Discovery Conference Ordered in N.J. Federal Reinsurance Action

NEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey federal magistrate judge, in a reinsurance action involving a settlement of asbestos and silica claims against Mine Safety Appliances Co. (MSA), has ordered the parties to meet and confer to resolve, or limit, certain discovery disputes.

In a Jan. 14 docket text order, Magistrate Judge Michael Hammer of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey ordered the parties to issue a revised joint letter outlining their discovery disputes by Feb. 11.

MSA had been named as a defendant in numerous lawsuits in which plaintiffs alleged they became ill from inhaling coal …