Avon Products Inc. was ordered by a California jury to pay $10.3 million in punitive damages to a woman who blamed her cancer on talc in its cosmetics, in the first such case the company has lost in US litigation. The Los Angeles Superior Court jury that punished Avon Friday for hiding the risks that some of its talc-based powders can cause … [Read more...]
Court upholds award to family of worker who died of asbestos exposure
The South Carolina Supreme Court [in August 2021] upheld a $16 million jury award to the family of a maintenance worker at a polyester fiber plant who died following years of asbestos exposure. Hystron Fibers Inc., owned by defendant CNA Holdings, hired Daniel Construction Co. in 1965 to build a plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. When the … [Read more...]
Private Settlement Reached in Mesothelioma Case
A private settlement was reached in a mass litigation asbestos case [on July 28, 2020] in Ohio County [(West Virginia)] Circuit Court, meaning a trial set to take place at The Highlands Event Center next week won’t be necessary. Both Ohio County Clerk of Courts Brenda Miller and court employees for Judge Ronald Wilson said details of the … [Read more...]
Montana Supreme Court: BNSF Not Shielded from Liability in Libby Asbestos Cases
In a unanimous decision, the Montana Supreme Court on Wednesday determined that BNSF Railway Company is not shielded from liability for its role in spreading [ asbestos dust ] in the Northwest Montana town of Libby, where hundreds of people have died and thousands more are sick due to exposure. Facing hundreds of asbestos-related damage claims … [Read more...]
Statute of Repose Bars Asbestos-related Claim by Former Power Plant Worker
The estate of a career pipefitter who died from mesothelioma recently lost an appeal on claims that asbestos exposure caused his cancer and the exposure, in the course of his employment, violated the state’s safe place statute. [ This was an appeal of the trial court’s ruling that plaintiff’s complaint was barred by the Wisconsin construction … [Read more...]
A Most Reckless Proposal — A Plan to Continue Asbestos Use in the United States
Each year, nearly 40,000 Americans die often painful, protracted deaths from diseases caused by asbestos. These deaths occur in firefighters, police officers, construction workers, miners, military veterans, shipyard workers, and maintenance workers whose exposures to asbestos are primarily occupational. Death also occurs in partners and children … [Read more...]
Mass. High Court Rules Statute of Repose Applies to Asbestos-Related Claims
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that a statute of repose barring many construction-related personal injury claims after a time limit of six years also applies to claims involving diseases with extended latency periods, such as asbestos-related illnesses. The ruling follows the death of Wayne Oliver in 2016 due to mesothelioma … [Read more...]
Appeals court affirms $14 million asbestos wrongful death award
An appeals court in South Carolina on Wednesday affirmed the denial of a motion for retrial in a $14 million wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a contractor who performed maintenance at a polyester plant and suffered from mesothelioma stemming from asbestos exposure. From 1971 to 1980, Dennis Seay was assigned via his employer Daniel … [Read more...]
Jury clears J&J of liability in California talc cancer case
A California jury on [November 14, 2018] cleared Johnson & Johnson of liability in a case involving a woman who alleged that the company’s talc-based products, including its baby powder, contain asbestos and caused her cancer, the company said. The jury in Humboldt County Superior Court in Eureka, California rejected claims by Carla Allen … [Read more...]
Fla. SC rejects Daubert standard in $8M mesothelioma case
The Florida Supreme Court has quashed an appellate court’s ruling in a mesothelioma case and recommended that a final judgment issued by a trial court be reinstated. On Oct. 15, [2018] the Supreme Court concluded that the 4th District Court of Appeals decision was “inconsistent without case law” and rejected that court’s reasoning in an appeal … [Read more...]