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Mealey's Asbestos

July 09, 2024
Asbestos Lab Analyst’s Work With Longo Requires Deposition, Talc Company Says

ATLANTA — A lab analyst isn’t an “innocent bystander” but the person who actually peers into the microscope, makes observations about whether talc contains asbestos and collaborates closely with testifying witness William Longo in asbestos litigation, a talc company told a federal judge in Georgia in response to an objection to a magistrate judge’s ruling permitting the man’s deposition.
July 09, 2024
N.Y. Justice: Moline, Hospital Don’t Have To Disclose Asbestos Study Subjects

NEW YORK — Asbestos expert Jacqueline Moline and her employer obscured the names of individuals used on two of her studies on talc as required by law, and various Johnson & Johnson entities have not shown that they cannot challenge her opinions or adequately defend themselves absent the identity of those individuals, a New York justice said in granting a motion to quash and denying a motion to compel.
July 09, 2024
3rd Circuit Won’t Rehear Derivative Sovereign Immunity Ruling In Asbestos Action

PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals entered a certified judgment after denying rehearing in a case in which it found in an unpublished opinion that because a U.S. Navy contractor complied with its contractual duties while operating a government-owned nuclear test laboratory, it is entitled to derivative sovereign immunity from an asbestos suit.
July 08, 2024
Judge: Plaintiffs Lack Standing To Block ‘Hypothetical’ J&J Asbestos Bankruptcy

TRENTON, N.J. — Class action plaintiffs told a federal judge in New Jersey that they would appeal his ruling denying a restraining order and finding that alleged injuries from a hypothetical future asbestos-talc bankruptcy and other potential conduct do not provide standing to enjoin the filing of such a case.
July 05, 2024
N.J. Court: Asbestos Parts Essential, Statute Of Repose Protects Turbine Work

TRENTON, N.J. — Worker safety did not fall within the purview of two contractors’ work at a power station, and asbestos-containing insulation did not lose its status as an essential component of the station’s turbines during removal and reinstallation overhauls, and associated claims are barred by the state’s statute of repose, a New Jersey appellate court said in a July 3 unpublished opinion affirming summary judgment for two companies.
June 28, 2024
COMMENTARY: Courts Must, As Recently Reminded, Follow The Law In Rule 702 Expert Testimony Determinations

By Erin Sheley
July 01, 2024
J&J Affiliate’s Fraud Claims Against Author Of Asbestos Talc Study Dismissed

TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge on June 28 granted a motion by the author of an asbestos talc study to dismiss a trade libel and fraud complaint filed by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC after finding that the statements made by the author in an article in a medical journal about the presence of asbestos in J&J talcum powder are “scientific conclusions that are ‘more closely akin’ to nonactionable matters of opinion” rather than “actionable false representations of fact.”
June 28, 2024
Citing Spizzirri, Insurer Asks 7th Circuit To Dismiss Appeal In Arbitration Estoppel Row

CHICAGO — Arguing that Smith v. Spizzirri renders deficient “the basis for this Court’s appellate jurisdiction,” an insurer filed a June 27 motion in the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to dismiss reinsurers’ fully briefed appeal concerning the effects of prior arbitration involving asbestos-related liabilities.
June 28, 2024
Australia Jury Hands Record-Setting Verdict In Mesothelioma Case

BRISBANE, Australia — An Australia jury awarded a record-setting $2 million to a man suffering from mesothelioma from handling James Hardie & Coy Pty Limited asbestos-containing products, sources told Mealey Publications.
June 28, 2024
Oregon Court Reverses $10M Asbestos Award Based On California Workers’ Comp Law

PORTLAND, Ore. — A trial court erred in granting a plaintiff partial summary judgment after concluding that it was the defendant’s burden to demonstrate that California’s workers’ compensation exclusivity provision applied to an asbestos case, the Oregon Court of Appeals said in an unpublished opinion, reversing a $10 million loss-of-consortium award.
June 27, 2024
Judge Denies Directed Verdict On Negligence Claims Against Libby, Mont., Railway

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Libby, Mont., plaintiffs made a prima facie showing that a railway failed to exercise proper care in the handling of asbestos around its railyard, causing it to contaminate surrounding areas, a federal judge in Montana said June 26 in denying a directed verdict after an $8 million verdict.
June 27, 2024
Asbestos Defendant Says Proper Bond Will Be Filed After Asbestos Verdict Dispute

LOS ANGELES — Parties to a more than $3 million judgment in an asbestos case appear to have resolved a dispute over the bond required for an appeal, with the defendant saying a proper bond should be filed before a hearing next month.
June 26, 2024
Judge Allows Discovery Into Successor Status In Asbestos Valves Case

NEW ORLEANS — Because the only evidence of whether a company qualifies as the successor-in-interest of another is in the possession of the defendant, its motion to dismiss implicates evidence outside the pleadings and requires limited discovery into the question, a federal judge in Louisiana said in denying a motion.
June 26, 2024
2 Stipulated Dismissals Granted In Insurer’s Suit Over Asbestos Liabilities Row

OMAHA, Neb. — Two defendants referred to as reinsurers in a suit National Indemnity Co. (NICO) filed over a $157.2 million settlement it reached with Montana regarding alleged asbestos exposures have been dismissed with prejudice under a joint stipulation that a Nebraska federal judge granted June 24.
June 26, 2024
Special Master Rejects J&J’s Motion To Inspect Asbestos Expert’s Lab

TRENTON, N.J. — The special master in the New Jersey federal court multidistrict litigation involving Johnson & Johnson talc denied a motion to inspect asbestos expert William Longo’s lab, saying the “unprecedented” request seeks irrelevant information and would be unduly annoying.
June 25, 2024
Judge Says Removal Timely In Asbestos Coverage Suit Against Guaranty Association

NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge on June 24 denied a motion to remand filed by a man’s family members who sued numerous parties, including the Louisiana Guaranty Association (LIGA) as the purported statutory obligor for a now-insolvent insurer, alleging that the man’s death from mesothelioma resulted from his workplace asbestos exposure, finding that removal of the case to federal court was both permissible and timely.
June 25, 2024
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.
June 24, 2024
Court Requests Response In Texas Asbestos Causation Case

HOUSTON — The Texas Supreme Court on June 21 asked plaintiffs to respond to a petition for review after the Chamber of Commerce of the United States and others argued in an amicus curiae brief that an appellate court ruling creating a separate causation standard announced in a take-home de minimis asbestos exposure case threatens to return the state to a time when it was overrun by suspect asbestos and silica claims.
June 21, 2024
Louisiana Court Affirms Jury’s $2.75M Asbestos Awards To Daughters

NEW ORLEANS — Recent Louisiana Supreme Court precedent requiring some objective measure when awarding surviving children damages does not alter the conclusion that trial evidence of the “devastating effects” two daughters experienced from their father’s death from mesothelioma supports a jury’s award of $2.75 million to each, a Louisiana appeals court said.
June 21, 2024
Asbestos Expert Warns: Employee Deposition Threatens His ‘Golden Years’

ATLANTA — A non-testifying employee of asbestos expert William Longo and his lab warned that a magistrate judge’s ruling denying a motion to quash an untimely and irrelevant subpoena would doom him to spending his “golden years” giving depositions in asbestos litigation across the country.
June 20, 2024
J&J Says Talc Plaintiffs Lack Power, Precedent To Block Bankruptcy

TRENTON, N.J. —Talc plaintiffs waited too long to raise meritless claims of allegedly fraudulent corporate restructurings and lack the power to ask a district court to prevent a bankruptcy filing, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and related entities tell a federal court in New Jersey in opposing injunctive relief.
June 19, 2024
California High Court Reverses, Says Vertical Exhaustion Applies To Policies

SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court reversed an appeals court’s ruling in a long-running asbestos insurance coverage dispute after determining that a vertical exhaustion method, rather than a horizontal exhaustion method, must be applied to excess policies that sit over an insured’s primary policies because the language of the excess policies and the insured’s reasonable expectations support a vertical exhaustion method.
June 19, 2024
J&J Can’t Strike Talc Claims; Defendants Want ‘Improper’ Trial Conduct Excluded

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Various Johnson & Johnson (J&J) entities failed in their bid to strike asbestos-talc allegations against them in a Connecticut court when the judge found sufficient allegations of successor liability. Meanwhile, briefing wrapped up June 18 on the defendants’ two attempts at precluding the plaintiff from “improper conduct,” such as tacking an oversized poster to a courtroom wall and stacking books on the counsels’ table to “build a fort with them.”
June 18, 2024
In Latest Suit, Women Seek Medical Monitoring Over Johnson & Johnson Talc

TRENTON, N.J. — Women filed a putative class action in a New Jersey federal court against various Johnson & Johnson (J&J) entities on June 17 alleging fraud and misrepresentation among other claims and seeking medical monitoring for all women who used talc-based products on their genital area over a four-year period starting in 1960 and have not yet filed suit against the companies.
June 18, 2024
J&J Seeks Delay In Judgment, $1.95M In Monthly Interest In Asbestos-Talc Case

PORTLAND, Ore. — Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and a subsidiary told a judge in Oregon that its posttrial motions in the wake of a $260 million asbestos-talc jury verdict will bring to light the “persistent misconduct” that led to the verdict and asked for a stay of the judgment and resulting $1.95 million per month in interest while the court resolves the motions. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.