Asbestos MDL Judge Grants Nearly 6,000 Motions to Dismiss; Says Court Doesn’t Have Jurisdiction over Shipowner Defendants

PHILADELPHIA –– The judge overseeing the national Asbestos Products Liability Multidistrict Litigation has granted 5,974 motions to dismiss filed by shipowner defendants, rejecting new evidence presented by the plaintiffs that purportedly showed the defendants had waived their lack of jurisdiction argument.

In a March 12 opinion, Judge Eduardo C. Robreno of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania opined that “…put simply, plaintiffs have not produced any case-specific evidence of record identifying which defendants in the instant cases actually elected to make the strategic legal decision to waive the defense of lack of personal jurisdiction.”

In August, …