In 2000, the plaintiff brought claims for non-malignant asbestos-related diseases, including ship owners represented by Thompson Hine LLP. In 2004, the plaintiff filed for bankruptcy, without listing his asbestos claims as assets. Three months later the bankruptcy case was closed. In 2007, the plaintiff brought claims for a malignant asbestos-related disease; in 2011 the MDL reinstated asbestos actions, of which this case was a part. The defendant ship owners moved for summary judgment, arguing that (1) the non-malignancy claims were barred by judicial estoppel because …
Continue ReadingAuthor: Lynn A. Lehnert
District Court Adopts Report and Recommendation of Magistrate in Both Granting and Denying Summary Judgment to Various Defendants
The district court reviewed the report and recommendations of the U.S. Magistrate Judge, which recommended granting and denying summary judgment to various defendants. The court applied maritime law in granting summary judgment to Electrolux, ABB, Velan Valve, GE, CBS, Foster Wheeler, and Owens-Illinois, and denying summary judgment to Buffalo, Ingersoll-Rand (denied in part), Aurora, IMO, and Warren (denied in part). The court granted summary judgment on the issue of punitive damages to Ingersoll Rand and Warren, because the plaintiff failed to establish same.
The court …
Continue ReadingJury in St. Louis City, Missouri Awards Multi-Million Dollar Verdict to Wife of Lifelong Electrician
The plaintiff’s decedent was a lifelong electrician from 1963 to 2001 with a large number of work sites. The decedent died of mesothelioma at age 72. After numerous co-worker depositions, the case proceeded to trial against defendant The Okonite Company. The jury found that Okonite was negligent and assigned it 5 percent of the total causal responsibility. The jury awarded: $165,000 medical expenses; $1,825,000 for decedent’s pain and suffering; $350,000 for pre-death loss of society and companionship; and $1,825,000 post-death loss of society and companionship, …
Continue ReadingCalifornia Appellate Court Affirms All of Trial Court’s Rulings in Extensive Damages Case Against Kaiser Gypsum
The plaintiffs in the case were a married couple who filed a claim for personal injury due to bystander asbestos exposure after the husband was diagnosed with mesothelioma. After a lengthy trial against defendant Kaiser Gypsum, the plaintiffs were awarded $21 million in compensatory damages but the jury could not reach a verdict regarding punitive damages. A retrial was ordered on this issue, and the second jury awarded $20 million in punitive damages, which the court reduced to just under $4 million. Defendant Kaiser Gypsum …
Continue ReadingDistrict Court Grants Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction Due to Plaintiffs’ Failure to Respond to These Motions
Defendants General Electric, Ingersoll-Rand, and CBS Corporation moved to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. The plaintiff failed to respond to any of these motions. The court cited Local Rule 7.1(c) in using its discretion to construe this failure to file a timely response as an admission of the merits of the motion. “Here, Defendants are not incorporated nor maintain their principal place of business in Illinois. Further, Defendants’ affiliations with Illinois are not ‘so continuous and systematic’ as to render Defendants at home in Illinois. …
Continue ReadingForeseeability of Injury Nor a Special Relationship Existed to Create a Duty in Secondary Exposure Case
The plaintiff contracted mesothelioma and sued various defendants for asbestos exposure allegedly sustained as a child. Kuettel performed industrial and commercial insulation contracting work; the plaintiff’s father worked for Kuettel from 1961-65 and again from 1974-79. Kuettel moved for summary judgment, arguing it had no duty to warn the plaintiff because there was no special relationship between it and the plaintiff, and because it did not manufacture any of the asbestos-containing products it supplied and installed. The district court granted the motion because there was …
Continue ReadingAlabama District Court Refuses to Enter MDL 875’s Grant of Summary Judgment to Defendants as Final Judgment
The plaintiff brought an action in state court alleging defendants manufactured asbestos products, which caused her husband’s asbestosis and ultimate death. The defendants removed to federal court based on diversity, created after the state court severed the worker’s compensation and asbestos claims. The federal case contained only issues of asbestos injury and was transferred to MDL 875 in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Four years later, the case returned to the Northern District of Alabama. Rockwell and Eaton then moved to make the MDL’s grant …
Continue ReadingWork Performed by Insulation Contractor was Maintenance, Not Improvement, to Real Property; Wisconsin Statue of Repose Did Not Bar Asbestos Claims
In a follow-up decision from yesterday’s report regarding the summary judgment granted to Foster Wheeler, Sprinkmann Sons Corporation also moved for summary judgment. The Wisconsin federal court denied this motion.
The decedent was a steamfitter; two co-workers testified regarding their work with the decedent at various industrial facilities. They overhauled turbines and tanks, and removed/installed insulation. Sprinkmann was an insulation contractor for at least two of these facilities and moved for summary judgment based on: (1) no evidence Decedent was exposed to Sprinkmann asbestos-containing products; …
Continue ReadingWisconsin Federal Court Applies Statue of Repose in Granting Summary Judgment to Foster Wheeler after Multiple Lawsuits Filed by Same Plaintiff
The plaintiff was a steamfitter who filed a lawsuit against Foster Wheeler and others due to asbestosis developed after alleged asbestos exposure. After this case was transferred to MDL 875, the plaintiff was diagnosed with mesothelioma and filed a second suit, again naming Foster Wheeler. After the plaintiff died, his wife dismissed the second lawsuit; three years later she sought to amend the MDL case to include the mesothelioma diagnosis, which the MDL denied due to time. Meanwhile, the plaintiff filed a third lawsuit in …
Continue ReadingAfter Defendant Files Second Asbestos-Injury Claim, Federal Court Grants Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss Plaintiff CSX’s Declaratory Judgment Action for Lack of Jurisdiction
Plaintiff CSX Transportation asserted a claim for declaratory relief, after the defendant filed an injury claim for lung cancer, which he claimed was asbestos-related. The defendant had settled a claim against CSX for an asbestos-related injury in 2003, and under the 2003 settlement agreement, he allegedly released CSX from future claims involving asbestos and cancer. The agreement included an indemnity provision, which CSX invoked in requesting defendant to indemnify it for the 2015 state court action. The agreement also released CSX from all claims which …
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