Gref v. American International Industries (S.D.N.Y., Mar. 5, 2024)

Our plain-English summary of Gref v. American International Industries (U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, March 5, 2024).

Brian Joseph Gref sued American International Industries and other defendants in federal court in New York. The short order does not say what disease Gref has or how he was exposed, though it refers to a 2023 article about cosmetic talc and mesothelioma written by the plaintiff's expert, Dr. Moline. Two motions were pending. One sought to stop Dr. Moline from relying on that article in supplemental expert disclosures. The other was Colgate-Palmolive's request for more time to finish deposing Dr. Moline about the article. The magistrate judge said that a ruling on the first motion might make the second unnecessary. She therefore said she would decide the motion to preclude first. She directed the Clerk of Court to terminate the request for more deposition time. The order decided no winner and did not rule on whether the article could be used.

We wrote this summary from the court's opinion with the help of AI. It is not the court's wording, and it is not legal advice. The full opinion is below.

The decision

• Court: U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
• Decided: March 5, 2024
• Docket: No. 20-CV-05589 (GBD) (VF)
• Stage: Discovery or evidence ruling
• State: New York

Outcome. The court said it would decide the motion to preclude Plaintiff's supplemental expert disclosures before ruling on Colgate-Palmolive's request for more time to depose Dr. Moline, and it terminated the request for more time (ECF No. 376) for the time being.

Issues decided: Expert Testimony, Trial Procedure and Discovery.

The people and their exposure

• Brian Joseph Gref

The defendants

• Colgate-Palmolive Company (manufacturer)
• American International Industries

The court's opinion

The text below is Google Scholar's copy of the court's opinion, a public record. Numbers in brackets, such as [*921], mark where each page of the printed reporter begins.

BRIAN JOSEPH GREF, Plaintiff,

v.

AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIES et al., Defendants.

No. 20-CV-05589 (GBD) (VF).

March 5, 2024.

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

ORDER

VALERIE FIGUEREDO, Magistrate Judge.

There is a pending motion to preclude Plaintiff's supplemental expert disclosures (ECF No. 398), which seeks to prevent Dr. Moline from relying on a 2023 article she authored about cosmetic talc and mesothelioma. At ECF No. 376, Defendant Colgate-Palmolive Company seeks an enlargement of time to complete the deposition of Dr. Moline, in order to question Dr. Moline about that 2023 article. Because a decision on the motion to preclude at ECF No. 398 may moot the request at ECF No. 376, the Court will resolve the motion to preclude the supplemental disclosure prior to ruling on the motion to enlarge the time to complete Dr. Moline's deposition.

The Clerk of Court is respectfully directed to terminate the motion at ECF No. 376.

SO ORDERED.

Sources

• The opinion on Google Scholar
• New York asbestos laws
• New York asbestos exposure sites