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June 26, 2026
TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida state court jury returned a verdict in favor of the estate of a smoker in an Engle case against a tobacco company for causing the smoker’s laryngeal cancer, her later diagnosis of lung cancer and death and awarded her estate $220,000 in compensatory damages but assigned the tobacco company only 15% responsibility for legally causing the smoker’s death at age 63.
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June 25, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a divided opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court on June 25 found that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) expressly preempts a state law labeling requirement that differs from the federal labeling requirements imposed under FIFRA for the herbicide Roundup, reversing a Missouri appellate court’s decision and remanding the case.
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June 24, 2026
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A New York state court justice dismissed with prejudice medical malpractice claims against a hospital and four physicians sued over alleged inadequate treatment of a patient’s pressure ulcers, finding that the physicians and hospital were immune under the New York Emergency or Disaster Treatment Protection Act (EDTPA) enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic because the complaint failed to allege facts showing wanton or willful misconduct, which would support an exception to immunity under the act.
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June 23, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 22 agreed to decide whether the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred in recognizing a cause of action for damages under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics for an inmate who was injured in a prison gang fight but was not sent to a hospital.
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June 23, 2026
MILWAUKEE — After finding that most of the opinions of a mechanical engineer retained to offer expert testimony are irrelevant to a woman's defective design claims and that the opinion that meets admissibility standards does not relate to the woman’s allegations, a Wisconsin federal judge awarded the seller of a pressure cooker summary judgment and dismissed the case with prejudice.
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June 23, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California jury awarded three adult children $32 million for their mother’s death from mesothelioma, rejecting last remaining defendant Johnson & Johnson’s arguments that asbestos in automotive parts, cosmetics or exposures while living in Mexico City were the more likely cause of the disease.
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June 22, 2026
CHICAGO — A federal prisoner’s medical expert, who opines that health care workers at the prison failed to take appropriate steps to address his medical concerns, can testify, an Illinois federal judge held, finding that the expert meets the admissibility standards of Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc.
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June 22, 2026
TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey court erred in excluding an expert in a medical malpractice case without holding a hearing to determine the admissibility of the testimony under New Jersey Rule of Evidence 104, a New Jersey appeals court held in reversing a summary judgment ruling and remanding.
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June 18, 2026
EL PASO, Texas — A Texas federal magistrate judge recommended granting a dismissal motion filed by Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) plan administrators in a woman’s suit asserting claims against the administrators, a physician, his practice and a hospital regarding the alleged negligent treatment she received during a joint replacement surgery after which she contracted COVID-19, finding that the woman cannot plead ERISA claims while arguing that ERISA is inapplicable.
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June 18, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge remanded a wrongful death case involving a child and an alleged faulty tracheostomy tube sua sponte after finding that the device manufacturer had not shown that the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000 and “respectfully encourage[d] Congress to reconsider the amount in controversy minimum.”
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June 16, 2026
MIAMI — Johnson & Johnson and a man whose wife died of ovarian cancer after exposure to talc allegedly contaminated with asbestos settled during a retrial of the case, according to court records.
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June 16, 2026
SANTA FE, N.M. — Resolving an interlocutory question that it said presented an issue of first impression, the New Mexico Supreme Court held in part that appointment of a personal representative (PR) under New Mexico’s Wrongful Death Act (WDA) “does not involve a grant of subpoena power to a PR appointed independent of filing an actual wrongful death claim.”
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June 15, 2026
HONOLULU — A federal magistrate judge in Hawaii on June 12 recommended approval of the U.S. government’s petition for a good faith determination of a settlement with 367 plaintiffs for amounts ranging from $5,000 to $27,000 in two consolidated lawsuits related to groundwater contamination from a jet fuel spill at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base. The same day, the plaintiffs filed a response in support of the government’s petition, and nonsettling parties filed a statement incorporating their prior brief filed in opposition to a separate-but-related settlement.
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June 11, 2026
TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida federal judge agreed with the manufacturer of a kitchen appliance that an expert retained by a woman who claims that she was injured by the blender cannot testify under the standards set in Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc. but only granted summary judgment for the manufacturer on the woman’s design defect claims.
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June 10, 2026
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota appeals court held that a lower court correctly determined that a homeowners insurance policy’s “resident-relative” exclusion did not bar coverage for a minor’s injuries arising from a dog bite but erred in ruling that the “history of biting” exclusion did not bar coverage, partly affirming and partly reversing the lower court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the injured child’s representative.
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June 09, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) centralized cases alleging that Dupixent, a prescription medication used for the treatment of asthma and inflammatory skin conditions, causes cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL), a rare type of cancer that affects white blood cells called T cells or T lymphocytes.
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June 09, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) centralized all pending cases against Boston Scientific Corp. brought by individuals who allege that they were injured by defective spinal cord stimulators but refused to expand the scope of the MDL to include claims against other manufacturers.
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June 09, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — Following a district court’s finding on remand that complete diversity of citizenship exists between an insured and the named insurers, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 8 affirmed the lower court’s summary judgment ruling entered in favor of the insurers, agreeing with the lower court that no coverage is owed pursuant to the policy’s known pollution conditions exclusion for the settlement of an underlying personal injury suit stemming from carbon monoxide exposure.
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June 08, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A jury hearing the second bellwether trial in consolidated ovarian-cancer cases in a California court found for Johnson & Johnson on June 5, finding no negligence on the company’s part for ovarian cancer alleged to have been caused by consumer talc use.
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June 08, 2026
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida state court jury found that the death of a smoker addicted to smoking cigarettes was not legally caused by her addiction to cigarettes manufactured by a tobacco company, returned a defense verdict and awarded no damages.
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June 05, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge skipped the third and mandatory step of increasing a remittitur calculation by 50% and should add $1.95 million to a proposed $3.9 million judgment in an asbestos case, a family tells a federal judge in Louisiana in a June 4 motion for reconsideration.
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June 04, 2026
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A New York federal magistrate judge denied a motion to exclude expert testimony filed by a class of inmates in New York prisons who allege that they were denied proper medical treatment and ruled that a urologist retained by the state can opine about catheter use and urinary tract infections (UTIs) as an expert witness.
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June 04, 2026
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Johnson & Johnson entities’ constitutional challenge raised only after an appeal was accepted came too late and the conflicting expert causation evidence at trial did not require a verdict in the companies’ favor, a Georgia appeals court said in affirming a ruling granting the plaintiff a new trial.
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June 04, 2026
NEW YORK — A district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding testimony from experts retained by a police officer who accidentally shot himself while removing a handgun from its holster, but the court erred in granting summary judgment for the gun manufacturer because “New York law does not require expert testimony to establish proximate causation in all circumstances,” the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held.
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June 03, 2026
BOSTON — The federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation involving Covidien hernia mesh on June 2 largely denied a motion for summary judgment filed by the manufacturers, allowing the claims of the first bellwether plaintiff to move forward.