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

Mealey's Asbestos

December 02, 2024
Connecticut Judge Adds $7.5 Million To Vanderbilt Asbestos-Talc Award

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A judge in Connecticut added $7.5 million in punitive damages to an asbestos verdict, turning away attempts to relitigate successor liability and saying the conduct in question and jury’s findings support the award. The amount represents half the compensatory damages granted by a jury earlier this year.
November 26, 2024
Virgin Islands High Court: Conjunctive Discovery Rule Applies, Bars Asbestos Case

CHARLOTTE AMALIE, Virgin Islands — A man’s own deposition testimony shows that he could identify asbestos-containing insulation and knew of his occupational exposures when he was diagnosed with asbestosis, the Virgin Islands Supreme Court said in finding that the conjunctive reading of the discovery rule applies and the statute of limitations bars his case.
November 26, 2024
Citing New Expert, Judge Certifies Class In Canadian Talc Case

NEW WESTMINSTER, British Columbia — A Canadian case alleging that perineal use of talc caused ovarian cancer will proceed as a class action after the judge found that newly submitted expert testimony sufficiently cured previous defects in the action.
November 26, 2024
Cape Parties Notify Court Of English Asbestos Receiver Decision

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Third-party defendants notified the judge overseeing South Carolina asbestos litigation that an English court enjoined Peter Protopapas from acting as the receiver for Cape Intermediate Holdings Ltd.
November 26, 2024
English Justice Enjoins South Carolina Receiver From Acting As Cape Agent

LONDON — A justice in an English court enjoined a receiver appointed by a South Carolina justice from acting on behalf of Cape Intermediate Holdings Ltd, saying that while the appointment might be viable elsewhere, English law clearly does not recognize his authority.
November 26, 2024
California Judge Extends Time For Challenges To $16.6M Laboratory Asbestos Case

LOS ANGELES — A California judge reset deadlines in an asbestos case, giving the parties the month of December to brief a forthcoming motion for a new trial after a jury awarded $16,679,000 to a husband and wife in a mesothelioma case involving exposures to asbestos in laboratories along the West Coast.
November 25, 2024
7th Circuit Affirms Dismissal To Arbitration In Preclusion Row

CHICAGO — Saying that neither Morgan v. Sundance, Inc. nor Section 13 of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) casts doubt on Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals precedent establishing “that the preclusive effect of an arbitral award is an issue for the arbitrator to decide, not a federal court,” a panel on Nov. 22 affirmed dismissal to arbitration of a lawsuit reinsurers filed over asbestos-related liabilities.
November 25, 2024
Asbestos Case Involving Talc Pleurodesis Evidence Battle Settles Prior To Trial

LOS ANGELES — A couple asked a California court to vacate all hearing dates in a case in which they had moved to exclude any reference at trial to the talc pleurodesis procedure the man underwent, saying they had resolved the case with all of the remaining defendants.
November 25, 2024
Missouri Jury Returns Defense Verdict For Employer In Asbestos Case

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri jury found for a defendant in an asbestos case after the state’s appellate court allowed the suit to proceed against the woman’s employer after concluding that it didn’t comply with the state’s special mesothelioma insurance provision and the Missouri Supreme Court declined to step in.
November 25, 2024
Oregon Judge Reduces $200M Asbestos-Talc Punitive Damages Award

PORTLAND, Ore. — After finding a $200 million punitive damages award constitutional in an asbestos case, an Oregon judge reduced that award to $120 million, citing evidence that Johnson & Johnson already ceased production of the talc-based baby powder at issue in the case and previously paid punitive damages for the conduct. J&J moved to stay enforcement of the judgment.
November 25, 2024
Court Won’t Reconsider Allowing Auto Alliance Amicus Brief In Asbestos Ban Cases

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an unpublished order declined to reconsider a ruling admitting an amicus curiae brief in consolidated cases raising various challenges where parties claim that the recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule instituting a rolling banning on the use of chrysotile asbestos in the United States goes both too far and not far enough.
November 22, 2024
COMMENTARY: 2024 Key Insurance Decisions, Trends & Developments & A Look Ahead To 2025

By Scott M. Seaman, Pedro E. Hernandez and Lisa M. Roccanova
November 21, 2024
J&J Talc Debtor Wants Lawyer Sanctioned For Skipping Deposition

HOUSTON — The debtor created in Johnson & Johnson’s third attempt at a bankruptcy resolution to asbestos-talc claims urged a federal bankruptcy judge in Texas to sanction an attorney who failed to appear for a deposition, saying a pending motion to quash does not give the deponent permission to simply decide not to appear.
November 19, 2024
Experts, Constitutionality Of Tooey Come Before Pa. Supreme Court

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Parties to a $3 million asbestos verdict affirmed on appeal briefed the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on whether a toxicologist was properly precluded from offering an opinion on specific causation and whether precedent allowing an employee to sue an employer when a workers’ compensation claim was statutorily impossible violated the state constitution.
November 19, 2024
Parties Brief Pennsylvania Top Court On Nature Of Asbestos Corporate Veil Motion

HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court faces a petition for allowance of appeal from a ruling dismissing a party and whether the underlying motion on piercing the corporate veil was a motion in limine or a dressed-up second motion for summary judgment and therefore violated the coordinated jurisdiction rule.
November 18, 2024
Family Drops Appeal After Nonsuit In California Asbestos Case

LOS ANGELES — A California appeals court entered an order dismissing an appeal after a family that was awarded nearly $9 million in an asbestos case asked to drop the appeal of a ruling granting nonsuit to ExxonMobil Oil Corp. on the heels of the trial.
November 19, 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.
November 19, 2024
Compelling Arbitration, Judge Says MOU Is ‘Closely Related’ To Reinsurance Contract

LOS ANGELES — Concluding that a 1984 memorandum of understanding (MOU) is “closely related to the reinsurance contract and not a completely separate agreement,” a California federal judge granted reinsurers’ motion to compel arbitration in a lawsuit over reinsurance billings arising from asbestos bodily injury claims.
November 06, 2024
COMMENTARY: California Appellate Court Gets One Right In Watts Opinion

By Mark A. Love
November 18, 2024
Judge Allows Surreply Brief On Anti-SLAPP Motion In Asbestos RICO Suit

CHICAGO — A federal court in Illinois granted a motion to file a surreply, allowing an asbestos pipe manufacturer suing a law firm to brief whether California’s anti-strategic lawsuits against public participation law applies. Facing a multitude of defenses to a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) lawsuit, the frequent asbestos defendant relies on “only inuendo and conclusory allegations” in an effort at revenge against the plaintiffs’ counsel, the law firm told a federal judge in Illinois in replies filed in support of motions to dismiss and strike the complaint.
November 18, 2024
Plaintiffs Withdraw Connecticut Asbestos Suits Against Former Employer

HARTFORD, Conn. — Plaintiffs in four consolidated cases withdrew their actions on Nov. 15, ending actions that saw the Connecticut appellate court conclude that occupational asbestos-related injuries were substantially certain to the employer and a trial judge’s rejection of arguments about the difficulties a joint trial would pose.
November 18, 2024
Delaware Judge Won’t Modify Receivership Over Asbestos Company

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware judge declined to modify a receivership to permit the marshalling of a dissolved company’s assets and defense of asbestos claims in four cases spread out over three states after an insurance company argued that the modification would skip procedures already put in place and essentially grant the relief sought by the original petition.
November 04, 2024
COMMENTARY: Lady Justice May Be Blind, But Her Courts Aren’t: Gender Bias And Barriers To Representation For Female Plaintiffs

By Sophie Zavaglia
November 14, 2024
Oregon Judge Finds $200M Punitive Damages Constitutional In Asbestos Case

PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon judge declined to reduce or vacate $200 million in punitive damages awarded in an asbestos-talc case against Johnson & Johnson, saying the jury’s $60 million in noneconomic damages supports finding that the award passes constitutional muster.
November 14, 2024
Talc Pleurodesis’ Role In Trial At Center Of Motion In Limine In Mesothelioma Case

LOS ANGELES — A couple and defendants locked in battle over a mesothelioma case debated the relevance and impact any references at trial to a talc pleurodesis procedure would have on the jury in briefing in a California court.