Minnesota Mesothelioma Verdicts and Settlements

Minnesota’s asbestos litigation runs along two tracks. Occupational cases arise from Iron Range taconite mining and the Conwed Cloquet fiberboard plant, with claims moving through Ramsey and Hennepin County District Courts. Consumer talc cases have produced some of the largest single-plaintiff verdicts in state history, including the December 2025 $65.5 million award against Johnson & Johnson.

Notable Minnesota Outcomes

The Carley Talc Verdict

On December 19, 2025, a Ramsey County District Court jury returned a $65.5 million verdict in Carley v. Johnson & Johnson after a 13-day trial. The plaintiff, Anna Jean Houghton Carley, was 37 years old at the time of the verdict, a mother of three, and was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma in 2025. She attributed her cancer to childhood exposure to Johnson & Johnson talc-based baby powder.

Carley’s legal team argued that the powder used on her in childhood was contaminated with asbestos and that Johnson & Johnson continued to market the product despite internal knowledge of potential contamination. The entire award was compensatory. The jury did not assess punitive damages. Johnson & Johnson stated it would appeal.

The verdict is reported as the largest asbestos-related award in Minnesota history. It also fits a pattern of large consumer talc verdicts that ran through the second half of 2025, including a $966 million California jury award in the Mae Moore case and a $1.56 billion Baltimore verdict in the Cherie Craft case.

For the full breakdown of the Carley case, see our coverage of the $65.5 million Minnesota talc verdict.

Conwed Lo-Tone Ceiling Tile Cases

Conwed Corporation produced Lo-Tone acoustic ceiling tiles at its Cloquet, Minnesota, fiberboard plant from 1958 to 1974. The tiles contained asbestos and were installed in commercial, educational, and residential buildings nationwide. Cases involving Lo-Tone exposure have been tried in Minnesota and in other states depending on where the installation or exposure occurred.

In a case tried in Clay County, Missouri, in 2009, a jury awarded $4.5 million to the family of Robert Wagner, a Kansas City ceiling tile installer who was diagnosed with mesothelioma in December 2006 at age 70 and died six months later. Co-workers testified that he installed thousands of Conwed Lo-Tone tiles in the 1960s and 1970s without warnings or respiratory protection. The verdict was entered against Conwed, Simpson Timber Company, and Bondex International. A Missouri appellate court later overturned liability as to Simpson Timber, finding insufficient evidence that Wagner had worked with that defendant’s product.

In Minnesota state court, the Sieben Polk law firm reports signature recoveries in Conwed cases, including over $400,000 for a family of a deceased mesothelioma patient whose father worked summers on the Lo-Tone production floor in 1967 and 1968. A more recent Minnesota case involving Conwed has allowed punitive damages to be considered against the company for alleged deliberate disregard of safety warnings, including family exposure risks.

Iron Range Taconite Claims

Mesothelioma claims from Iron Range taconite workers often proceed through a combination of state court litigation, workers’ compensation, and asbestos trust fund filings. The 2016 NIOSH case-control study identified 80 mesothelioma cases in the broader Minnesota iron-ore cohort, and the 2024 follow-up study expanded the analysis to 104 cases. These studies support causation arguments in individual claims by documenting an association between cumulative exposure and mesothelioma risk among taconite workers at Hibbing, Virginia, Eveleth, and Silver Bay.

Duluth-Superior Shipyards and Paper Mills

Shipyard workers at Fraser Shipyards in Superior, Wisconsin, and at smaller Duluth, Minnesota, facilities handled asbestos-containing insulation, gaskets, and pipe covering during construction and repair of Great Lakes vessels. In 2016, OSHA cited Fraser Shipyards for workplace safety violations during the retrofit of a 690-foot vessel. The proposed penalties totaled roughly $1.4 million for lead and other hazards, including 14 willful egregious health citations. Asbestos hazards were among the issues identified. Individual mesothelioma claims from the Duluth-Superior harbor workforce typically name product manufacturers rather than the shipyards themselves. Workers at Wisconsin paper mills and Minnesota facilities in Cloquet, International Falls, and Sartell follow a similar pattern.

Typical Compensation

Most Minnesota mesothelioma cases resolve through a combination of lawsuit settlements, trust fund claims, and in some cases veterans’ benefits. Talc consumer cases like Carley are outliers driven by the scale of the defendant and the product’s national distribution.

Filing Deadlines

Minnesota gives mesothelioma plaintiffs six years from the date of discovery for personal injury claims under Minnesota Statute 541.05. Wrongful death claims run three years from the date of death under Minnesota Statute 541.07. The Minnesota Supreme Court applied the six-year rule in Palmer v. Walker Jamar Co., 945 N.W.2d 844 (Minn. 2020), holding that the clock starts when the plaintiff discovers, or reasonably should discover, both the injury and its connection to asbestos.

Six years is longer than the two-year window in Pennsylvania and longer than the three-year window in Wisconsin. The longer window matters because exposure for many Minnesota workers happened 30 to 50 years before diagnosis.

Venue: Ramsey and Hennepin Counties

Ramsey County District Court in St. Paul and Hennepin County District Court in Minneapolis handle the bulk of Minnesota asbestos litigation. Carley v. Johnson & Johnson was tried in Ramsey County. Both courts have experience with toxic tort and product liability cases. Some Minnesota plaintiffs pursue claims in other states when the exposure, witnesses, or defendants warrant a different venue. Conversely, out-of-state plaintiffs exposed to products sold or manufactured in Minnesota have refiled cases in Ramsey County after dismissals elsewhere.