Mealey's Asbestos
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November 13, 2024
More Than 150 People Sue Cape Entities Over Asbestos Scheme
COLUMBIA, S.C. — More than 150 individuals with various types of asbestos exposure filed a negligence and product liability suit in South Carolina against mining giant Cape PLC and its various subsidiaries on Nov. 12 for allegedly operating a scheme to sell asbestos in the United States with the knowledge that doing so would kill or injure tens of thousands of people while relying on a “byzantine web” of interrelated entities to escape liability for the conduct.
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November 13, 2024
Restrictions Granted In Asbestos Coverage Dispute Involving Liquidated Insurer
OMAHA, Neb. — In docket-only orders, a Nebraska federal magistrate judge granted motions to restrict access to certain documents by National Indemnity Co. (NICO) and Horace Mann Insurance Co., including briefs related to summary judgment motions, in NICO’s suit seeking to enforce obligations by multiple insurers, one of whom is now insolvent, for the liability NICO incurred related to claims for asbestos exposure.
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November 12, 2024
Floor Tile Company Drops Asbestos Causation Appeal, Settles Case
NEW YORK — A tile defendant withdrew its appeal of a ruling finding that allegations that a man sanded the product exceeded the state’s causation standard, and the company announced that it reached a settlement with a mesothelioma sufferer already awarded $600,000 by a New York jury.
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November 12, 2024
Judge Says Asbestos Complaint More Than A ‘Shotgun Pleading’
NEW ORLEANS — A man lays out specific times of exposure and theories of recovery, exceeding what one would call a “shotgun complaint” and giving an asbestos defendant sufficient details on which it can respond, a federal judge in Louisiana said in denying a motion to dismiss.
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November 12, 2024
Justice Says Talc Defendant Misplaces Burden On Summary Judgment
NEW YORK — A defendant in an asbestos talc case misplaces the burden of proof on summary judgment, pointing to holes in a case where it admits that it manufactured the product, and there remain questions about its knowledge of the dangers, a New York justice said in denying summary judgment.
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November 12, 2024
Kentucky Panel Reverses Workers’ Comp Ruling In Asbestos Coverage Dispute
FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Kentucky Court of Appeals reversed a decision by the Kentucky Workers’ Compensation Board and instructed the board to remand the dispute to an administrative law judge to determine which of two insurers should provide coverage to a workers’ compensation claimant who developed mesothelioma as a result of asbestos exposure while working at a Kentucky high school that contained asbestos.
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November 11, 2024
Asbestos Law Firm Claims ‘Multiple Dispositive Defenses’ To RICO Suit
CHICAGO — Facing a multitude of defenses to a Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) lawsuit, an asbestos-pipe defendant relies on “only inuendo and conclusory allegations” in an effort at revenge against plaintiffs’ counsel, lawyers told a federal judge in Illinois in defending motions to dismiss and strike the complaint.
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November 08, 2024
La. Panel Vacates Order For Lack Of Admissibility Ruling In Asbestos Coverage Row
BATON ROUGE, La. — A Louisiana appellate panel vacated and remanded a lower court ruling that denied a motion for summary judgment filed by a company that purportedly used asbestos-containing products in an asbestos liability suit filed against it and multiple defendants, including a now-insolvent insurer, finding that the lower court incorrectly denied summary judgment to the company without ruling on the parties’ objections to the evidence.
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November 07, 2024
Federal Magistrate Judge Denies Amendment Adding Asbestos-Talc Defendant
NEW ORLEANS — A woman’s vague explanation for attempting to add a new retail defendant to her asbestos-talc suit a year after its filing and only after the process began to dismiss the lone nondiverse defendant in the case appears tailored to defeat jurisdiction, a federal magistrate judge said, denying leave to amend.
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November 06, 2024
7th Circuit Hears Argument On Arbitration Preclusion Dispute In Reinsurers’ Appeal
CHICAGO — In Nov. 5 oral argument before a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel concerning where disputes over the preclusive effect of prior arbitration are decided, reinsurers acknowledged that the reversal they seek would create a circuit split, while an insurer cited Smith v. Spizzirri in urging the court to vacate the challenged dismissal to arbitration in favor of a stay during arbitration.
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November 05, 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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November 05, 2024
Judge Stays J&J Effort To Remove Counsel From Talc MDL
TRENTON, N.J. — The effort to disqualify and remove the Beasley Allen law firm from the talc multidistrict litigation steering committee is on hold after a federal judge in New Jersey stayed the effort in the wake of a ruling by the judge overseeing a J&J entity’s bankruptcy saying the automatic stay should apply.
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November 01, 2024
California Panel Upends Auto Shop Owner’s $10.1M Asbestos Verdict
SAN FRANCISCO — A trial court overseeing an asbestos case that produced a $10.1 million verdict erred in issuing a directed verdict on the sophisticated user defense in the case of an automobile shop owner and by failing to list certain potentially liable parties on the verdict sheet, a California appeals court panel said in reversing and remanding for a new trial.
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November 01, 2024
Split Panel: Silicosis Case Fails Due To Plaintiff’s Unreliable Experts
HOUSTON — A split Texas appeals court panel on Oct. 31 affirmed a lower court’s ruling in favor of Exxon Mobil Corp. in a silica injury lawsuit brought by a worker who sandblasted railcars and contended that he developed pulmonary fibrosis because the company created a situation in which he had to perform an “intrinsically unsafe and ultrahazardous activity.” The panel held that the worker’s experts were not reliable.
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November 01, 2024
Asbestos Bankruptcy Claimants Take Stay Relief Denial Ruling To 4th Circuit
CHARLOTTE, N.C. —A federal judge in North Carolina affirmed a bankruptcy court’s decision not to lift the automatic stay for two asbestos cases, agreeing that allowing the cases to proceed in state court could threaten the DBMP LLC bankruptcy process. The claimants filed a notice of appeal to the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in the wake of the ruling.
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November 01, 2024
Woman Says Hysterectomy Evidence Relevant In Mesothelioma Case
LOS ANGELES — Expert testimony establishes that mesothelioma spread to a woman’s ovaries necessitating a hysterectomy regardless of the initial diagnosis, the woman tells a Los Angeles judge in opposing a motion in limine to exclude evidence of the procedure.
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October 31, 2024
Boiler Company Says Discovery Triggered Asbestos Case Removal
SEATTLE — It would have been objectively unreasonable to remove a case alleging asbestos exposure at various locations and to non-Navy products, and it was only subsequent discovery that demonstrated that the case belongs in federal court, a company argues in a supplemental brief opposing remand from a federal court in Washington.
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October 31, 2024
California Jury Finds For Asbestos Defendant In Friction Products Case
LOS ANGELES — A California jury returned a defense verdict in a friction case against a company accused of assembling asbestos-containing brakes, finding that while the company sold such products, they performed as expected and their benefits outweighed the risks.
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October 30, 2024
Arbitration Bid Fought In Reinsurance Billing Row Involving MOU
LOS ANGELES — Urging a California federal court to reject an arbitration bid in a lawsuit over reinsurance billings arising from asbestos bodily injury claims, an insurer contends that the abstention doctrine doesn’t apply and that the arbitration clause is in a different agreement than the one at issue and doesn’t include the present billing dispute.
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October 29, 2024
Single Exposure Asbestosis Causation Opinion Can’t Stand, Alcoa Tells Texas Court
HOUSTON — An appeals court ignored precedent and science in creating a new causation standard for single exposure asbestosis cases, an employer tells the Texas Supreme Court in its Oct. 28 opening merits brief urging the court to reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and affirm the ruling from the trial court.
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October 29, 2024
Day-Late Filing In Asbestos Trust Suit Rejected By Delaware Top Court
WILMINGTON, Del. — An appeal filed a day late prevents jurisdiction over the case, a defect that cannot be remedied, the Delaware Supreme Court said in dismissing an appeal from a ruling finding that the statute of limitations on a man’s asbestos case began at the time of his autopsy and barred a case against a bankruptcy trust.
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October 29, 2024
Baby Powder Company Expands Recall Of Possible Asbestos-Tainted Products
MONTVALE, N.J. — After previously recalling 62 cases of Dynacare Baby Powder over fears that the powder could contain asbestos, Dynarex Corp. on Oct. 28 announced in a press release that it was expanding the recall to include more than 1,000 additional cases of powder products that could be contaminated with asbestos.
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October 28, 2024
New York Jury Awards $600,000 In Mechanic’s Mesothelioma Case
NEW YORK — A New York jury awarded $300,000 each for past and future pain and suffering experienced by a former automobile mechanic with mesothelioma but declined to award any punitive damages against defendant North American Honda Motor Co. Inc., sources told Mealey Publications.
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October 28, 2024
Asbestos Jury Will Hear From Construction Expert, But Not About Talc Pleurodesis
SAN FRANCISCO — Reference to a man’s talc pleurodesis procedures would likely only confuse a jury, a construction expert may testify about general industry practices and likely length of exposure but not whether a man could have purchased a defendant’s product at a local hardware store, and any attempt to trigger the jury’s reptilian brain at trial can be addressed at that time, a federal judge in California said in partially granting motions in limine.
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October 25, 2024
4th Circuit Affirms Sanctions, Attorney Fees In Asbestos Referral Fight
RICHMOND, Va. — A federal court properly sanctioned an asbestos law firm for state court lawsuits it filed in an attempt to block litigation between it and another law firm in a fee dispute, and the factors generally used to award prevailing parties attorney fees do not apply in cases where the fees are awarded as a sanction, a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said Oct. 24.