Asbestos News
Asbestos
Lawyers supporting J&J's $9B talc settlement seek protection from rival firms
HOUSTON - Law firms that want Johnson & Johnson's massive talc bankruptcy plan approved object to the nature of a probe by lawyers who want it rejected, as the fight for votes continues ahead of a key hearing.
Asbestos
Feds, lawyers and insurers among critics of J&J's massive talc settlement
HOUSTON - Some insurers and personal injury lawyers have found themselves in a rare position - allied in court.
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Asbestos
Justice Wecht thinks Supreme Court is rewriting state law to benefit asbestos plaintiffs
PITTSBURGH - Asbestos lawsuits keep giving Pennsylvania's highest court the chance to put its own policies in place by ignoring laws passed by the legislature, a Supreme Court justice wrote last week.
Asbestos
Supreme Court: Pa. law can't stop asbestos lawsuits against employers; Two dissent, ruing Tooey
PITTSBURGH - A state workplace injury law that gives employees four years to sue over exposure to dangerous materials doesn't stop plaintiffs with asbestos-related diseases that developed long after that timeframe from going to court.
Asbestos
Talc lawyers fighting J&J's $9B plan get to grill lawyer holding 1,500 key votes
HOUSTON - A court-ordered deposition of a lawyer next week should produce plenty of fireworks, as he explains why 1,500 of his clients suing Johnson & Johnson changed their minds on whether to accept the company's massive settlement proposal.
Asbestos
J&J scores talc verdict in Pittsburgh from confused jurors
PITTSBURGH - Johnson & Johnson has avoided a jackpot verdict in Pittsburgh, though jurors there still tried to punish the company for selling Baby Powder.
Asbestos
Third Circuit cites no jurisdiction for insurer's appeal over asbestos litigation costs
PHILADELPHIA – Citing a lack of jurisdiction, a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled against an insurance company’s appeal connected to the costs it incurred in asbestos litigation from one of its customers.
Asbestos
Settlement ends Honeywell's 'ill-fated' funding of asbestos trust; Company claimed lawyers were bleeding it dry
ERIE, Pa. (Legal Newsline) - Likening the two sides to exhausted boxers or a quarreling couple, a bankruptcy judge approved a settlement between Honeywell and trustees overseeing a fund for paying asbestos claimants under which Honeywell will end its involvement for a lump-sum payment of $1.3 billion.
Asbestos
Asbestos lawyers succeed in keeping info from public
ERIE, Pa. (Legal Newsline) - The public won't have access to information from a case that accuses an asbestos bankruptcy trust from giving out money to lawyers without double-checking their claims.
Asbestos
Attorney panel scrutinizes proposed legislation that would ban divisional merger bankruptcies
While legislation is pending in Congress that would require the dismissal of Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases in which the debtor has created a divisional merger, federal appeals court judges in Philadelphia heard arguments this week about whether Johnson & Johnson’s bankruptcy case was filed in good faith.
Asbestos
Honeywell says audit didn't scratch surface of asbestos lawyers' shenanigans
ERIE, Pa. (Legal Newsline) – Honeywell International calls claims submitted by asbestos lawyers “copy-and-paste” allegations that they have had to spend $128 million to resolve.
Asbestos
Judge dismisses fatal asbestos exposure claims against Eckel Industries, for lack of causation
PITTSBURGH – A federal judge has granted summary judgment to a company that employed a woman's husband at various naval shipyards over an 18-year period, finding that her 2020 death from mesothelioma and subsequent asbestos exposure claims failed due to a lack of causation.
Asbestos
Names of asbestos claimants to be redacted - for now - in upcoming trial over trust money
ERIE, Pa. (Legal Newsline) – The names of asbestos claimants will be redacted when a trial gets started in Pennsylvania federal court that will determine if millions of dollars have been rightfully handed out.
Asbestos
Trial approaches as Honeywell claims asbestos trust is giving away money; Trust wants to lead off
ERIE, Pa. (Legal Newsline) – Honeywell should have to bat second in an upcoming trial as it seeks to prove those in charge of doling out asbestos money are making it rain on plaintiffs lawyers.
Asbestos
Asbestos lawyer agrees to turn over some disputed records to company skeptical of claims
PITTSBURGH (Legal Newsline) – An asbestos lawyer accused of submitting false claims in order to take millions of dollars from a lightly supervised asbestos trust has reached an agreement on what materials he will hand over.
Asbestos
Honeywell, asbestos lawyer to argue over subpoena in Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH (Legal Newsline) – Federal bankruptcy court in Pittsburgh will be the venue where an asbestos lawyer accused of pocketing millions of dollars by filling out inaccurate forms fights a defendant tired of paying him.
Asbestos
Oakmont woman says Giant Eagle's retailing and her use of talc-based hygiene products caused her ovarian cancer
PITTSBURGH – A Western Pennsylvania woman claims that she developed ovarian cancer after using talc-based personal hygiene products sold by the Giant Eagle supermarket chain, for more than half of her life.
Asbestos
Pittsburgh librarian and teacher sues board of education for her development of mesothelioma
PITTSBURGH – A longtime Pittsburgh school librarian and teacher now afflicted with mesothelioma has sued the city’s board of education, claiming its negligence in failing to remediate asbestos led her to develop the serious ailment.
Asbestos
Testimony that 'each and every breath' of asbestos contributes to disease allowed in lawsuit - for now
HARRISBURG – A Pennsylvania federal judge has denied a motion to exclude expert testimony in an asbestos exposure action, ruling that issues with the testimony may later be raised in a summary judgment motion or at trial.
Asbestos
School District of Philadelphia argues teachers union oversteps its authority in its asbestos lawsuit
PHILADELPHIA – The School District of Philadelphia believes that a lawsuit filed against it by the city’s public school teachers union alleging it mishandled reports of asbestos in its school buildings is an overstep of authority, and should be dismissed with prejudice.