6th Circuit Weighs in on Jurisdiction Dispute in Asbestos MARDOC Cases

CINCINNATI –– The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has weighed in on a jurisdiction dispute in hundreds of MARDOC cases, agreeing in part with the asbestos national MDL Court’s determination that the defendants had not consented to jurisdiction in Ohio.

In the Nov. 8 opinion, the 6th Circuit did, however, find that the defendants in four cases brought by Detroit plaintiffs had, in fact, consented to jurisdiction in Ohio and, as such, the MDL Court’s order was vacated as to those cases.

The plaintiffs in the underlying case are hundreds of merchant mariners who contended that they developed …