Newsletter RSS

Mealey's Asbestos

  • September 17, 2025

    Atlas Turner Abandoned Case, Asbestos Plaintiffs Say In Seeking Default Judgment

    GRAND FORKS, N.D. — Two individuals pursuing an asbestos action asked a federal judge in North Dakota to enter a default judgment against Atlas Turner Inc., saying the 19 months that have passed since the Canadian company last took any action in the case easily meet the requirements for such a remedy.

  • September 16, 2025

    ‘Problematic’ Talc Securities-Class Ruling Requires Rehearing, J&J Warns

    PHILADELPHIA — A panel opinion allowing courts to put aside the rigorous analysis traditionally required for class certification and creating a new standard for price impact disclosures in securities actions will have a “problematic” influence in district court cases involving billions of dollars, Johnson & Johnson entities defending claims that they hid the presence of asbestos in talc from shareholders tell the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • September 16, 2025

    J&J Says Business Records Stipulation Doesn’t Apply Globally To Asbestos Cases

    BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A man’s attempt to force a defendant to verify the propriety of business records is built on the “fiction” that stipulations in other cases apply to his asbestos-talc action despite the lack of any agreement or need for that many documents, Johnson & Johnson tells a Connecticut judge in a Sept. 15 response opposing a motion to enforce the agreements.

  • September 16, 2025

    Oregon Jury Awards $33 Million In Shipyard Laborer’s Asbestos Gaskets Case

    PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon jury awarded a former shipyard laborer $33 million after he developed mesothelioma from exposure to asbestos in John Crane Inc. gaskets and packing, attributing 30% of the liability to the company after finding that the conduct of four of 15 nonparties was also a substantial factor in causing the disease.

  • September 12, 2025

    Dental, Drywall Companies Hit With $29M Asbestos Verdict By California Jury

    LOS ANGELES — A California jury on Sept. 11 awarded $29 million to a man with mesothelioma, finding that joint compound and dental supply companies were liable and that the dental supplier acted with malice.

  • September 12, 2025

    Ohio Panel: Judgment Didn’t Resolve Sanctions Motion in Asbestos Suit

    AKRON, Ohio — A final judgment in an asbestos case did not resolve an ancillary motion for sanctions, leaving an appellate court without jurisdiction, an Ohio appeals court said.  The court also found that the cross-appeal challenged summary judgment on the wrong grounds.

  • September 11, 2025

    Military Leaders, Ex-AGs Tout Need For Expanded Federal Officer Removal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a pair of amicus curiae briefs filed Sept. 11, former U.S. attorneys general and military leaders urged the U.S. Supreme Court to adopt an expanded reading of 2011 amendments to the federal officer removal statute as a means of ensuring that private companies are willing to work with the federal government without the threat of being sued decades later.  The case involves whether lawsuits against oil companies for conduct related to drilling for oil during World War II belong in state or federal court.

  • September 11, 2025

    City Knew Of Asbestos, Employees Say In Bid To Revive Suit

    SAN DIEGO — Evidence that the city of San Diego knowingly forced employees to continue work in a building where they would be exposed to asbestos and a manager’s statements indicating that leasing costs were more important than other considerations such as the health of workers are exactly the type of conduct that warrant punitive damages, employees told a California appellate court.

  • September 10, 2025

    Breach Of Contract Suit Dismissed Following Settlement Between Insurer, Reinsurer

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge ordered the dismissal without costs and without prejudice of an insurer’s breach of contract suit against its reinsurer after the parties reached a settlement.

  • September 09, 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.

  • September 09, 2025

    South Carolina Justice Tells State’s High Court She Will Affirm Cape Receiver

    COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina justice told the state Supreme Court that she would be issuing an opinion affirming appointment of a receiver over Cape PLC in a pair of asbestos cases after the court remanded various appeals to her and warned the parties that ongoing appeals bordered on frivolous and would require sanctions if the conduct continued.

  • September 09, 2025

    Wisconsin High Court Hears Premises Liability Appeal Of Asbestos Verdict

    MILWAUKEE — The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Sept. 8 heard oral arguments on whether a brewery can be held liable as a premises owner for asbestos exposures experienced by an independent contractor under Wisconsin law and whether if the verdict stands, punitive damages are based on the entire compensatory damages award or just the portion recoverable by the plaintiff.

  • September 09, 2025

    N.Y. Jury Awards $12.25M In Environmental Asbestos Case Against Vanderbilt

    CANTON, N.Y. — A New York jury awarded a woman more than $12 million for mesothelioma she developed after she was exposed to asbestos while living in the vicinity of Vanderbilt Minerals LLC’s talc mine, sources told Mealey Publications.

  • September 08, 2025

    Pa. Court Rejects Belief-Based Asbestos Testimony In Affirming Summary Judgment

    HARRISBURG, Pa. — A coworker’s testimony that he believed that a bricklayer worked with asbestos-containing products falls short of the standard for establishing exposure from a furnace company, a Pennsylvania Superior Court panel said in an unpublished opinion affirming a trial court’s decision to grant summary judgment.

  • September 05, 2025

    Oil Companies: Direction, Causal Nexus Not Part Of Federal Officer Removal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congress expanded the federal officer removal statute in 2011 to include conduct connected to federal directives, and asbestos case law establishes that nothing in the statute imposes a causal nexus or contractual directive, oil companies whose World War II drilling activities allegedly violated Louisiana law tell the U.S. Supreme Court in a Sept. 4 brief.

  • September 05, 2025

    Talc Bankruptcy Parties Debate Having District Court Decide Presence Of Asbestos

    HOUSTON — Parties for and against a Texas federal bankruptcy judge’s ruling that a federal district court should decide whether any of the talc sold by debtor BMI Oldco Inc. contained asbestos before the talc mining company’s Chapter 11 case can proceed filed supplemental briefs in support of their positions at the invitation of the district court.

  • September 05, 2025

    Justice: Talc Manufacturer Can’t Rely On Supplier To Evade Liability

    SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A talc manufacturer and distributor cannot completely erase its liability under New York law by pointing to its supplier’s safety certifications, especially in light of expert testimony and other evidence suggesting that its products contained asbestos and the company’s awareness of the problem, a New York justice said in denying summary judgment.

  • September 05, 2025

    Woman Appeals Sanction For Unreported Asbestos-Talc Testing

    SEATTLE — Division I of the Washington Court of Appeals indicated that it would accept discretionary review of a ruling imposing $13,200 in sanctions for counsel’s testing on an undisclosed sample of talc in an asbestos case.

  • September 05, 2025

    Judge Won’t Review Remand Of Asbestos Case Against Shipbuilder

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California in a docket-only entry declined to reconsider a ruling in which he found that removal of an asbestos action was untimely and that federal officer removal was inappropriate in any case.

  • September 04, 2025

    Government Contractor, Immunity Defenses Rejected In Federal Asbestos Case

    NEW ORLEANS — While a shipyard meets the threshold for federal officer removal, it cannot rely on government contractor or derivative sovereign immunity defenses, a federal judge in Louisiana said Sept. 3 in denying remand but granting summary judgment on the two issues.

  • September 04, 2025

    North Carolina Court: Bellwether Trial Doesn’t Bar Asbestos Workers’ Comp Claims

    RALEIGH, N.C. — The results of a bellwether trial do not preclude 13 workers’ compensation claimants from attempting to prove causation in their individual asbestos actions against a tire company, a divided North Carolina Court of Appeals held Sept. 3 in reversing dismissal of the cases.

  • September 03, 2025

    John Crane Appeals Ruling Remanding Asbestos Case After Disclaimer

    PHILADELPHIA — A post-removal disclaimer of any claims arising from work on government vessels sufficiently eliminates the grounds for federal jurisdiction, and keeping the case in federal court will not result in a more efficient resolution, a federal judge in Pennsylvania said in remanding an asbestos case.  Defendant John Crane Inc. filed a notice of appeal of the ruling on Sept. 2.

  • September 03, 2025

    California Panel Publishes Sophisticated User Ruling In Asbestos Pipe Case

    LOS ANGELES — A California appellate court granted a request to publish a recent decision in which the court upheld a jury verdict finding a pipelayer qualified as a sophisticated user of asbestos-containing pipe and that the manufacturer was not negligent.

  • September 02, 2025

    Judge Allows Experts’ Testimony After ‘Every Exposure,’ Tobacco Opinion Challenges

    HONOLULU — A federal judge in Hawaii precluded two experts from testifying that every exposure or any exposure to asbestos is a substantial contributing factor in a man’s lung cancer but otherwise denied a motion to exclude the experts and admitted an expert set to testify about secondhand exposure to tobacco’s role in the disease.

  • August 29, 2025

    Asbestos Expert’s Exclusion On Timeliness Grounds Improper, California Court Says

    SAN FRANCISCO — Counsel did not invite trial court error by being unprepared to oppose an objection to the timeliness of an asbestos expert at a summary judgment hearing because the burden of demonstrating untimeliness lies with the moving party and the expert’s testimony rests on sufficient grounds for admission, a California appellate court said in an Aug. 28 unpublished opinion reversing a ruling excluding the evidence.