Mealey's Asbestos
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August 12, 2024
Judge Overseeing AII Talc Case Grants Briefing In Wake Of Dismissal Motion
NEW YORK — Briefing on any issues remaining after a 42-year-old man with mesothelioma moved to dismiss his claims so he can enjoy his remaining life will proceed on defendant American International Industries’ (AII) schedule, a federal judge in New York said in turning away arguments that there were no more issues in the case and that the request for briefing was just one in a long effort at delay.
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August 12, 2024
Judge Won’t Reconsider Allowing Product Liability Claims Against Talc Processor
TRENTON, N.J. — A federal judge denied reconsideration of a ruling denying an omnibus motion to dismiss in eight asbestos-talc cases, saying in the unpublished opinion that motions to dismiss are limited to the pleadings unlike the precedent cited by defendant PTI Union LLC and that the court acted within its powers to deny a motion for judicial notice.
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August 12, 2024
Let Medical Talc Case Proceed Against 2nd Defendant, Special Master Says
WOBURN, Mass. — Expert William Longo’s testing contributing to existing evidence of asbestos in talc used in a medical procedure, criticisms of a defendant’s own testing methods and the fact that the potential for asbestos-tainted talc was known decades before a man’s 2014 talc pleurodesis support denying the defendant’s motion for summary judgment, a special master in Massachusetts said in an Aug. 10 recommendation.
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August 09, 2024
Judge: No Filing Errors In Dismissed Asbestos Investor Claims Against Honeywell
WILMINGTON, Del. — After dismissing with prejudice a shareholders’ derivative complaint against Honeywell International Inc. brought by investors over the company’s 2018 announcement increasing its asbestos liability by more than $1 billion, a federal judge in Delaware issued an order determining that all parties complied with a procedural rule the judge said was required by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA).
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August 07, 2024
Judge Expands Briefing Opposing Efforts To Strike, Dismiss Asbestos RICO Case
CHICAGO — Asbestos defendant J-M Manufacturing Co. Inc. received a little extra room for arguments opposing a law firm’s motions contending the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) case targets protected litigation conduct after a federal judge in Illinois granted an unopposed motion for additional pages and clarified the briefing schedule.
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August 07, 2024
AII Seeks Time For Talc Case Dismissal Briefing; Man Says Move Is Unneeded Delay
NEW YORK — On the same day American International Industries (AII) asked for an extended briefing timeline on a motion by a 42-year-old man with mesothelioma to dismiss his claims so he can enjoy his remaining life, the man told a New York federal court that the company is refusing to take its win and instead continuing in its practice of unnecessarily extending the litigation. The letter briefs were filed Aug. 6.
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August 07, 2024
Insurers, Claims Administrator Seek Dismissal Of Lawsuit Over Asbestos Judgment
NEW YORK — Sparring with a man who obtained a multimillion-dollar asbestos exposure judgment against a dissolved manufacturer, a third-party claims administrator urges a New York federal court to grant its dismissal motion, arguing in its reply brief that it “has located no legal precedent to support” the man’s theory that he is “an ‘implied assignee’” of the manufacturer.
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August 07, 2024
J&J Tells 3rd Circuit Asbestos-Talc Securities Class ‘Reverse-Engineered’ Case
PHILADELPHIA — An asbestos-talc securities class produced none of the type of new and corrective disclosures required for class certification and instead “reverse-engineered” their case by working backward from price drops and identifying media reports and verdicts supporting the case, Johnson & Johnson and its executives told the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in urging reversal of class certification.
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August 06, 2024
Beasley Allen Says Evidence Doesn’t Support J&J Disqualification Effort
TRENTON, N.J. — The unrebutted evidence shows that a former lawyer never divulged privileged information, paving the way for a federal court to adopt a state judge’s ruling that there is no grounds for disqualifying a law firm in the multidistrict asbestos-talc litigation, the firm says in a Aug. 5 response.
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August 06, 2024
Claims Against Defendant Insurer Alleged Owed $28.9M Are Dismissed By Stipulation
OMAHA, Neb. — Claims against one of what had been four remaining defendants in a suit National Indemnity Co. (NICO) filed over a $157.2 million settlement it reached with Montana regarding alleged asbestos exposures have been dismissed with prejudice under a joint stipulation that a Nebraska federal judge granted.
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August 06, 2024
Justice: Asbestos Suit Against Dissolved Artificial Snow Company Timely
WATERTOWN, N.Y. — An artificial snow company that was dissolved under Wisconsin law must face a New York asbestos suit because New York law focuses on when an action was filed, which happened before the closing of the window for suing the company, a New York justice held Aug. 5.
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August 05, 2024
Judge Stays Libby, Mont., Asbestos Trust Suit Pending Bankruptcy Court Ruling
MISSOULA, Mont. — A federal judge overseeing a pair of asbestos exposure suits brought by Libby, Mont., residents granted a motion to stay their cases against the WRG Asbestos Personal Injury trust Aug. 2 so that the bankruptcy court can determine whether the claims are viable.
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August 05, 2024
Magistrate Judge Rejects Immunity, Contractor Defense In Helicopter Asbestos Case
WILMINGTON, Del. — Two helicopter defendants saw different results in an asbestos case, with a magistrate judge on Aug. 2 recommending that one be dismissed but leaving claims against the second, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., after criticizing its filing but concluding that a widow’s case against it survives because the evidence suggests that it knew that its aircraft contained asbestos and that the federal contractor defense and derivative sovereign immunity would not bar the claims.
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August 05, 2024
Dismissal Bid Will Go To 7th Circuit Panel In Arbitration Estoppel Row
CHICAGO — Without explanation, a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals judge has ordered a dismissal motion that is based on a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling to be taken with reinsurers’ fully briefed appeal concerning the effects of prior arbitration involving asbestos-related liabilities.
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August 02, 2024
Talc Defendant Says Moline Study Exit Raises Subpoena’s Importance
RICHMOND, Va. — A plaintiff’s complete abandonment of any articles by expert Jacqueline Moline leaves only a study by Theresa Emory that serves only to increase the importance of a subpoena seeking evidence about the study, asbestos-talc defendant American International Industries told the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a letter brief.
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August 02, 2024
Employer, Amicus Urge Kentucky High Court To Reject Take-Home Asbestos Liability
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — An electric products company told the Kentucky Supreme Court that it owed no duty a woman allegedly exposed to asbestos on her father’s work clothing because such an injury was not foreseeable and that the woman’s own employment with the company precludes a tort action under the state’s workers’ compensation law. In an amicus brief, various business interests argued that there are sound public policy and scientific grounds to rejecting take-home asbestos liability.
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August 01, 2024
Mesothelioma Sufferer Asks Court To Dismiss Lone Remaining Talc Defendant
NEW YORK — A 42-year-old man suffering from mesothelioma that he believes resulted from asbestos in talc applied to him as a child asked a New York federal judge on July 31 to dismiss with prejudice a contentious action involving the lone remaining defendant, American International Industries (AII), so he can enjoy his remaining years free from its “improper and harassing discovery.”
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August 01, 2024
Take-Home Duty At Heart Of Briefing In Appeal Of $9.7M Asbestos Verdict
MILWAUKEE — Parties wrapped up briefing on the propriety of a $9.7 million asbestos verdict, with a premises owner telling a Wisconsin appeals court that the state doesn’t recognize take-home exposure claims and warning about the burden such liability could impose while the plaintiff argues that nothing prevented the trial court from allowing liability for taking no action to prevent known or knowable dangers.
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July 30, 2024
Special Master Says Medical Talc Asbestos Case Should Proceed
WOBURN, Mass. — Sufficient evidence exists indicating that the powder used in talc pleurodesis medical procedures a man underwent contained asbestos and that the talc supplier’s internal testing methods fell short, a special master in Massachusetts said July 29 in recommending denying a motion for summary judgment by the company.
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July 30, 2024
Illinois Jury Awards $24.46M In Asbestos Damages To Talc-Facility Janitor, Wife
CHICAGO — An Illinois jury hit Avon Products Inc. with a $24.46 million asbestos verdict, including $1 million in punitive damages, after finding the company responsible for a former janitor’s exposure to asbestos present at a talc-processing facility, sources told Mealey’s Publications.
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July 30, 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.
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July 30, 2024
Boiler Company Can’t Escape Asbestos Verdict, Punitives, New York Justice Says
NEW YORK — Evidence of a man’s suffering and how it impacted his life and a company’s handling of asbestos support a jury’s $38 million award that included $6.5 million in punitive damages, a New York justice said in affirming the verdict and denying a boiler maker a new trial or judgment notwithstanding the verdict.
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July 30, 2024
New Jersey Judge: J&J Can’t Show Lawyer Violated Rules, Need For Disqualification
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — A former attorney who helped plot Johnson & Johnson’s bankruptcy strategy clearly enjoys privileged information, but there is no evidence that he shared that information with plaintiffs’ attorneys in his role as the executive of a private company, a New Jersey judge said in declining to disqualify the law firm.
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July 29, 2024
J&J To Federal Talc MDL: State Disqualification Ruling Wrong
TRENTON, N.J. — The federal multidistrict talc litigation court should adopt a state court judge’s opinion declining to disqualify plaintiffs’ lawyers, Johnson & Johnson tells the court in briefing, because that ruling for the first time upturns the presumption that the flow of privileged information goes both directions when parties share confidences and ignores evidence suggesting that such sharing occurred in this case.
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July 26, 2024
3rd Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of LTL Management’s 2nd Chapter 11 Case
PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a July 25 nonprecedential opinion affirmed a New Jersey federal bankruptcy court’s dismissal of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) spinoff LTL Management LLC’s second attempt to reorganize through bankruptcy, rejecting the debtor’s argument that its second Chapter 11 case is valid because it proved that its financial resources will probably be wiped out by asbestos lawsuits.