Dianne Willmore, who passed from mesothelioma in 2009, won a landmark £240,000 case, holding Knowsley Borough Council liable for her asbestos exposure during school. Her case prompted legal and financial ramifications for local authorities nationwide, leading to increased awareness and changes in asbestos-related negligence proceedings.
Shane Flynn, 35, owner of a Mullingar clinic, was convicted of sexual assault after inappropriately touching a client seeking back pain relief. The investigation also revealed 18 hours of footage showing Flynn secretly filming 35 women during massages, raising further concerns about his conduct and abuse of trust within his practice.
Naveed Rana, a Dublin taxi driver, was sentenced to five and a half years for the assault of an 18-year-old woman after a night out. The court heard how Rana took advantage of the victim’s trust, driving erratically and assaulting her before being apprehended due to her quick actions in reporting the incident to Gardaí.
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The US Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by Johnson & Johnson against a Missouri state court’s award of $2.12 billion to women who claim the company’s talc products caused them to develop ovarian cancer.
J&J has argued that a decision to combine claims brought by 22 women (including 17 from outside Missouri) into a single jury trial was a violation of the firm’s right to due process under the US Constitution.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers argued in response that the courts of Missouri had jurisdiction, and noted that one
of the products bought in another state was made there. They also stated that it is not unusual for courts to combine very similar cases into one trial.
In the original case, a jury found in 2018 after a six-week hearing that J&J’s talc products contained asbestos and that talc-containing asbestos can cause ovarian cancer. The company appealed against both findings to the Missouri Court of Appeals. While that court upheld those findings, it also removed two plaintiffs from the case and reduced the award from $4.69 billion to $2.12 billion. It further noted that J&J disregarded consumer safety and that its conduct was significantly reprehensible.
The company then petitioned the US Supreme Court after the Missouri Supreme Court declined to hear its appeal in November. In court documents, it said the Missouri case involved a strategy of bringing claims from other jurisdictions before a jury that might be prejudiced and so award excessive damages. J&J has previously said that it is facing over 19,000 similar claims.
Two US Supreme Court judges recused themselves from the matter: Samuel Alito, who owns J&J shares, and Brett Kavanaugh, whose father ran the trade association that lobbied against designating talc a carcinogen and placing a warning label on talc products.
Since the 2018 judgment in the Missouri case, nine of the plaintiffs have died. J&J no longer sells talc-based baby powder in the US and Canada, though it continues to do so in some other countries.
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Shane Flynn, 35, owner of a Mullingar clinic, was convicted of sexual assault after inappropriately touching a client seeking back pain relief. The investigation also revealed 18 hours of footage showing Flynn secretly filming 35 women during massages, raising further concerns about his conduct and abuse of trust within his practice.
Naveed Rana, a Dublin taxi driver, was sentenced to five and a half years for the assault of an 18-year-old woman after a night out. The court heard how Rana took advantage of the victim’s trust, driving erratically and assaulting her before being apprehended due to her quick actions in reporting the incident to Gardaí.
Pat Murphy, a 34-year-old father, died after a ruptured artery went undiagnosed at Cork University Hospital. Despite suffering severe chest pains, he faced a nine-hour wait for a CT scan, delayed further by a malfunctioning machine. His family claims this delay contributed to his tragic death.
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