Mealey's Asbestos : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Asbestos

August 13, 2025
9-Year Delay In Asbestos Case Warranted Dismissal, Court Affirms

JACKSON, Miss. — A nine-year period where a plaintiff litigated asbestos bankruptcy issues in a separate court but took no substantive steps in her tort litigation in Mississippi warranted a trial court’s dismissal of the action in its entirety for lack of prosecution, the Mississippi Court of Appeals said Aug. 12 in affirming.
August 12, 2025
South Carolina Court Set To Consider New Trial Order In Asbestos-Talc Case

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Court of Appeals asked for the record on appeal and all final briefs and is set to decide whether a judge properly granted plaintiffs a new trial after they allegedly produced new evidence in an asbestos-talc case.
August 12, 2025
Foster Wheeler Must Correct Asbestos Verdict Appeal, Pa. Superior Court Says

PITTSBURGH — The Pennsylvania Superior Court directed a trial court to enter judgment in two cases consolidated with a third that produced a $3.8 million asbestos verdict plus delay damages and that liable party Foster Wheeler LLC can then appeal from the proper judgments.
August 12, 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.
August 11, 2025
Judge Won’t Certify Immediate Appeal In Asbestos Insurance Spat

NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Louisiana said that while an immediate appeal might alleviate the need for trial later this year on claims between a settled asbestos defendant and its insured, the burden posed by any appeal outweighs that of the anticipated one-day trial from which an appeal could be taken.
August 11, 2025
Talc, Other Expert Opinions Largely Admitted In Dentist’s Asbestos Suit

LOS ANGELES — A California judge said punitive damages will be bifurcated according to California law but otherwise admitted testimony in a former dentist’s asbestos personal injury case, saying that experts may call upon training and experience and that studies on which they rely need not be identical to real world situations. In a trial brief, a dental supply company told the court that any potential exposure from its periodontal packs in the late 1960s and 1970s would have been too small to cause mesothelioma.
August 07, 2025
Oregon Talc Plaintiffs Say No Errors Worthy Of Reducing Damages, New Trial

PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon appeals court denied a motion to expedite an asbestos-talc appeal by declining to deviate from a briefing schedule, while the couple that was awarded $260 million said there were insufficient grounds or evidence of misconduct to reduce the award or order a new trial.
August 06, 2025
After Failed Attempt To Resolve Asbestos-Talc Question, Case Set For State Trial

SAN FRANCISCO — An asbestos case is back in California state court and set for a September trial after a winding road took it to a federal bankruptcy court in Texas where removal was found procedurally improper and then to a federal court in California, where the parties agreed to remand.
August 07, 2025
Judge Cites ‘Unique Relevance,’ Largely Declines To Strike Asbestos Witnesses

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California struck eight of 24 witnesses in an asbestos case but said the “unique relevance” of two others and the fact that the defendants appeared equally liable for an untimely deposition of a third warrants allowing their testimony.
August 06, 2025
Judge Says Evidence Doesn’t Invoke Indemnity Clause In Asbestos Dispute

RALEIGH, N.C. — A man’s testimony and pay records fall short of showing his asbestos exposure at a paper mill came while he was employed by a contractor under a 1971 contract requiring the contractor to indemnify the mill from related losses, a federal judge in North Carolina said in granting the latter summary judgment in a redacted Aug. 5 opinion.
August 06, 2025
Florida Judge Permits Whole Genome Testing In Consumer Talc Meso Case

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Two defendants may obtain a blood sample to perform whole genome genetic testing of a 33-year-old mesothelioma sufferer, a judge in Florida said in granting the request and overruling the plaintiffs’ objection.
August 04, 2025
Medical Provider Drops Fee Request In Asbestos Expert Subpoena Case

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — In a joint submission with an asbestos defendant, a medical provider on Aug. 1 said it would no longer seek attorney fees, saying that even though a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling didn’t eliminate the trial court’s award, it would withdraw its request on which it was awarded $44,610.45 in an effort to resolve the case.
August 04, 2025
Wisconsin Sets Arguments In Premises Liability, Punitive Damages Asbestos Case

MILWAUKEE — The Wisconsin Supreme Court set Sept. 8 for oral arguments in a case involving a brewery’s liability for asbestos injuries suffered by an employee of a contractor and whether punitive damages should be based on the total award or only on the share assigned to the party at trial.
August 01, 2025
3rd Circuit Affirms Class Certification In J&J Asbestos Stock Suit

PHILADELPHIA — A judge properly certified an asbestos talc securities class after finding that each of six disclosures about the safety of talc or the presence of asbestos in Johnson & Johnson talc led to a drop in the company’s stock price, a divided Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in a divided nonprecedential opinion affirming class certification.
August 01, 2025
Contractor Prevails In Pulp Mill Asbestos Indemnity Suit

RALEIGH, N.C. — A federal judge in North Carolina entered judgment in favor of a contractor in its dispute over indemnity for asbestos claims stemming from the building of a pulp mill after the court granted summary judgment in a sealed ruling.
July 30, 2025
Punitive Damages Nixed In Maritime Asbestos Case, With Leave To Amend

SAN FRANCISCO — Since a man’s alleged asbestos exposures occurred at least partly on vessels on navigable waters, his claims fall under maritime law, which does not recognize punitive damages, but he can amend his complaint to allege land-based exposures that would give rise to the damages, a federal judge in California said in granting a motion to dismiss.
July 30, 2025
Massachusetts Jury Awards $42 Million In Asbestos Case Against Johnson & Johnson

BOSTON — A Massachusetts jury on July 29 found Johnson & Johnson negligent and that it breached the implied warranty of merchantability and awarded a couple $42,608,300 for the husband’s mesothelioma caused by exposure to asbestos in Johnson & Johnson consumer talc in what sources said is believed to be the largest asbestos verdict in state history.
July 30, 2025
Divided New York Court Finds Asbestos Causation Evidence Supports $3.3M Verdict

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A divided New York appellate court said expert testimony that chrysotile asbestos causes mesothelioma is sufficient and affirmed a $3.3 million friction products asbestos verdict in the face of specific and general causation challenges by Ford Motor Co.
July 29, 2025
Delaware Jury Awards $9 Million In Asbestos Shotgun Shell Case

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware jury awarded $9 million to a farmer’s estate and family in what is believed to be the first asbestos-related shotgun shell mesothelioma case to go to a verdict.
July 29, 2025
California Panel Affirms Verdict, Rulings In Asbestos Pipe Case

LOS ANGELES — A pipelayer has not met the “extremely high” burden required to overturn a jury verdict that found he qualified as a sophisticated user, that a pipe manufacturer was not negligent and that the trial court’s nonsuit on a fraudulent concealment claim was incorrect, a California appeals court said in an unpublished opinion.
July 28, 2025
Judge: Exposure, Causation Evidence Passes Muster In Hawaii Maritime Asbestos Case

HONOLULU — A man’s testimony and expert opinions about the extent and scope of his work as a boilermaker at Pearl Harbor Navy Shipyard sufficiently establish exposure at levels sufficient to have caused his lung cancer, and the manufacturers owed the man a duty for third-party parts, a federal judge in Hawaii said in granting a series of motions in part.
July 28, 2025
Johnson & Johnson, Couple Battle Over Genetic Testing In Mesothelioma Case

CHICAGO — A couple’s brief opposing a motion for genetic testing in a mesothelioma case as unfounded and unnecessary is “replete with mischaracterizations and fails to address the heart of the issue,” Johnson & Johnson told an Illinois judge in a reply brief in support of its motion for such testing.
July 24, 2025
5th Circuit: Enclave Doctrine Bars Asbestos-Based Military Housing Claims

NEW ORLEANS — A magistrate judge properly concluded that the federal enclave doctrine barred a host of claims in a dispute over asbestos and other contamination of military housing and that claims under Texas consumer protection law did not fall within an exception, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said affirming a summary judgment ruling in a recently published opinion.
July 23, 2025
Judge Awards $98,280 In Attorney Fees For Asbestos Screening Appeal

MISSOULA, Mont. — BNSF Railway Co. is entitled to $98,280 in attorney fees on appeal after prevailing in its case alleging that a medical screening company submitted false claims to a Medicare program for Libby, Mont., residents diagnosed with asbestos-related disease, a Montana federal judge ruled.
July 22, 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.