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

Mealey's Asbestos

April 25, 2024
Judge Denies Spoliation Sanction, Will Bifurcate Montana Asbestos Trial

MISSOULA, Mont. — A federal judge overseeing a case involving BNSF Railway Co.’s handling of asbestos at the Libby, Mont., vermiculite mine denied the railway’s renewed motion for sanctions related to the failure to preserve the plaintiff’s remains and partially granted its request for bifurcated trial after a jury earlier this month awarded $8 million to two individuals in a similar suit.
April 24, 2024
Montana Jury Awards $8M In Pair Of Lawsuits Against BNSF

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A federal jury in Montana found that BNSF Railway Co.’s handling of asbestos at the Libby, Mont., vermiculite mine fell outside its duties as a common carrier and awarded $4 million to each of two plaintiffs who died as a result of their resulting exposures to asbestos.
April 24, 2024
Chicago Jury Returns $45 Million Asbestos Verdict Against J&J Entities

CHICAGO — An Illinois jury held Johnson & Johnson entity Kenvue Inc. 70% liable for a woman’s mesothelioma after finding that it and a second subsidiary could be responsible as a continuation of their parent company and awarding $45 million to her six children.
April 23, 2024
Florida Jury Returns Defense Verdict In Asbestos-Talc Trial

SARASOTA, Fla. — A Florida jury returned a defense verdict for Johnson & Johnson (J&J) on April 18, rejecting claims that its consumer talc contained asbestos that caused a woman’s fatal ovarian cancer, sources told Mealey Publications.
April 23, 2024
Deposition Evidence, Causation Before New York Court In Asbestos Case

NEW YORK — A New York appellate court now faces issues involving admission of a deposition a defendant did not attend but for which it was able to later cross-examine the witness, and whether the jury’s $15 million award was supported by expert causation testimony and sufficient.
April 23, 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.
April 22, 2024
Wide-Ranging Briefing Follows $10 Million California Asbestos Award

SAN FRANCISCO — Whether the regulatory environment put the owner of an automotive shop on notice of the dangers of asbestos and whether a court’s exclusion of interrogatory responses about the man’s other potential exposures and his teacher’s comments about his education came before a California appeals court in briefing on a host of issues.
April 22, 2024
J&J Stuck In Figure Skaters’ Asbestos-Talc Suit Alleging 20,000 Exposures

NEW YORK — Johnson & Johnson entities merely poke holes in a mesothelioma case brought by a makeup artist and figure skater alleging exposure to asbestos in talc on more than 20,000 occasions and do not eliminate the possibility of causation, as they must to prevail, a New York justice said in denying the companies’ motion for summary judgment.
April 19, 2024
Punitive Damages, Strict Liability Claims Survive In Libby, Mont., Asbestos Case

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Evidence at an asbestos trial over exposures arising from a railway’s actions at the Libby, Mont., vermiculite mine creates a prima facie case for the railway’s strict liability for engaging in abnormally dangerous activities, and the company can face punitive damages for the conduct of its predecessors under Montana law because there was sufficient evidence at trial that they knew the risks of asbestos for the claim to go to the jury, a federal judge said in denying two motions for a directed verdict on April 18 and April 17.
April 19, 2024
Bar Date For Asbestos Claims Set In New Chapter 11 Case Of Niche Cosmetics Company

LOS ANGELES — A California federal bankruptcy judge has set a bar date for holders of asbestos claims to file proofs of claim in the new Chapter 11 case of professional cosmetics maker Ben Nye Co. Inc. over the objections of asbestos personal injury law firms and their clients in suits naming the debtor as a defendant.
April 18, 2024
Court: Positive Outlook Doesn’t Outweigh Disclosures In Asbestos Securities Class

NEW YORK — Even while putting a positive spin on Garrett Motion Inc.’s future, the company repeatedly warned investors about the dire financial situation posed by the asbestos-related liabilities it acquired in its spinoff from Honeywell International Inc., and the company was unlikely to believe it could mislead the market given the public nature of its information, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said April 17 in affirming dismissal of a securities class action.
April 18, 2024
Punitive Damages Survive Directed Verdict Bid In Libby, Mont., Asbestos Case

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A railway can face punitive damages for the conduct of its predecessors at a Libby, Mont., mine under Montana law, and there has been sufficient evidence at trial that the railway or its predecessors knew of the risks of asbestos for the claim to go to a jury, a federal judge said April 17 in denying a motion for a directed verdict.
April 17, 2024
Judge Rules On Judgment Motions In Asbestos Suit Involving Guaranty Association

NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge denied summary judgment to two suppliers of asbestos products in an asbestos liability suit against them, the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA) and multiple other parties over a man’s exposure to asbestos resulting from his work at a shipyard, finding that fact questions remain as to “whether the decedent was exposed to asbestos products manufactured” by these two suppliers.
April 16, 2024
Judge Won’t Dismiss Loss Of Consortium Claim From Widow’s Navy Asbestos Case

BOSTON — In an electronic court note, a federal judge in Massachusetts denied a motion to dismiss a widow’s loss of consortium claim from a Navy-exposure asbestos case, granted the defendant additional time to brief the issue and said next month’s trial would likely take two weeks.
April 15, 2024
Paper Mill, Contractor Debate Discovery Scope In Asbestos Indemnity Action

RALEIGH, N.C. — In opposing a motion to compel production of evidence tied to its possible negligence, a paper product company tells a federal judge in North Carolina that it owed no duty to the employee of a contractor and is entitled to contractual indemnification for defending and ultimately settling the asbestos-related claim, the company says.
April 15, 2024
John Crane Says Evidence Falls Short In $1.75M Asbestos Verdict

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — The encapsulated asbestos in gaskets and packing could not have caused a man’s fatal exposure to asbestos, but even if they did, there is no evidence that a warning would have prevented it, and the lack of action by the worker, his employers and related premises owners are all superseding causes, John Crane Inc. told a South Carolina judge in a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict after a $1.75 million verdict.
April 11, 2024
Plaintiffs, 11 Defendants Resolve Take-Home Asbestos Case At Trial’s Outset

NEW ORLEANS — A woman’s survivors who claimed that she suffered exposure to asbestos on the clothing of her husband who worked at Avondale Shipyards and 11 defendants settled at the outset of a trial originally projected to take five weeks but that a federal judge in Louisiana ordered completed in three weeks.
April 11, 2024
Pennsylvania Court Affirms Causation, Faults Asbestos Verdict Apportionment

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A plaintiff produced sufficient evidence at trial that the product a woman used at her salon contained asbestos-tainted Italian talc, but in apportioning liability, the trial court ran afoul of the state’s Fair Share Act, a Pennsylvania appeals court said April 10 in reversing the judgment and remanding for reapportionment.
April 10, 2024
Reconsideration Bid Denied, Default Judgment Granted In Reimbursement Dispute

OMAHA, Neb. — Deciding against a Brazil-based reinsurer on two motions in a March 9 amended ruling, a Nebraska federal judge entered judgment for plaintiff National Indemnity Co. (NICO) on all claims in a suit over reimbursement for a settlement reached with Montana regarding alleged asbestos exposure.
April 10, 2024
Viability Of UCL Class Action Involving Asbestos And Talc Rests With 9th Circuit

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals heard oral arguments over whether allegations of a decades-long advertising campaign about the safety and purity of talcum powder sufficiently specifies the advertising in question and saves a California unfair competition law (UCL) class action alleging that in reality the products contained asbestos and other contaminants.
April 10, 2024
J&J Entities Say They Have No Talc-Related Liabilities

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Talc liabilities followed a separate Johnson & Johnson entity and under Texas law cannot be attributed to three other companies, the companies argue in a motion to strike the asbestos-talc claims against them in a Connecticut court.
April 09, 2024
Retired CARD Director Says BNSF Deposition Went Off The Rails

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Despite agreeing to limit deposition questions to mesothelioma and relevant issues, a railway asked a retired director of a medical clinic about unrelated diseases and practices, the man tells a federal judge in Montana in seeking a protective order and sanctions.
April 09, 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.
April 08, 2024
John Crane Seeks Fees In Wake Of Asbestos Verdict In Illinois Federal Trial

CHICAGO — John Crane Inc. asks a federal judge in Illinois for more than $40,000 in expert witness and other fees after a jury handed it a defense verdict in a maritime plaintiffs’ asbestos case.
April 08, 2024
Trial Kicks Off After Judge Denies Vanderbilt’s Causation, Successor Arguments

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Trial in a case is under way after a judge in Connecticut denied a motion for summary judgment, saying Vanderbilt Minerals Inc. had not eliminated the possibility that its products caused a man’s asbestos-related disease or that it could not be held liable as a successor to a company whose assets it purchased.