debtor Ben Nye Co. Inc., a family-run cosmetics business whose founder gained fame through his work on motion pictures, received an order of discharge from a federal bankruptcy court in California.

  • April 22, 2026

    Missouri Court Won’t Reconsider Workers’ Comp Asbestos Verdict Issues

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A defense verdict in which an employer raised the workers’ compensation exclusivity defense stands after a Missouri appellate court on April 21 denied reconsideration of its ruling affirming the jury and declined a request to transfer the case to the state’s top court for the second time.

  • April 22, 2026

    Mandate Issued In Railway ‘Common Carrier’ Case After Rehearing Denied

    PORTLAND, Ore. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals entered its mandate after declining to rehear its reversal of an $8 million combined judgment for the estates of two mesothelioma victims and directing the trial court to enter judgment for the defendant railroad company, which hauled asbestos-tainted vermiculite from a mine in Libby, Mont.

  • April 14, 2026

    Asbestos Claimants Rail At ‘Perversion’ Of Texas 2-Step In High Court Amicus Brief

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court should put an end to the “Texas Two-Step,” under which large corporations use the Lone Star State’s divisional merger laws to create an affiliate, transfer all of the company’s asbestos liabilities to the spinoff and then have the debt-laden new company file for bankruptcy protection, asbestos creditor committees in two such bankruptcy cases tell the court in an amicus curiae brief in support of a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by the claimant committee in the Texas Two-Step Chapter 11 case of Georgia-Pacific spinoff Bestwall LLC.

  • April 10, 2026

    Vice Chancellor Denies Reversal Of Gasket Company’s Dissolution

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A woman asserting an asbestos personal injury claim against a defunct gasket company failed to prove that the company’s certificate of cancellation should be nullified due to an improper dissolution, a Delaware vice chancellor ruled.

  • April 06, 2026

    Asbestos Case Settles Prior To Punitive Damages Phase After Jury Awards $33M

    LOS ANGELES — A former Hollywood cameraman and a theatrical lighting company settled prior to the punitive damages phase of an asbestos trial after a California jury found that the company acted with malice and awarded more than $33 million in pain and suffering damages.

  • April 06, 2026

    Dueling Experts Prevent Summary Judgment In New York Asbestos Case

    NEW YORK — Dueling medical and industrial hygiene experts create genuine issues about whether a company’s talc could have contained asbestos levels sufficient to cause a man’s mesothelioma, a New York justice said in denying a motion for summary judgment.

  • April 03, 2026

    Mesothelioma Sufferer Wants 2nd Look At Workers’ Comp Exclusivity Defense Ruling

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict was not required to preserve a challenge to a workers’ compensation exclusivity defense in an asbestos case, and the court’s reliance on precedent to reach a contrary conclusion warrants reconsideration or transfer to the Missouri Supreme Court, a woman whose case has already been to the state’s top court once argues.

  • April 01, 2026

    Family Asks Texas Supreme Court For Prompt Resolution Of Asbestosis Causation Case

    AUSTIN, Texas — In a letter to the Texas Supreme Court, a family urges the justices to issue an opinion on the proper causation standard in asbestosis cases during the current term, noting that the parties completed merits briefing in January 2025, before any of the other cases on the court’s docket, and that prompt resolution would ensure that an aged man suffering from the disease can have his day in court.

  • March 31, 2026

    Plaintiff’s Talc Firm, Attorney Want Federal Disqualification Stayed

    TRENTON, N.J. — A firm on the asbestos-talc multidistrict litigation steering committee and one of its attorneys asked a federal magistrate judge in New Jersey on March 30 to stay his ruling disqualifying them, arguing that they are likely to prevail on their appeal of a ruling nationalizing a state rule on professional conduct.

  • March 31, 2026

    Judge Lifts Stay Of Asbestos Group’s East Wing FOIA Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge lifted a ruling staying the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization’s (ADAO) action seeking information on remediation steps taken during the White House East Wing demolition and scheduled briefing on motions for summary judgment after the group complained a stay would leave the case in limbo.

  • March 30, 2026

    Asbestos Claimants Lose Bid For Direct Appeal Of Denial Of Chapter 11 Dismissal

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A North Carolina federal bankruptcy judge did not misapply or misinterpret federal law or Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals precedent in denying two asbestos claimants’ motion to dismiss the Chapter 11 case of Georgia-Pacific spinoff Bestwall LLC, a federal judge in the state held March 27 in denying the claimants’ request to certify the decision for direct appeal.

  • March 30, 2026

    Judge Says Asbestos Claimants Cannot Appeal Denial Of Chapter 11 Case Dismissal

    HOUSTON — A committee of asbestos claimants in the Chapter 11 case of talc mining company BMI Oldco Inc. failed to meet the criteria for an interlocutory appeal of a bankruptcy judge’s denial of the committee’s bid to dismiss the case for lack of financial distress, a Texas federal judge held in denying the committee’s motion for leave to appeal.

  • March 27, 2026

    Prejudice Tainted $6.6 Million Asbestos Verdict, Shipyard Argues

    NEW ORLEANS — A shipyard opposed the addition of pre- and postjudgment interest on a $6,625,000 asbestos verdict after previously arguing that it was prejudiced by comments made during the trial and that the plaintiff never established negligence.

  • March 26, 2026

    4th Circuit Pauses Appeal Of FCR In Ship Contractor’s Asbestos Bankruptcy Case

    RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a request by two insurers of Chapter 11 debtor Hopeman Brothers Inc. to hold in abeyance their appeal of a bankruptcy court’s appointment of a legal representative for future asbestos claimants in the debtor’s case until a Virginia federal court rules on whether to confirm Hopeman’s plan of reorganization.

  • March 24, 2026

    Insurer Argues Arbitrator Dispute Is Noncommercial, Seeks Remand To State Court

    NEW YORK — An insurance exchange filed a remand motion in a New York federal court, arguing that its suit seeking to disqualify a reinsurer-appointed arbitrator based on his prior representation presents a noncommercial, nonarbitrable dispute over attorney fiduciary duties that belongs in state court, not federal court.

  • 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 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

    Judge Upholds Denial Of Stay Relief In Georgia-Pacific Debtor’s Bankruptcy Case

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A North Carolina federal bankruptcy judge properly denied an asbestos claimant’s motion for relief from the automatic stay in the Chapter 11 case of Georgia-Pacific spinoff Bestwall LLC, a federal judge ruled in affirming the decision on appeal.

  • 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

    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 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.