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Mealey's Asbestos

  • March 07, 2025

    Washington Court Rejects German Automaker’s Jurisdiction Challenge In Meso Case

    SEATTLE — The Washington Supreme Court turned away a German automaker’s petition for review in which it argued that a lower court ruling deeming it subject to Washington state law constituted a “significant, unlawful expansion of specific jurisdiction,” leaving in place a jury’s $5.75 million asbestos verdict.

  • March 07, 2025

    5th Circuit Stays Challenges To Asbestos Ban Rule

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted the Environmental Protection Agency’s request for a 120-day stay of cases challenging its ban on the use of chrysotile asbestos while the government determines what steps it must take to comply with an executive order requiring review of all rules issued in the past four years.

  • March 06, 2025

    Florida Court Hears Arguments Over Asbestos Expert’s Causation Opinion

    MIAMI — A widow and a power company argued before a Florida appeals court about whether specific causation testimony from expert Murray Finkelstein sufficed and precluded a jury from returning a defense verdict in an asbestos case or whether the jury was free to conclude that other exposures were the more likely cause of her husband’s mesothelioma death.

  • March 05, 2025

    J&J Subsidiary, Experts Move For Bifurcated Discovery In Asbestos Study Suit

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A Johnson & Johnson subsidiary and three experts it accuses of disparagement and false advertising based on an article they published linking mesothelioma to exposure to talc asked a federal judge in Virginia to bifurcate discovery, with the first phase involving fact questions and the second involving damages.

  • March 05, 2025

    Fuel Advocacy Groups Urge Supreme Court To Review Federal Officer Removal Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ignored the “extraordinary coordination” required to fuel a war effort and imposed too narrow a focus in determining that the creation of an administration office severed the connection between the government and conduct required for federal officer removal, amici curiae told the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • March 04, 2025

    Jury Returns Verdict For American Honda In Asbestos Brakes Case

    SANTA MONICA, Calif. — A Los Angeles jury found that an automaker’s brake products failed to perform as an ordinary customer would expect and that it failed to adequately warn about the dangers but that the conduct was not a substantial factor in a man’s development of mesothelioma.

  • March 04, 2025

    Reinsurer Answers Liquidator Assignee’s Breach Of Contract Counterclaim

    NEW YORK— A London-based reinsurer has filed an answer in a federal court in New York to a breach of contact counterclaim brought by the assignee of the liquidator of an insolvent insurer concerning decades-old asbestos claims; the counterclaim was brought by the assignee after the reinsurer successfully petitioned for a stay of arbitration.

  • February 28, 2025

    Trial Kicks Off In Florida Brake-Grinding Asbestos Case

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida jury heard opening statements in a case in which a woman claims bystander and household exposure to “exponentially higher” levels of asbestos than permitted by law while a defendant says it tested its brake grinding machine and that safety measures ensured compliance with regulations. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.

  • February 28, 2025

    Judge Adds Damages, Denies Post-Trial Relief After Asbestos Verdict

    PITTSBURGH — The judge presiding over a Pittsburgh-area asbestos case awarded $128,406.16 in delay damages and molded a verdict to $3,928,406.16 while in a second order denied post-trial motions arguing that the statute of repose barred the case and that the court improperly handled expert testimony and bankruptcy trust claim documents.

  • February 27, 2025

    Family: Many Errors Infect Judge’s Erasing Of $107M Asbestos Award

    LOS ANGELES — A judge completely ignored evidence supporting a $107 million asbestos verdict, including testimony about the presence of joint compound at a worksite, expert testimony establishing that the joint compound would contain asbestos during the times in question and testimony from other witnesses about corporate malice and the resulting suffering incurred as a result, the family of a mesothelioma victim tells a California appellate court.

  • February 27, 2025

    Massachusetts Justice Reduces Talc Pleurodesis Award, Otherwise Affirms Verdict

    WOBURN, Mass. — A Massachusetts justice largely affirmed previous rulings admitting expert William Longo and evidence about a third-party’s testing of talc and said that nothing required upsetting the jury’s verdict finding a talc company liable for a man’s mesothelioma after a talc pleurodesis procedure but that unclear instructions and perhaps an intent to punish led to a “greatly disproportionate” $21.5 million award for future pain and suffering and reduced that portion of the verdict to $6 million.

  • February 25, 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.

  • February 25, 2025

    Asbestos Expert’s Opinion Among Issues In Appeal Of $43M Plus Verdict

    LOS ANGELES — Parties and amicus curiae recently wrapped briefing in a California appeal turning on expert testimony, including expert William Longo’s identification of asbestos in talc products and whether the causation evidence supported a verdict of more than $32.8 million in total compensatory damages and another $10.3 million in punitive damages.

  • February 18, 2025

    COMMENTARY: “What’s In a Name”: The Ninth Circuit’s Reconciliation Of The “Derivative Sovereign Immunity” And “Government Contractor” Defenses In Elorreaga v. ViacomCBS

    By Brian J. Schneider

  • February 24, 2025

    Judge Denies Some Motions On Jurisdiction, Orders Asbestos Discovery

    PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A distribution agreement specifically referencing Rhode Island as a market keeps a supplier in an asbestos-talc suit, and the alleged failure to produce discovery in another case warrants jurisdictional discovery into related companies as well, a justice in the state said, partially granting motions for dismissal.

  • February 24, 2025

    Supreme Court Seeks Response In Oil Companies’ Federal-Officer Removal Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 21 sought a response after various Louisiana entities waived their right to respond to a petition for certiorari challenging a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that the oil drilling petitioners say contradicts precedent created in asbestos cases and imposes an erroneous “crabbed view” of federal officer removal that requires a causal nexus or contractual root to the conduct in question.

  • February 21, 2025

    Ohio Enacts Bill Targeting Over-Naming In Asbestos Suits

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — Individuals wishing to pursue asbestos tort claims in Ohio will have 60 days from the filing of a suit to provide a sworn statement detailing the grounds for each claim and defendant under legislation recently enacted in the state.

  • February 21, 2025

    Asbestos Doctors Seek Reconsideration Of LLT’s Sole Claim Surviving Dismissal

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Three asbestos experts asked a federal judge to reconsider his conclusion that a paper they published on asbestos-talc causation was about Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder product after the judge dismissed two of the three claims saying timeliness and evidence issues doomed two of the three claims and left only the claim alleging product disparagement.

  • February 19, 2025

    J&J Subsidiaries Dispute Asbestos-Talc Liability In Connecticut Court

    BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Companies created in the wake of Johnson & Johnson’s attempts to get out from under asbestos-talc litigation tell a Connecticut judge in a Feb. 18 reply that they didn’t inherit any of those liabilities and cannot be held liable under applicable Texas law.

  • February 19, 2025

    Oil Companies Seek Review Of Ruling Remanding WWII Improper Drilling Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals contradicted precedent created in asbestos cases and erred in imposing a “crabbed view” of federal officer removal that requires a causal nexus or contractual root to the conduct in question, oil companies accused of improper drilling during World War II tell the U.S. Supreme Court in a petition for certiorari.

  • February 19, 2025

    Judge Dismisses 2 Of 3 Claims In Suit Against Asbestos Experts

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Timeliness and evidence issues doom two of the three claims a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary brings against a trio of asbestos experts who authored a report linking talc to mesothelioma, leaving only a product disparagement claim based on the conclusion that a published study targeted the company’s talcum powder without naming it and that the attention the study received likely caused lower sales and higher litigation costs, a federal judge in Virginia said in partially dismissing the action.

  • February 14, 2025

    Judge: Imprecise Product ID Enough To Keep Asbestos Drilling Mud Claims Alive

    BATON ROUGE, La. — While understandably imprecise, a man’s recollection about the drilling mud products he used 40 years ago allows one to infer that he used a defendant’s product, and compliance with federal regulations does not preclude a failure-to-warn claim, a federal judge in Louisiana said in partially denying summary judgment to the defendant company.

  • February 14, 2025

    Parties Oppose EPA’s Sought-After Stay Of Asbestos Ban Rule Challenges

    NEW ORLEANS — The Environmental Protection Agency asked the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to stay a challenge to an asbestos ban so that it can comply with an executive order requiring review of all rules issued in the past four years.  But in a Feb. 13 opposition, an asbestos disease support group and a workers’ group told the court that the case is developed enough that it can proceed toward oral argument while the review occurs and without delay to a case requiring a quick resolution.

  • February 14, 2025

    Man Defends Denial Of Fees In Asbestos Case He Wants Dismissed

    NEW YORK — As asbestos disease plaintiff said Feb. 13 that a magistrate judge properly recommended denying attorney fees and costs to a defendant company that he hopes to dismiss with prejudice because the company lumped both together in its request and failed to support either.

  • February 14, 2025

    CertainTeed Debtor Says Denial Of Stay Relief Should Be Upheld By 4th Circuit

    RICHMOND, Va. —The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should affirm a bankruptcy court’s decision not to lift the automatic stay so asbestos claimants could proceed with their state court lawsuits against CertainTeed spinoff DBMP LLC because “the Bankruptcy Court did not abuse its discretion” in rejecting the claimants’ argument that DBMP’s Chapter 11 case was filed in bad faith, the debtor says in a response brief.