Real-Time Court Decisions and Other Developments in Asbestos Litigation.
Liberty Mutual had a duty to pay defense and indemnity costs for a variety of asbestos-related cases filed nationwide against its insured, York International Corporation, and York Corporation, the insured’s predecessor. Liberty Mutual had elected not to defend the underlying lawsuits or file a declaratory judgment action regarding coverage, and the underlying suits were settled …
Asbestos litigation has now entered the modern era. Namely, the first case involving testimony related to BAP1 mutations has gone to trial in California: the Ortwein case. The trial involved a 50-year-old woman with pleural mesothelioma, represented by the Kazan firm. The defendant at trial was CertainTeed, a building manufacturer, and the case settled shortly …
The decedent was a career aircraft mechanic at Belle Chasse Air Force Base, and died of mesothelioma. The decedent’s heirs sued nine defendants in state court for asbestos exposure; defendant Boeing Company removed to federal court. After the deadline to amend pleadings, the plaintiffs filed an unopposed motion to continue the trial date so that …
In this case, Asbestos Corporation, Ltd. (ACL) removed the action to federal court on the ground of diversity. The plaintiffs moved to remand, arguing that ACL removed the action past the one year deadline to do so. ACL responded that the missing of the deadline to remove is excused since the plaintiffs acted in bad …
In a February 22, 2016 decision, the Honorable Peter H. Moulton, J.S.C. of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, New York County denied the defendant’s motion for summary judgment in a case where the plaintiff-decedent was allegedly exposed to asbestos during a lengthy career as a longshoreman on at certain New York City …
In this case, it was claimed that the decedent, Michael O’Leary, was exposed to asbestos while working as a rigger at the Tosco Refinery in the 1970s to late 1980s near employees from the defendant, Dillingham Construction N.A., Inc., who were sweeping up insulation off the floor in his vicinity. The trial court precluded the …
In this decision, there were eight separate actions against Weyerhaeuser Company involving private and public nuisance claims brought by, or on the behalf of, former employees of Weyerhaeuser for asbestos-related injuries based on non-occupational exposure. Weyerhaeuser used asbestos in its mineral core plant to manufacture a door core. The plaintiffs non-occupational exposure claims were based …
In this federal court case, it was alleged that the decedent, Walter Brown, was exposed to asbestos while serving as an airplane mechanic in the U.S. Air force from 1950-1970. During that time, he worked at various bases in Europe and in the U.S. in Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, New Mexico, and Michigan. Prior to …
In four different rulings in the same case, the Southern District of Illinois struck portions of pre-trial disclosures filed by the plaintiff and various defendants. In their pre-trial disclosures, defendants Ingersoll-Rand, Viking Pumps, and Excelsior identified no witnesses and reserved the right to call numerous un-named witnesses at trial. The plaintiff also reserved the right …
The plaintiff in this case alleged that the decedent, Michael Walashek, was exposed to asbestos from various products while working as a boilermaker between 1967 and 1986 on various naval, commercial, and industrial vessels. The defendant, Foster Wheeler LLC, filed a motion to preclude the testimony of the plaintiff’s experts Dr. Edwin Holstein ad Dr. …