Texas Appellate Panel Declines to Order Hard-Metal Exposure Case to Silica MDL

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A Texas appellate court has denied a request by industrial defendants that it overturn an order remanding a worker’s lung-injury case to the state’s coordinated silica proceedings, saying the trial court had authority to determine jurisdiction.

The Court of Appeals for the 13th District of Texas said Oct. 29 that the fact that the plaintiff is asserting a hard-metal lung disease claim, rather than silicosis, and the trial court did not abuse its discretion “in determining that the purposes of the transfer do not apply to a case involving hard-metal exposure.”

Plaintiff Brandie Trevino-Garcia brought this …