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Mealey's Asbestos

May 23, 2025
South Carolina Top Court Affirms Discovery Sanction, Receiver For Atlas Turner

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A wealth of evidence supports a trial court’s decision striking defendant Atlas Turner Inc.’s answer as a sanction for discovery abuses in an asbestos case, and the company’s “moral fraud” warranted appointing a receiver over its insurance assets, the South Carolina Supreme Court said in narrowing but otherwise affirming the rulings.
May 23, 2025
Louisiana Federal Judge Stays Claims Against Insurer In Asbestos Bodily Injury Suit

NEW ORLEANS — Claims alleged against an insurer in an asbestos bodily injury suit filed in Louisiana federal court will be stayed until a Massachusetts federal court resolves the issue of whether the insurer is responsible for policies issued to the executive officers of a shipyard where a decedent was exposed to asbestos because a stay of the claims will not prejudice the plaintiffs’ ability to seek coverage from the shipyard’s proper insurer, a Louisiana federal judge said in granting the insurer’s motion to stay.
May 22, 2025
California Judge Bars Kidney Cancer Claims In Mesothelioma Trial

OAKLAND, Calif. — A jury on May 21 heard opening arguments in a mesothelioma case after a California judge issued a tentative ruling barring a couple from pursuing claims related to a man’s kidney cancer but said if an expert opines on a possible genetic role in the disease the couple may inquire about any role asbestos could play.
May 22, 2025
Judge Says Law Firms In Talc Tort Contract Dispute Can Arbitrate Some Claims

JACKSON, Miss. — A federal judge in Alabama ordered two asbestos-talc personal injury law firms to arbitrate contract and fraudulent suppression claims in the wake of their agreement but said the court would retain jurisdiction over specific performance claims.
May 22, 2025
Montana Legislation Relocating Asbestos Claims Fails In Fiscal Committee

HELENA, Mont. — Montana legislation seeking creation of a three-judge government claims court that would have jurisdiction over constitutional and asbestos-related claims failed to pass the Senate Committee on Finance and Claims and failed.
May 21, 2025
J&J Affiliate’s New Evidence Not Material, Talc Study Author Says

TRENTON, N.J. — A motion filed by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff Pecos River Talc LLC in New Jersey federal court seeking to revive its dismissed trade libel and fraud action against the author of a scientific study should be rejected because the company’s new evidence is not material and will not change the disposition of the case, the study author argues in an opposition brief.
May 20, 2025
Panel Finds No Error In Lower Court’s Coverage Determinations In Asbestos Suit

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A trial court did not err in making coverage determinations based on two policies produced by a receiver who was appointed to manage asbestos bodily injury claims filed against an insured, because the insurer failed to submit any evidence to support its argument that some of the policies’ terms changed over the years and were not identical to the two policies produced by the receiver, the South Carolina Court of Appeals said.
May 20, 2025
Parties To Libby, Mont., Fraudulent Claim Verdict Brief Attorney Fee Award

MISSOULA, Mont. — Parties to Libby, Mont., fraudulent screening diagnosis case responded to a judge’s request for briefing on a pending motion for attorney fees in the wake of what the judge termed “significant developments” since the $1.4 million judgment against the medical provider for allegedly submitting fraudulent claims under a Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) program specifically designed for the asbestos-plagued town.
May 19, 2025
Government Contractor Immunity Win Can’t Secure Asbestos Case Remand, Judge Says

NEW ORLEANS — A ruling granting summary judgment on a shipyard’s government immunity defenses in an asbestos case does not eliminate federal jurisdiction or require remand of the case, a federal judge in Louisiana said in denying a man’s motion to remand.
May 19, 2025
Judge Reconsiders, Finds Asbestos Letter To EPA Meets Delaware Standard

WILMINGTON, Del. — A couple’s evidence that a man worked with a company’s automotive brakes approximately half the time he was on the job, combined with a regulatory letter the company sent detailing its ongoing use of asbestos-containing brakes, meet the causal nexus standard in Delaware, a state judge said in granting reconsideration of an order awarding the company summary judgment.
May 19, 2025
Florida Court Briefed On Jurisdiction Over J&J Entities

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A man and a trio of Johnson & Johnson entities recently resumed briefing in a case challenging whether companies created in the wake of attempts to resolve talc-related liabilities through bankruptcy can be subject to jurisdiction in Florida.
May 16, 2025
Supreme Court Sets Timeline For Decision On Federal Officer Removal Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court set May 29 for consideration of a petition by oil companies challenging a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling remanding cases involving claims that World War II oil operations departed from prudent industry practices and violated state law.
May 15, 2025
Third-Party Hospital: Ignore Tactics In Asbestos Spat, Impose Sanctions

NEW YORK — Calling an asbestos defendant’s argument in briefing a “desperation tactic” that is both “immature and unprofessional,” a third-party hospital says in a reply brief that a New York federal court should impose sanctions for the undue burden and expense the defendant’s voluntary actions caused.
May 15, 2025
Bankruptcy Judge Asks District Court To Decide If Asbestos Was In Debtor’s Talc

HOUSTON — A Texas federal district court should decide the threshold question of whether any of the talc sold by BMI Oldco Inc. actually contained asbestos, before the talc mining company’s Chapter 11 case can go any further, the U.S. bankruptcy judge overseeing the case said in a May 14 report and recommendation issued sua sponte.
May 15, 2025
Office Workers: Evidence Of Intentional Injury Warrants Reinstating Asbestos Case

SAN DIEGO — Evidence that San Diego knew that a building under renovation contained asbestos, that testing showed unhealthy levels of the fiber in the air and that it kept workers in the building rather than break a $1 million lease at the very least creates triable issues on whether it intentionally injured workers and demonstrates the type of malice permitting punitive damages, a group of office workers tells a California appellate court in seeking reversal of a summary judgment order.
May 14, 2025
J&J Wants Discovery Into Talc MDL Litigation Funding

TRENTON, N.J. — Recent developments show that something “untoward” is going on, Johnson & Johnson entities say in a notice seeking discovery and to compel production of litigation financing behind one of the primary firms involved in the federal talc multidistrict litigation in New Jersey federal court.
May 13, 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.
May 13, 2025
California Jury Returns Asbestos Verdict For Johnson & Johnson

LOS ANGELES — A California state court jury returned a verdict for Johnson & Johnson on claims that its baby powder caused a man’s mesothelioma, mooting a trial issue about how the verdict form should list potentially liable nonparty entities.
May 13, 2025
COMMENTARY: Leveraging Affirmative Defenses In California Asbestos Cases After Watts v. Pneumo Abex, LLC

By Emily Cuatto, Curt Cutting and Arianna Lopez
May 12, 2025
Brewery Liable For Mesothelioma Under Wisconsin Law, Woman Says

MILWAUKEE — Wisconsin law requires owners who control a premises to provide a safe place for workers that cannot be delegated or wiped away by a contractor’s negligence, a woman told the Wisconsin Supreme Court in defending a $26.5 million asbestos verdict.
May 12, 2025
Louisiana Jury Returns $3M Verdict For Family Of Mesothelioma Sufferer

NEW ORLEANS — After a judge excluded evidence of an expert’s altercation at a conference as providing “very little probative effect,” a Louisiana jury returned a verdict of just over $3 million to the family of a woman who died of mesothelioma after using Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder during her life.
May 09, 2025
Talc MDL Judge Won’t Admit Proposed FDA Asbestos-Talc Testing Rule

TRENTON, N.J. — The Food and Drug Administration’s proposed rule governing the measuring and identification of asbestos in talc does not constitute a change in policy or binding authority, the federal judge overseeing the talcum powder multidistrict litigation in New Jersey said in denying a motion to supplement the record or for judicial notice.
May 09, 2025
Old Asbestos Trust Claim Bars Claim Of Surviving Son, Bankruptcy Judge Says

CINCINNATI — The son of a man who died from mesothelioma after receiving a payment in 2001 from an asbestos trust in settlement of a nonmalignancy claim cannot have a malignancy claim for his father’s mesothelioma reviewed by the trust because the father’s settlement released the trust from future liability and the son sought review too late, an Ohio federal bankruptcy judge ruled.
May 08, 2025
Canadian Court Grants Asbestos Corp. Protection As It Attempts Restructuring

THETFORD MINES, Quebec — A Canadian court on May 7 granted an application to apply legal protections to Asbestos Corp. Ltd. as the company filed a Chapter 15 bankruptcy in U.S. court in the hopes of restructuring.
May 07, 2025
Talc Manufacturer Not Subject To Jurisdiction In Indiana, Court Says

INDIANAPOLIS — A Missouri talc manufacturer’s shipping of products to an Indiana warehouse at the direction of another company does not create personal jurisdiction in the state, an appeals court in Indiana said in reversing a ruling denying a motion to dismiss in a mesothelioma case.