Mealey's Asbestos
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January 13, 2026
Burnham Divests Asbestos Liabilities To Funded Subsidiaries
LANCASTER, Pa. — Burnham Holdings Inc. (BHI) announced it would restructure, divest its asbestos-related liabilities and take other steps to streamline and optimize operations.
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January 13, 2026
Judge Allows But Limits Reliance On Moline’s Mesothelioma-Talc Studies
OAKLAND, Calif. — A woman may rely on the more recent of expert Jacqueline Moline’s articles involving alleged cases of talc-only mesotheliomas in establishing that mined talc can contain asbestos and that asbestos can remain even after the milling process, but not to establish the likelihood of contracting mesothelioma through cosmetic talc use, a judge in California said in partially granting a motion in limine seeking to exclude reliance on the studies.
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January 07, 2026
COMMENTARY: Turning The Page: How Legislative Reform And Judicial Changes Are Reshaping Asbestos Litigation In The Mountain State
By Thomas M. Hancock and Marc E. Williams
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January 12, 2026
Asbestos Cases Feature In Oral Arguments Over Federal Officer Removal
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a case echoing asbestos litigation, oil companies and Louisiana on Jan. 12 sparred during oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court over whether well drilling activities in the state were sufficiently related to World War II-era contracts involving the production of aviation gasoline to trigger federal jurisdiction under 2011 amendments to the federal officer removal statute.
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January 12, 2026
Plaintiffs Settle With CVS After Talc Email Ruling, Seek Sanction On Last Defendant
OAKLAND, Calif. — A pair of plaintiffs settled with a pharmacy after a California judge said he would admit an email in which an employee told co-workers what he learned about the dangers of consumer talc products. The plaintiffs then asked the judge to sanction a second defendant for failing to produce a knowledgeable witness.
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January 12, 2026
John Crane Appeals $10 Million Judgment In Oregon Asbestos Case
PORTLAND, Ore. — John Crane Inc. (JCI) filed a notice indicating that it would appeal an Oregon judge’s entry of a $10,284,000 limited judgment against it in an asbestos case involving the company’s gaskets.
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January 12, 2026
Merck Wants Expert’s Testing Materials In Asbestos Talc Case
CHICAGO — A couple must produce the grids and other materials on which an expert relied in an asbestos-talc case so that the expert’s opinions can be fairly evaluated and challenged, a company told an Illinois judge.
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January 12, 2026
New York Appellate Court Won’t Stay Asbestos Case Pending Appeal
NEW YORK — A New York appellate court declined to stay trial court proceedings while it considers a ruling denying summary judgment to American Honda Motor Co. in an asbestos case.
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January 12, 2026
New York Court Won’t Stay Case Pending Talc Company’s Appeal
NEW YORK — A New York appellate court denied a motion to stay an asbestos-talc case pending appeal of a motion denying summary ruling, finding genuine issues of material fact about whether the company’s product was part of the CoverGirl product line.
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January 09, 2026
Asbestos Group Seeks FOIA Disclosures On East Wing Demolition
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government refuses to disclose whether demolition of the White House’s East Wing disrupted asbestos or what measures were put in place to protect workers, visitors and those nearby, the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) alleges in a Jan. 7 lawsuit filed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
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January 08, 2026
Judge Will Allow J&J Affiliate To Amend Complaint Against Talc Study Author
TRENTON, N.J. — The New Jersey federal judge hearing a fraud case filed by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff and Chapter 11 debtor Pecos River Talc LLC against the author of a scientific study on asbestos in talc products told the parties that she intends to grant the debtor relief from her dismissal of the suit and allow it to amend its complaint after the company presented new evidence.
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January 07, 2026
Blood Draw For Genetic Testing Meets Federal Rules, Judge In Asbestos Case Says
NEW ORLEANS — Because the cause of mesothelioma is in controversy and there is no other means of obtaining the genetic information the defendant contends could be an independent cause, a blood draw for genetic testing is appropriate, a federal judge in Louisiana said Jan. 6 in granting a motion to compel.
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January 07, 2026
Wrongful Death Claim’s Viability, Scope Of Brief At Issue In Maine Asbestos Case
PORTLAND, Maine — A loss of consortium claim requires the injured party to be dead, and Maine law doesn’t require a separate wrongful death claim, a widower argues in a Jan. 6 motion to strike arguments in a supplemental brief outside that narrow issue in an asbestos-talc case.
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December 26, 2025
Exposure, Causation At Heart Of Briefing In Dominican’s Asbestos Case
WILMINGTON, Del. — A pair of companies seeking summary judgment told a judge in Delaware that there was insufficient evidence that a man who immigrated from the Dominican Republic worked with their products let alone was exposed to asbestos at sufficient levels to cause disease under applicable California law.
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December 24, 2025
Couple Says Lawyer Knew Of Motion To Reinstate Asbestos Intentional Injury Case
SPOKANE, Wash. — While a company complains that it was never served with a motion to reinstate an asbestos case against it alleging intentional injury to an employee, it concedes that electronic service is all that is required and the record shows that its listed attorney received notice of the motion, a couple tells a federal judge in Washington in opposing a motion for reconsideration.
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December 24, 2025
Canadian Company Says Asbestos Receivership Ruling Requires Review
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A judge’s ruling appointing a receiver over a foreign company’s insurance assets regardless of where those assets exist was improper and conflicts with various other court rulings, a Canadian asbestos defendant tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a reply in support of its petition for a writ of certiorari.
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December 24, 2025
Woman: Asbestos Link Clear, Genetic Testing Unnecessary In Mesothelioma Case
NEW ORLEANS — A family history of diseases with clear links to asbestos exposures does not warrant permitting a blood draw to identify potential genetic causes that even if established would not relieve the defendant of its liability, a woman tells a federal judge in Louisiana in opposing a motion to compel.
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December 24, 2025
Asbestos-Based Claims Against Employer Proceed, Connecticut Justice Says
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A man’s asbestos-based negligence claims are governed by a special statute of limitations, and the product liability claim may proceed even though it differs from recent precedent allowing employees to sue their employers for known injuries, a Connecticut justice said in denying a motion to strike.
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December 23, 2025
Maryland Jury Awards Nonprofit CEO Nearly $1.56B From J&J For Mesothelioma
BALTIMORE — A Maryland jury on Dec. 22 awarded a mesothelioma sufferer who operates a nonprofit supporting children $1.5 billion in punitive damages plus compensatory damages for asbestos exposure linked to Johnson & Johnson entities’ talc products.
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December 22, 2025
Minnesota Jury Awards $65.5 Million For Talc-Related Mesothelioma
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota jury on Dec. 19 awarded a 37-year-old woman and her husband more than $65.5 million for peritoneal mesothelioma she developed after exposure to asbestos in Johnson & Johnson consumer talc.
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December 17, 2025
Oil Companies Say Federal Officer Removal Broadened, Not Unlimited
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Various oil companies told the U.S. Supreme Court in a reply brief that while the recently amended federal officer removal statute broadens the realm of conduct subject to federal jurisdiction, worries that the amendment makes removal limitless are unfounded.
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December 16, 2025
South Carolina Court Considers Causation, J&J Successorship After Asbestos Verdict
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A couple awarded more than $60 million for exposure to asbestos in talc and Johnson & Johnson entities filed final briefs before the South Carolina Court of Appeals on challenges to tissue digestion and witness testimony to causation and successor liability.
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December 16, 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.
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December 16, 2025
Parties Dismissed In Asbestos Liability Suit Against Guaranty Association
BATON ROUGE, La. — After parties indicated they had reached a settlement, a Louisiana federal judge dismissed claims against certain of the parties in an asbestos liability suit against individuals and multiple entities, including the Louisiana Guaranty Association (LIGA), alleging that a man’s workplace exposure to asbestos particles resulted in his lung disease and death.
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December 16, 2025
California Jury Awards $40M In Bellwether Asbestos-Talc Ovarian Cancer Cases
LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles jury hearing the first two asbestos-talc ovarian cancer bellwether cases found against Johnson & Johnson and handed the plaintiffs $18 million and $22 million awards.