New Jersey Supreme Court: Asbestos Cases

Our case-law library holds 12 asbestos decisions from the New Jersey Supreme Court (1982–2022). Each links to our summary and the full opinion.

• State: New Jersey
• Kind of court: State supreme court

Decisions

• Fowler v. Akzo Nobel Chemicals, Inc. (2022). The New Jersey Supreme Court reversed the Appellate Division, reinstated the jury's verdict and $2,380,000 award for the Edenfield estate against Union Carbide, and remanded for any remaining issues.
• Rowe v. Bell & Gossett Company (2019). The New Jersey Supreme Court reversed the Appellate Division and reinstated the trial court's judgment, holding for Universal (Hilco) against the plaintiffs that the settling defendants' interrogatory answers and corporate depositions were admissible and the jury could allocate fault to those defendants.
• Whelan v. Armstrong International Inc. (2019). The New Jersey Supreme Court affirmed the Appellate Division's reversal of summary judgment for the seven defendant manufacturers and distributors (Armstrong, Burnham, Carrier, Cleaver-Brooks, Crown, Ford, Johnson Controls), ruling for plaintiff Whelan and remanding to the trial court.
• Continental Insurance Company v. Honeywell International, Inc. (2017). The New Jersey Supreme Court affirmed the Appellate Division, upholding the trial court's partial summary judgments for Honeywell: New Jersey allocation law applied to the excess policies, and Honeywell had no allocation share for years after 1987, when insurance became unavailable.
• Olivo v. Owens-Illinois, Inc. (2006). The New Jersey Supreme Court affirmed the Appellate Division's reversal of summary judgment for Exxon Mobil and remanded for further proceedings on whether the hazard-incident-to-the-work exception applies, so plaintiff Olivo's claim continued.
• Becker v. Baron Bros. (1994). The New Jersey Supreme Court reversed the Appellate Division's affirmance of a jury verdict for plaintiff Edith Becker against General Motors and Englewood Brake and remanded for retrial, because the jury was wrongly told that all asbestos products sold without warnings are defective.
• Owens-Illinois, Inc. v. United Ins. Co. (1994). The New Jersey Supreme Court reversed the Appellate Division's allocation ruling, which had favored Owens-Illinois, and remanded to the Chancery Division for a special master to allocate asbestos defense and indemnity costs among the insurers and Owens-Illinois for its uninsured periods; the continuous-trigger holding stood.
• Coffman v. Keene Corp. (1993). The New Jersey Supreme Court affirmed the Appellate Division, which had upheld the jury verdict for plaintiff George Coffman against Keene Corporation, holding that the jury was properly told to presume a warning would have been heeded.
• Landrigan v. Celotex Corp. (1991). The New Jersey Supreme Court reversed the Appellate Division, set aside the directed verdict for Owens-Corning and Owens Illinois, and remanded for retrial, so plaintiff Angelina Landrigan won.
• Mauro v. Raymark Industries, Inc. (1989). The New Jersey Supreme Court affirmed the judgment for plaintiff Roger Mauro, holding that the trial court properly kept his enhanced-risk-of-cancer damages claim from the jury and properly limited his expert's testimony, so the defendants prevailed on those issues.
• Fischer v. Johns-Manville Corp. (1986). The New Jersey Supreme Court affirmed the judgment for James and Geneva Fischer, upholding the $240,000 punitive damages award against the Johns-Manville defendants.
• Beshada v. Johns-Manville Products Corp. (1982). The New Jersey Supreme Court reversed the trial court's denial of the plaintiffs' motion for partial summary judgment and struck the state-of-the-art defense, ruling for the worker plaintiffs and against the asbestos manufacturer defendants.