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Mealey's Asbestos

  • March 10, 2026

    Ohio Parties Debate Whether Court Should Have Reviewed Asbestos Ruling

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — Parties filed jurisdictional briefs before the Ohio Supreme Court over whether an appellate court improperly declined to address a summary judgment challenge in asbestos case, with the appellant complaining that ignoring issues has been the court’s habit of late and the appellee saying the plaintiff simply didn’t present enough evidence for its consideration.

  • March 10, 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.

  • March 10, 2026

    Florida $20M Asbestos-Talc Verdict Stands As Judge Denies Posttrial Motions

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida judge denied posttrial motions seeking additur, judgment notwithstanding the verdict and new trial in an asbestos case, leaving in place a $20 million verdict in the case of a physician who died of mesothelioma after lifelong use of consumer talc products.

  • March 10, 2026

    New Jersey Judge Won’t Stay Beasley Allen Talc Disqualification

    ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The judge overseeing New Jersey multicounty talc litigation declined to stay his ruling disqualifying Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles PC while the firm appeals to the New Jersey Supreme Court a ruling that reversed his original decision finding that their collaboration with a former Johnson & Johnson attorney was not improper.

  • March 10, 2026

    Florida Judge: No Jurisdiction Over PTI Defendants In Asbestos Case

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida judge granted a motion to dismiss six defendants that allegedly blended and packaged branded consumer talc and then granted the plaintiffs leave to amend.

  • March 06, 2026

    Asbestos Case Granted Preference; Genetics At Issue In Summary Judgment Motion

    LOS ANGELES — A California judge granted trial preference to a retired biologist who allegedly developed mesothelioma, rejecting objections that she is cancer-free and that the only evidence of her ailments is her counsel’s declaration, while a separate defendant moved for summary judgment, arguing that genetic mutations — not asbestos — caused her disease.

  • March 06, 2026

    Additur, JNOV Briefed After Pennsylvania Jury Awards $250,000 For Ovarian Cancer

    PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania jury’s $7,148 award for a woman’s four years of suffering with ovarian cancer as a result of exposure to asbestos-tainted talc as part of its $250,000 verdict “is not a verdict.  It is a number that is out of touch with the reality of the suffering,” plaintiffs argue in seeking additur.  But in a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV), two Johnson & Johnson entities argue that the plaintiffs had not demonstrated that talc caused her disease, let alone conduct warranting punitive damages.

  • March 04, 2026

    Stalking Horse Sale Debated In Talc Company’s New Chapter 11 Case

    SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A New York federal bankruptcy court should approve a request by new Chapter 11 debtor Vanderbilt Minerals LLC to allow a stalking horse bidder and bid procedures for the sale of most of the debtor’s assets over the objections of counsel for asbestos claimants and the U.S. trustee so potential bidders have timely information on the sale, the debtor says in a March 4 reply to the objections.

  • March 04, 2026

    New Evidence Revives J&J Spinoff’s Trade Libel Suit Against Talc Study Author

    TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge hearing a trade libel case filed by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff Pecos River Talc LLC against the author of a scientific study on asbestos in talc products has granted the spinoff relief from the judge’s dismissal of the suit and allowed it to amend its complaint after the company presented new evidence.

  • March 03, 2026

    Insured’s Breach Of Contract Claim In Asbestos Dispute Should Proceed, Panel Says

    CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacated and remanded a district court’s decision to grant a motion to dismiss an insured’s amended complaint seeking coverage for underlying asbestos liabilities, determining that the insured adequately states a claim for breach of contract.

  • March 02, 2026

    Judge Won’t Bar Daubert Exclusion Questioning, But Asbestos Soil Expert Is Out

    NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Louisiana said she would not impose a blanket prohibition on trial questions about whether experts were excluded in other asbestos cases but warned counsel not to go into excessive detail about the rulings in those cases.  Days earlier, the judge said a shipyard should have known that it had a duty to preserve soil samples tested by an expert who had yet to be deposed in an asbestos case rapidly approaching trial, excluding the expert and any expert opinions relying on her soil testing.

  • March 02, 2026

    Alcoa: No Need To Reopen Intentional Injury Asbestos Case

    SPOKANE, Wash. — A Washington Supreme Court decision changing one prong of how courts analyze employer liability for intentional injury should not apply to adjudicated cases, otherwise courts risk an onslaught of reopened cases from decades past, the successor to Alcoa Inc. told a federal judge in Washington in opposing plaintiffs’ motion for post judgment relief.

  • February 27, 2026

    Judge Modifies East Wing Demo Asbestos Case Stay, Asks For Briefing Schedule

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal judge overseeing the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization’s (ADAO) lawsuit seeking details about asbestos remediation efforts at the site of the White House East Wing reconstruction granted a motion to amend a ruling staying the case and ordered the parties to file a joint status report detailing how to proceed on a motion for partial summary judgment on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) claim.  The judge issued the docket-only order on Feb. 26.

  • February 27, 2026

    Former Asbestos Attorney Pleads Guilty To Wire Fraud, Money Laundering

    CHARLESTON, S.C. — Former Motley Rice asbestos plaintiffs’ attorney Christopher Swett faces 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to four counts each of wire fraud and money laundering stemming from a scheme to defraud the firm and clients, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina and documents filed in federal court.

  • February 26, 2026

    Man: Union Carbide Waived Jurisdiction After Years Of Litigating Asbestos Suit

    BISMARCK, N.D. — Union Carbide Corp. misreads precedent on jurisdiction but in any case waived any jurisdictional challenge by participating in previous asbestos litigation involving the same parties for three years, a man tells the North Dakota Supreme Court.

  • February 26, 2026

    Parties Brief Delaware Court On Preservation Of Asbestos Bankruptcy Trust Data

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Bankruptcy trusts are the only reliable source of claims data, and an equitable bill of discovery permits a ruling preserving the evidence, repeat litigants in asbestos cases tell a Delaware Supreme Court in an appellee brief.

  • February 25, 2026

    9th Circuit Reverses $8M Asbestos Verdict, Says BNSF Protected As ‘Common Carrier’

    PORTLAND, Ore. — The railroad company that hauled asbestos-tainted vermiculite from the world’s largest vermiculite mine in Libby, Mont., to destinations around the country under federal law is protected from strict liability claims by the “common carrier” exception to such liability, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Feb. 24 in reversing an $8 million combined judgment for the estates of two mesothelioma victims and directing the trial court to enter judgment for the railroad company on remand.

  • February 25, 2026

    Soil Sample Destruction Earns Expert Exclusion From Asbestos Suit

    NEW ORLEANS — A shipyard should have known that it had a duty to preserve soil samples tested by an expert who had yet to be deposed in an asbestos case rapidly approaching trial, a federal judge in Louisiana said in excluding the expert and any expert opinions relying on her soil testing.

  • February 24, 2026

    Experts, Unique Asbestos Diseases Behind Trio Of Rulings From Veteran Appeals

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims judges recently issued three opinions affirming rulings adverse to claimants covering asbestos exposure and colon cancer, prostate disease and the ability of the government to seek compensation from liable parties for treatment to veterans.

  • February 24, 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.

  • February 24, 2026

    Judge Nixes Asbestos Experts After Briefing On New Rules, Supreme Court Precedent

    SEATTLE — A federal in Washington judge excluded a pair of asbestos experts and granted summary judgment to two shipyard defendants after the parties briefed her on the impact of the amended Federal Rules of Evidence and a recent U.S. Supreme Court case governing federal jurisdiction.

  • February 24, 2026

    Judge Signs Agreed Order On Access To Expert’s Talc Testing, Lab

    CHICAGO — Merck & Co. Inc. is set to supplement expert reports and disclosures after an Illinois judge signed an agreed order on the discovery schedule and granted the company access to talc samples tested by plaintiff expert Stephen Compton and access to his lab.

  • February 24, 2026

    Asbestos Firm Says Pipe Maker’s RICO Case Falls Short Again

    CHICAGO — A pipe maker’s amended complaint accusing a law firm of improperly naming it in asbestos suits mischaracterizes the situation, targets protected litigation conduct and never rises to the level of racketeering, the firm says in asking a federal judge in Illinois to dismiss the action once again.

  • February 24, 2026

    Magistrate Judge Says Shipyard Must Produce Employee File In Asbestos Case

    NEW ORLEANS — The relevant factors warrant compelling an employer to produce an employee’s work file in an asbestos case, with certain protections in place to protect against privacy violations and embarrassment, a federal magistrate judge in Louisiana said.

  • February 24, 2026

    California Appeals Court Rejects Avon’s Challenges To Asbestos Expert Testimony

    LOS ANGELES — A California appellate court affirmed a judgment following a verdict of more than $40.8 million in total compensatory damages and another $10.3 million in punitive damages, saying that it discerned nothing improper in expert testimony about testing that found asbestos in talc or that resulting exposure constituted a cause of a woman’s mesothelioma.