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

Mealey's Asbestos

January 04, 2024
Judge Affirms Quashing Of Asbestos Media Subpoenas, Certifies Stock Class

TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson’s motion seeking reconsideration of a ruling quashing subpoenas to lawyers, law firms and experts over their media contacts is untimely but would fail anyway because it offers no new information, and even supplemental information produced in opposition does not require denying a motion to certify a securities class action, a federal judge in New Jersey said in denying reconsideration and certifying the class.
January 04, 2024
1 Defendant Files Status Report In Insurer’s Suit Over Asbestos Liabilities Row

OMAHA, Neb. — Evaluating proof of claims in separate liquidation proceedings “is expected to take several years,” a defendant told a Nebraska federal court in its latest status report in a suit over the $157.2 million settlement National Indemnity Co. (NICO) reached with Montana regarding alleged asbestos exposures.
January 03, 2024
Choice-Of-Law, Causation Arguments Fail In Ovarian Cancer Talc Case

TRENTON, N.J. — Absent evidence that Louisiana and District of Columbia law conflict, the latter’s laws apply to a case filed in the district, and a man’s case involving his mother’s talc-related ovarian cancer includes sufficient evidence of exposure and duration to overcome summary judgment, a federal judge in New Jersey said.
January 03, 2024
Magistrate Judge: List Of Litigation Suffices, No Corporate Deposition Needed

NEW ORLEANS — A shipyard need not produce a corporate representative to identify the types and number of asbestos claims it faces because producing a list it likely already has will provide the same information in a less burdensome manner, a federal magistrate judge in Louisiana said Jan. 2 in partly denying plaintiffs’ motion to compel.
January 03, 2024
Court: No New York Jurisdiction In Asbestos Case Against California Door Maker

NEW YORK — A California door manufacturer that never manufactured asbestos-containing products outside the state is not subject to personal jurisdiction in New York, an appeals court in the state said in reversing denial of the manufacturer’s motion to dismiss.
January 02, 2024
New York Governor Again Vetoes Bill Seeking Wrongful Death Claim Expansion

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Dec. 29 again vetoed legislation she said would “fundamentally alter the legal framework” by expanding the type of damages recoverable under a wrongful death action and who could pursue such damages, saying that while the state’s statute needs updating, the measure must provide balance and address concerns regarding unintended consequences in the insurance and health care marketplaces.
December 22, 2023
Asbestos Plaintiffs Urge Court To Reject Pipe Maker’s Disparaging Of Jury Foreman

LOS ANGELES — Two companies hit with an $8.8 million asbestos verdict demonize the jury foreperson in a motion for reconsideration after the judge found that there was jury misconduct but that the conduct was not prejudicial, asbestos plaintiffs tell a Los Angeles judge in an opposition.
December 22, 2023
Asbestos-Talc Defendant Says Dismissal Ruling Ignored Court’s Past Findings

TRENTON, N.J. — A ruling partly denying an omnibus motion to dismiss disregarded previous court rulings interpreting the same evidence but at a lower standard, a defendant in the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) federal multidistrict asbestos-talc litigation told a federal court in New Jersey in a motion to reconsider.
December 20, 2023
Judge Denies Settlement In Suit Alleging Malpractice Led To $20M Asbestos Verdict

LOS ANGELES — A California judge overseeing a malpractice suit against asbestos defense counsel denied a motion for good faith settlement involving cross-defendants, saying the conclusory statements in support didn’t provide her sufficient information about the quality of the claims to grant an opposed motion; in a second order, the judge found a motion to compel discovery responses moot.
December 20, 2023
Amendments To Rule 702 For Expert Witness Testimony Go Into Effect

Amendments to Federal Rule of Evidence 702, Fed. R. Evid. 702, went into effect to clarify how courts should decide the admissibility of expert testimony.
December 19, 2023
Magistrate Judge Finds Motion For Protective Order Over Talc Bottles Moot

NEW YORK — A federal magistrate judge in New York denied as moot a motion seeking a protective order governing the return and use of talc bottles submitted as evidence in a pair of asbestos cases after a state court plaintiff asked the judge in his case to modify an order mandating that the defendants return the bottles to the plaintiffs.
December 19, 2023
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.
December 19, 2023
Judge: Jury’s $107M Award In Asbestos Case Unsupported, Tainted By Misconduct

LOS ANGELES — A California judge granted post-trial motions, eliminating a $107 million asbestos verdict after finding jury and attorney misconduct in the case and that the evidence of causation against all of the three defendants fell short.
December 18, 2023
LTL Management To 3rd Circuit: Dismissal Of 2nd Bankruptcy Should Be Reversed

PHILADELPHIA — Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC proved that its financial resources will probably be wiped out by asbestos lawsuits, so its second Chapter 11 case is valid, the debtor says in its appeal to the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of a bankruptcy judge’s dismissal of its second attempt to reorganize through bankruptcy.
December 18, 2023
Woman Says Nothing In Asbestos Ruling Precludes Loss Of Consortium Claim

BOSTON — A widow told a federal judge in Massachusetts on Dec. 15 that an October ruling addressing the available damages in a Navy-exposure asbestos case did not preclude her loss of consortium claim, saying that the motion is untimely because the damages were included in a state court complaint filed years ago and that the damages stem from injuries suffered before death and therefore are permitted by the ruling.
December 15, 2023
Asbestos-Talc Company: With Little Burden, Crucial Third-Party Subpoena Allowable

RICHMOND, Va. — Producing a single document listing the 75 participants in a study on asbestos-talc causation imposes essentially no burden on a third-party medical provider, but the resulting information could provide “critical” evidence rebutting a man’s case, a talc company tells the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an opening brief.
December 14, 2023
Justice: Conflicting Evidence Keeps Compressor Company In New York Asbestos Case

NEW YORK — An air compressor company focuses on alleged weaknesses in a lung cancer sufferer’s asbestos case, falling short of the standard for summary judgment in New York, which requires affirmatively establishing that the products in question could not have caused the disease, a justice in the state said in denying summary judgment.
December 14, 2023
New York Justice Orders Production Of Plaintiff’s Talc Bottle Evidence

NEW YORK — A defendant must immediately produce and return to the plaintiff bottles of talc produced in discovery and cease any additional testing of the evidence, a New York justice said in an order granting a motion to compel.
December 13, 2023
In Tentative Ruling, Judge Denies Sanctions After Asbestos Defense Verdict

LOS ANGELES — In the wake of a jury finding Foster Wheeler Energy Corp. and Foster Wheeler LLC not negligent in a maritime asbestos case, a federal judge in California issued a tentative ruling on Dec. 12 preliminarily finding no sanctionable conduct on the part of a trio of attorneys, one accused of stalling in seeking a trial continuance, one accused of misrepresenting whether a client countered a settlement offer and one accused of causing confusion over whether an expert could testify live.
December 13, 2023
Insurer: Policy Authenticated; Court Should Review Missouri Workers’ Comp Ruling

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Missouri Supreme Court should review a case so that it can affirm that an insurance contract could be authenticated through the testimony of a person knowledgeable about its existence and that the date of diagnosis governs whether workers’ compensation exclusivity applies, an insurer tells the court.
December 13, 2023
Federal Jury In Massachusetts Finds For Asbestos Boiler Company

BOSTON — A federal judge in Massachusetts entered judgment in an asbestos case after the jury found that the plaintiff had not shown that the defendant breached the implied warranty of merchantability by selling boilers without adequate warnings or that it was negligent for not providing such warnings in a case in which the judge found that maritime law permitted loss of consortium, punitive and survival damages.
December 07, 2023
COMMENTARY: Fire & Rain: 2023 Key Decisions & Developments Impacting The Wide World Of Insurance

By Scott M. Seaman, Pedro E. Hernandez and Lisa M. Roccanova
December 08, 2023
Parties Ask Kentucky Top Court To Dismiss Appeals In J&J Talc Testimony Case

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Parties to a pair of appeals before the Kentucky Supreme Court moved to dismiss the cases involving in part whether a corporate representative’s testimony about his personal use of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) talc products was relevant in an asbestos-talc case after a lower court granted the plaintiff a new trial based on the testimony’s admission.
December 08, 2023
Kaiser Gypsum Asbestos Insurer Seeks Supreme Court Reversal Of Ruling On Standing

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ finding that the primary insurer of Chapter 11 asbestos debtors Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. does not have standing to challenge the debtors’ reorganization plan because the plan is insurance neutral is wrong and should be reversed, the insurer tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a Dec. 7 brief on the merits.
December 07, 2023
J&J: Former Attorney Improperly Working With Talc MDL Lawyer, Firm

TRENTON, N.J. — One of the attorneys responsible for crafting talc-related liability strategies for defendant companies flipped and formed an alliance with counsel for plaintiffs, Johnson & Johnson and spinoff LTL Management LLC say in a motion filed in federal multidistrict litigation in New Jersey seeking disqualification of a plaintiffs’ attorney and his firm or their removal from the steering committee.