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July 28, 2026
TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson on July 27 announced an agreement in which the company would pay $5.5 billion to resolve the multidistrict ovarian cancer talc litigation and related state proceedings, saying in a press release that the agreement covers some 76,000 claims.
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July 28, 2026
BISMARCK, N.D. — Registering to do business in North Dakota alone does not create jurisdiction in the state, the North Dakota Supreme Court held in affirming dismissal of an asbestos action against Union Carbide Corp.
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July 28, 2026
Every year, the Mealey’s Litigation Report: Asbestos compiles, analyzes and reports on verdict information appearing in the report from the previous calendar year. The following report contains that information.
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July 28, 2026
SEATTLE — A former Washington pulp mill owner declared bankruptcy, just weeks after a jury in the state awarded an asbestos abatement worker exposed outside of his work area at the mill’s facility $20.9 million. The liable defendant, Simpson Tacoma Kraft Co., filed for bankruptcy in May and recently sought to employ a chief restructuring officer.
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July 28, 2026
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Companies challenging the Cape PLC receivership in South Carolina told the state high court in a pair of petitions for rehearing that the court misinterpreted the ruling appointing a receiver and argued that affirming the ruling created a constitutional conflict by allowing a state court to exercise control over a foreign company without jurisdiction. In a pair of letters filed in the case, two attorneys debated the conduct of a second company over which a receiver was appointed, Asbestos Corporation Limited.
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July 28, 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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July 28, 2026
TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson entities asked a federal court in New Jersey for additional time to object to a special master’s recommendation allowing some of asbestos expert William Longo’s testimony in the federal multidistrict litigation. The Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee (PSC) said in a subsequent filing that it didn’t oppose the extension but asked that it be applied to all parties.
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July 28, 2026
LONDON — Plaintiffs in mesothelioma and ovarian cancer cases alleging that their diseases were the result of exposure to consumer talc may amend their allegations to clarify iron’s role in causation but may not amend their allegations involving platy talc, judges on the King’s Bench Division of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales said.
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July 27, 2026
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — A World War II-era U.S. Navy epidemiological study finding work with asbestos-containing insulation on ships was not a dangerous occupation should finally be retracted, a researcher says in a June article.
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July 24, 2026
TRENTON, N.J. — Ovarian cancer plaintiffs in the federal multidistrict litigation must show why all of the cases in the action should not be dismissed for failure to produce admissible expert specific causation testimony, a magistrate judge said in an order to show cause.
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July 23, 2026
NEW YORK — A New York federal magistrate judge granted summary judgment in favor of a U.K.-based reinsurer after determining that the statute of limitations on an assignee’s reinsurance billing claims began in October 2001 when the reinsurer sent a letter denying the validity of the claims, rendering the assignee’s September 2023 demand for $403,748.42 time-barred.
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July 21, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — A family relies on a skewed view of remittitur and the mistaken impression that the court skipped a step in its analysis in arguing for a higher asbestos award, a federal judge in Louisiana said in denying a motion for reconsideration while clarifying that any subsequent trial would be limited to damages.
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July 15, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — While a woman offers a “weak explanation” for missing the deadline for an expert report, the importance of the report to the case and the ability to mitigate prejudice to the defendant warrant allowing it, a federal judge in Louisiana said in denying summary judgment to a take-home asbestos exposure railway defendant.
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July 14, 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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July 14, 2026
LOS ANGELES — Because an oil and gas company shows at most that genetic mutations might make an individual more susceptible to cancers such as mesothelioma, it has not overcome the plaintiffs’ strong privacy interests, a California judge said in denying a motion to compel additional genetic testing.
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July 13, 2026
CHICAGO — The majority of an Illinois appeals court on July 10 affirmed a $45 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson entities, turning away challenges that the award of prejudgment interest was unconstitutional, that the handling of testimony from three witnesses was improper and that damages for a shortened life expectancy could be awarded on a survival claim.
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July 10, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — The family of a now-deceased Louisiana man who allegedly developed mesothelioma from occupational asbestos exposure “provide[d] specific evidence” linking the worker to Uniroyal Inc. products containing asbestos, a federal judge in Louisiana ruled in the more than decade-long lawsuit, denying Uniroyal’s motion for summary judgment.
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July 09, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge denied a manufacturer’s motion for summary judgment on claims brought against it by the surviving family members of a former welder who allege that the decedent was exposed to the manufacturer’s fire retardant product while working in the 1970s, opining that the family presented sufficient evidence supporting their allegations that the welder was exposed to the manufacturer’s product to preclude a grant of summary judgment.
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July 09, 2026
PITTSBURGH — A Pennsylvania appellate panel affirmed a trial court judge’s denial of a plaintiff-appellant executrix’s request for a new trial, finding no errors in the judge’s decision to mold the verdict to one in favor of Johnson & Johnson entities after a jury held that the company’s products were not the cause of a man’s mesothelioma but still awarded $22 million in damages.
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July 02, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it is seeking feedback on activities that disturb asbestos and remaining legacy products with the goal of proposing a risk management rule for legacy uses and disposal processes by June 3, 2027.
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July 02, 2026
WILMINGTON, Del. — As a natural mineral, asbestos cannot be defectively designed, and Union Carbide Corp. had no duty to warn the sophisticated users to which it supplied the raw material, the company says in a motion for partial summary judgment in Delaware court.
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July 02, 2026
HOUSTON — Because a quartet of asbestos claimants allege asbestos-related malignancies and their actions predate the creation of the state's multidistrict litigation (MDL), their cases fall outside the MDL rules and must be remanded to the courts where they were originally filed, a Texas appeals court said.
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July 02, 2026
GRAND FORKS, N.D. — A family on July 1 asked a federal judge in North Dakota for default judgment on damages in the amount of more than $10 million, saying the absent Canadian defendant Atlas Turner Inc.’s failure to challenge a previous default judgment on liability for a man’s mesothelioma left it liable for the entire amount.
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July 02, 2026
OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma jury returned a defense verdict on negligence and products liability claims in which the plaintiffs alleged that exposure to asbestos in Johnson & Johnson entities’ talc products caused a woman’s mesothelioma.
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June 30, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — A family cherry-picks and misstates Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals precedent, a shipyard company tells a federal judge in Louisiana in urging him to reject the family’s argument that an asbestos damages judgment must be multiplied by 50% under the maximum recovery rule.