On July 27, the judge overseeing the National Prescription Opiate Multidistrict Litigation denied the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee’s motion to establish a $3 billion common benefit fee fund, stating that the time was not right for a “one size fits all” common benefit order. Noting that both the plaintiffs and defendants believed a global settlement was […]
On Monday, July 20, a California appellate court upheld a jury’s finding in 2018 that Monsanto’s popular weed killer, Roundup, was responsible for causing plaintiff DeWayne Johnson’s cancer. Appearing before a three-judge Court of Appeals panel, Monsanto, a subsidiary of Bayer AG, argued that the plaintiff had failed to prove either liability or causation; they […]
After the federal judge overseeing the multi-district litigation indicated in an order filed July 6 that he was skeptical of the proposed settlement, Bayer, owner of Monsanto, agreed to put the plan on handling future cancer claims on hold while negotiations to address the judge’s concerns are underway. The $1.25 billion plan, filed last month […]
On June 30, several major pharmacy chains, including CVS Health Corp., Walmart Inc., Rite-Aid Corp. and Walgreen Co. asked the Sixth Circuit to disqualify the judge overseeing the sprawling opioid litigation, Ohio U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster, accusing him of bias. In April, Judge Polster scheduled a new bellwether trial shortly after issues involving […]
On June 29, 2020, the defendants Juul Labs, Inc. and Altria Group, Inc. filed motions to dismiss the class action complaint filed in the federal multi-district litigation against three non-management director defendants, arguing the plaintiffs failed to prove that the non-management directors participated in any fraudulent business practices, that the claims are pre-empted by federal […]
On June 23, in a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District reduced the damages awarded by the jury in a 2018 trial that linked Johnson & Johnson talc products to cancer, by more than half from $4.7 billion to $2.12 billion, even as it upheld the […]
On Wednesday, Bayer announced that it had reached an agreement to settle most of the 125,000 claims involving its Roundup herbicide which has been linked to cancer. The settlement is estimated to be at least $10.1 billion and will resolve most of the current Roundup litigation filed in both the federal multidistrict litigation (MDL) and […]
On June 23, in a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District reduced the damages awarded by the jury in a 2018 trial that linked Johnson & Johnson talc products to cancer, by more than half from $4.7 billion to $2.12 billion, even as it upheld the […]
As the COVID-19 outbreaks impacted nursing homes and long term care facilities across the country, state-run veterans’ homes were among the hardest hit. In New Jersey, two locations in particular stand out – Menlo Park and Paramus. As of June 23, there were 378 confirmed cases and 143 deaths in these two facilities. The staff […]
In a 5-2 split decision, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled on June 3, that manufacturers and distributors can be held liable for failing to warn of the risks of asbestos-containing replacement components even if they did not build or sell them. In the 43-page majority opinion, Justice Barr T. Albin wrote: “Our developing common […]
