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May 26, 2026
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.
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May 26, 2026
BALTIMORE — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals vacated and remanded a take-home asbestos case after the Maryland Supreme Court responded to a certified question by saying strict liability design defect claims do not require a duty element, according to the court’s docket.
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May 26, 2026
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota jury awarded a couple $10.2 million in a case in which a man contracted mesothelioma in his forties after decades-long exposure to asbestos in consumer talc products. Sources told Mealey Publications that it is the second largest mesothelioma-related verdict in Minnesota history and the first ever asbestos-talc verdict against store-brand talc manufacturer Vi-Jon LLC.
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May 26, 2026
BISMARCK, N.D. — Union Carbide Corp. and a man with asbestosis argued before the North Dakota Supreme Court over whether state business registration law and recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent as well as the company’s own conduct created jurisdiction or whether the lack of any contacts with the suit doomed the suit.
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May 22, 2026
CHICAGO — A May decision by a federal court in Pennsylvania rejecting protections for litigation involving fabricated evidence and other arguments buttresses Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Actclaims alleging a scheme by lawyers to file baseless asbestos lawsuits, a pipe maker tells a federal court in Illinois in a notice of supplemental authority.
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May 22, 2026
TRENTON, N.J. — The special master involved in the federal multidistrict asbestos-talc ovarian cancer litigation said she would allow supplemental briefing on a trio of plaintiff-side specific causation experts after Johnson & Johnson entities complained about mid-hearing changes to opinions that altered the scope of the litigation. Among the complaints were that one of the experts used artificial intelligence on the stand, which required the special master to admonish the witness.
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May 21, 2026
TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson entities asked for supplemental briefing on specific causation experts after claiming that various problems arose during a hearing, including the experts changing opinions about talc’s role in ovarian cancer midhearing and an expert using artificial intelligence to respond to questioning. But in a motion to strike that filing, the plaintiffs told a federal judge in New Jersey that there are no grounds for supplemental briefing and that the judge clearly believes she has enough evidence to rule on the admissibility of the experts.
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May 21, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A California appellate court revived a couple’s asbestos lawsuit, finding that two brothers’ differing testimony about the brand of joint compound they used in renovating their aunt’s house did not warrant granting an asbestos fiber supplier summary judgment.
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May 13, 2026
By Mary Margaret Gay, Sarah Beth Jones and Tricia Richardson
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May 20, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — A defense expert may testify that a man suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in addition to other asbestos-related illnesses, a federal judge in Louisiana said May 19 in denying a motion to exclude. In other developments, the court announced that the man had settled with Shell USA Inc. and asked the court to reconsider summary judgment on a nonintentional tort claim, and the parties wrapped briefing on a plaintiff expert’s “contaminated house” testimony.
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May 20, 2026
WILMINGTON, Del. — A family never established that it was foreseeable that the use of shotgun shell wads containing encapsulated asbestos could lead a hunter to develop mesothelioma, a manufacturer tells the Delaware Supreme Court in the opening brief for its challenge to a $9 million verdict.
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May 19, 2026
POCATELLO, Idaho — The remaining two defendants named in a federal lawsuit filed by the United States seeking reimbursement of response costs incurred for cleanup of hazardous materials under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act at a shuttered Idaho industrial site stemming from the demolition of two buildings damaged by fire in a pair of proposed May 18 consent decrees agreed to pay a total of $360,000 to settle the claims, with one defendant set to pay significantly less than the other due to financial constraints.
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May 14, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A health care provider urged a California judge to sever or bifurcate the medical causation issue in an asbestos case where the parties are debating whether a plaintiff doctor’s genetic mutations are the sole undisputed cause of her mesothelioma or only potentially contributed to it. The plaintiffs filed a reservation of right to file motions in limine challenging the defendant’s experts.
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May 13, 2026
OAKLAND, Calif. — A couple and the two remaining defendants in a Los Angeles asbestos case told the judge overseeing the litigation that they reached a settlement resolving the case. The judge previously limited the testimony defense experts could give about the plaintiff’s previous radiation treatments.
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May 13, 2026
NEW YORK — Defendant American Biltrite Inc. has asked a New York court to stay entry of judgment on a jury’s $25 million asbestos verdict for a man who worked installing its tile until after resolution of posttrial motions, according to documents filed in the court.
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May 12, 2026
TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson entities told the federal judge overseeing asbestos-talc multidistrict litigation in New Jersey that a recent ruling from Illinois state court buttresses the argument that plaintiffs’ attorney Andy Birchfield and Beasley Allen Law Firm should be barred from participating in the litigation after forming an alliance with a former attorney for the company who worked on settling the litigation.
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May 12, 2026
MIAMI — A judge in Florida revoked the pro hac vice status of attorneys from Beasley Allen Law Firm in a Florida asbestos-talc case that is headed back to a jury after the first trial ended in a hung jury after a day and a half of deliberations about Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) liability for a woman’s ovarian cancer.
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May 12, 2026
TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson entities and women with a history of long-term use of talc for feminine hygiene briefed a federal court in New Jersey on whether an amended complaint adequately alleges a medical monitoring claim and whether class action allegations should be stricken.
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May 12, 2026
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.
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May 12, 2026
LOS ANGELES — Johnson & Johnson (J&J) filed a notice that it would ask a California appellate court to review a decision a ruling allowing Beasley Allen Law Firm attorneys to continue representing asbestos-talc plaintiffs after a judge found the company’s motion to revoke pro hac vice status untimely and that the company lacked evidence that the firm’s collaboration with a former J&J attorney would result in a lasting impact on the litigation.
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May 12, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California judge entered an amended judgment of $40,126,125.19 in the first of the state’s bellwether asbestos-talc ovarian cancer cases after rejecting posttrial challenges to the verdict based on alleged jury misconduct, instructional error and the court’s failure to exclude a plaintiffs’ law firm from the case.
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May 08, 2026
By Brian J. Schneider
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May 11, 2026
WILMINGTON, Del. — The Delaware Supreme Court will decide in the coming months whether asbestos bankruptcy trusts must face a suit challenging document retention policies after hearing oral arguments pitting a claim that repeat litigants cannot hope to secure unlimited document preservation from a third party against the claim that an equitable bill allows for such preservation in the unique asbestos litigation setting.
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May 08, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge granted partial summary judgment to a man who suffers from asbestos-related injuries in his suit against the shipyard where he worked, as well as multiple entities, including the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA), finding “no reason to diverge” from prior decisions in the same court precluding the shipyard from “raising a government contractor defense” as to failure-to-warn and asbestos spread claims.
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May 08, 2026
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A federal judge in West Virginia granted a motion to withdraw filed by counsel for the plaintiff in an asbestos case alleging exposure at a nursing school after they informed the court that a malpractice suit filed against them by their client made representing her going forward impossible.