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LEGAL NEWSLINE

Friday, March 29, 2024

Latest News


Asbestos

Bankruptcy plan to avoid asbestos lawsuits approved despite company's massive value

By John O'Brien |
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Legal Newsline) - The contested strategy of a Georgia-Pacific unit created to clear asbestos claims will continue in bankruptcy court, a judge has ruled much to the dismay of plaintiff lawyers hoping to get their clients bigger paydays in civil courts.

Asbestos

Louisiana Supreme Court finds $10M in asbestos case too much

By Daniel Fisher |
NEW ORLEANS (Legal Newsline) - The Louisiana Supreme Court cut a $10.5 million jury verdict in an asbestos lawsuit in half, saying an analysis of whether a jury abused its discretion must include an examination of awards in similar cases.

Asbestos

It's raining asbestos: Court rejects case over steam line explosion in Tennessee

By John O'Brien |
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (Legal Newsline) - A Tennessee woman's lawsuit over an explosion of an Eastman Chemical Company steam pipe has failed, as an appeals court has ruled that it is basically an asbestos case.

Asbestos

Asbestos not an 'obvious' hazard for removal worker in 1979, court rules in $2.3M case

By Daniel Fisher |
OLYMPIA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) - Jurors didn’t need to be instructed on the defense of “known and obvious” risks in the case of a worker who developed a deadly cancer decades after a three-month assignment removing asbestos from a Mobil refinery in 1979, the Washington Supreme Court ruled.

Asbestos

Plaintiff lawyers seek payment for thwarting J&J talc bankruptcy

By Daniel Fisher |
TRENTON, N.J. (Legal Newsline) - Plaintiff lawyers who successfully blocked Johnson & Johnson from settling talc claims in bankruptcy sought more than $1 million in fees as a judge for the second time dismissed the Chapter 11 reorganization case of the LTL Management unit J&J set up specifically to pay tort claims.

Asbestos

Asbestos filings projected to remain flat for 2023; Illinois courts remain destination for plaintiffs

By John Sammon |
A webinar hosted in Washington D.C. to discuss trends in asbestos litigation reported a slight decrease last year in cases compared with 2021, with Illinois the most popular lawsuit location.

Asbestos

Muddled science and plaintiff experts created the $10 billion talc tort

By Daniel Fisher |
Talc litigation has its roots in what some scientists described as a basic misunderstanding, one that highly paid plaintiff experts transformed into a mass tort that will cost Johnson & Johnson and many other companies more than $10 billion to resolve.

Asbestos

Delaware judge speaks for Ohio courts, allows asbestos case to move forward

By Daniel Fisher |
WILMINGTON, Del. (Legal Newsline) - A company that made equipment to grind automobile brakes must face trial in Delaware on claims it failed to warn mechanics about the risk of inhaling asbestos fibers, a judge ruled, after determining Ohio law applied to the case and the state’s highest court would have allowed it to proceed.

Asbestos

Merck must pay Dr. Scholl's talc lawsuit costs, despite selling in 2014

By Daniel Fisher |
WILMINGTON, Del. (Legal Newsline) - Merck is stuck with mounting costs from lawsuits over Dr. Scholl’s foot powder, which plaintiff lawyers claim can cause cancer, even though it sold the division containing that business to Bayer for $14 billion nearly a decade ago, a Delaware judge ruled.

Asbestos

Plaintiff lawyers say talc kills. So how do they represent future victims?

By Daniel Fisher |
If the experts who testify for plaintiffs suing Johnson & Johnson over talcum powder are to believed, the ubiquitous product is a slow-acting toxin that even in tiny doses can cause ovarian and other cancers.

Asbestos

Johnson & Johnson renews effort to settle talc claims with $8.9 billion bankruptcy plan

By Daniel Fisher |
TRENTON, N.J. (Legal Newsline) - Days after a federal appeals court ended Johnson & Johnson’s first attempt to resolve litigation over talcum powder through the bankruptcy of a specially formed subsidiary, the healthcare-products giant tried again, this time announcing a $8.9 billion tentative settlement agreement with lawyers representing more than 60,000 plaintiffs.

Asbestos

Asbestos claimants want Bestwall cases in court, not bankruptcy

By John O'Brien |
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Legal Newsline) - Lawyers representing asbestos claimants are hoping to block Bestwall's bankruptcy, telling a North Carolina court the company has more than enough money to pay alleged victims.

Asbestos

Long-bankrupt asbestos gasket company revived in search for insurance

By Daniel Fisher |
WILMINGTON, Del. (Legal Newsline) - Saying there was evidence a long-bankrupt manufacturer of asbestos gaskets had valuable insurance policies when it was dissolved, a Delaware judge reversed the cancellation of the company’s corporate status and ordered a receiver to be appointed to investigate further.

Asbestos

Plaintiff expert's internet explanations aren't enough in New Jersey cancer case

By Daniel Fisher |
TRENTON, N.J. (Legal Newsline) - A plaintiff expert who cited an article from the American Cancer Society website to explain why he thought a smoker’s cancer was caused by diesel smoke was properly excluded from testifying, a New Jersey appeals court ruled, upholding the dismissal of a lawsuit by a railroad worker’s widow against Conrail.

Asbestos

Johnson & Johnson urges Third Circuit to reconsider talc bankruptcy ruling

By Daniel Fisher |
TRENTON, N.J. (Legal Newsline) - Saying it is trying to avoid a “value-destructive, complex, expensive bankruptcy” of its $61 billion consumer-products division, Johnson & Johnson urged the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a panel decision rejecting the reorganization of a smaller unit the company established to handle tens of thousands of lawsuits claiming its Johnson’s Baby Powder contains deadly asbestos.

Asbestos

Appeals court rejects J&J's plan to resolve talcum powder lawsuits

By Daniel Fisher |
PHILADELPHIA (Legal Newsline) - A federal appeals court rejected Johnson & Johnson’s attempt to resolve thousands of lawsuits claiming talcum powder causes cancer in bankruptcy court, saying a nearly unlimited financial guarantee the pharmaceuticals giant extended to a unit formed for that purpose meant it wasn’t actually insolvent.

Asbestos

Longtime Avon exec hadn't been there long enough to testify about asbestos in talcum powder

By John O'Brien |
LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - The testimony of an Avon executive can't be used to defeat a lawsuit that alleges exposure to asbestos from the company's talcum powder, a California appeals court has found.

Asbestos

Johnson & Johnson sues more experts over 'junk' science in talc lawsuits

By Daniel Fisher |
TRENTON, N.J. (Legal Newsline) - The bankrupt unit Johnson & Johnson set up to handle litigation over cosmetic talcum powder has sued three more plaintiff experts it says published an influential 2020 article linking talc to mesothelioma without disclosing other sources of asbestos exposure among the study’s subjects.

Asbestos

J&J wants names of talc 'victims' in report it says ignores other exposures to asbestos

By John O'Brien |
TRENTON, N.J. (Legal Newsline) - A unit of Johnson & Johnson fighting claims talcum powder causes cancer wants the identities of all alleged victims cited in a report that gave plaintiff lawyers fuel for the multibillion-dollar litigation.

Asbestos

Companies embroiled in talc litigation lose challenge to plaintiff experts in $12M case

By Daniel Fisher |
SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) - Plaintiff experts who say cosmetic talcum powder causes the fatal cancer mesothelioma were properly allowed to testify in a trial that resulted in a $12 million plaintiff verdict, a California appeals court ruled, rejecting defense arguments they didn’t have scientific evidence to support their opinions.