Silica Trial on Hold While High Court Decides Multi-Plaintiff Issue

JACKSON, Miss. - A state Supreme Court recently agreed to hear the appeal of an order denying a defendant's motion to sever in a case involving more than a dozen silicosis claims the defense contends allege too many diverse circumstances to be joined in a single trial. 3M Company v. Charles H. Green, et al., No. 2003-M-00476 (Miss. Sup. Ct.).

In a ruling issued April 17, an en banc panel of the Mississippi Supreme Court granted defendant 3M Co.'s motion for permission to appeal from an interlocutory order issued March 3 in which Claiborne County Circuit Court Judge Lamar Pickard …