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.

Major Minnesota Mesothelioma Verdicts

Carley v. Johnson & Johnson (2025)

On December 19, 2025, a Ramsey County District Court jury in St. Paul returned a $65.5 million verdict in Carley v. Johnson & Johnson, docket 62-CV-25-2358, after a 13-day trial.

The plaintiff, Anna Jean Houghton Carley, was 37 years old at the time of trial and had been diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma in February 2025. She attributed her illness to childhood exposure to Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder.

The entire $65.5 million award was compensatory. The jury allocated $38 million for past and future healthcare costs and pain and suffering, and $27.5 million for spousal loss of companionship. The jury was not asked to assess punitive damages, and none were awarded.

Johnson & Johnson announced an immediate appeal following the verdict and stated it expects reversal. No appellate decision has issued. The verdict is entered only. It is not yet a final judgment.

Multiple neutral sources, including The Texas Lawbook, Fortune, NBC News, and the Insurance Journal, reported the award as the largest asbestos-related verdict in Minnesota history.

The Carley result fits a broader pattern of large consumer talc verdicts in the second half of 2025. In October 2025, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury awarded $966 million in Mae Moore v. Johnson & Johnson ($16 million compensatory, $950 million punitive).

In December 2025, a Baltimore City Circuit Court jury returned $1.56 billion in Cherie Craft v. Johnson & Johnson and Pecos River Talc ($59.84 million compensatory, $1.5 billion punitive across both defendants). The Carley verdict was the only one of these three tried in Minnesota.

Wagner v. Conwed Corp., Bondex International, and Simpson Timber Co. (2009)

In June 2009, a jury in Clay County, Missouri, awarded $4.5 million to the family of Robert Wagner, a ceiling tile installer in the Kansas City area who was diagnosed with mesothelioma in December 2006 and died mid-2007.

The jury apportioned fault at 45% to Conwed Corporation, 35% to Simpson Timber Company, and 20% to Bondex International.

In 2012, the Missouri Court of Appeals Western District (docket WD72474) reversed Simpson Timber’s 35% fault allocation, finding insufficient product-identification evidence to support it. The court remanded the case for the jury to reallocate that 35% between Conwed (at least 45%, up to 80%) and Bondex (at least 20%, up to 55%).

The $4.5 million total verdict was not vacated. The final reallocation outcome on remand is not confirmed in a neutral source.

Conwed Corporation and Minnesota Asbestos Exposure

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. Because installation occurred in many states, cases involving Lo-Tone exposure have been tried in Minnesota and in other jurisdictions depending on where exposure occurred.

The Wagner case illustrates how a Minnesota-manufactured product reaches plaintiffs in other states. Conwed cases continue to be filed, given that the tiles were widely distributed and mesothelioma carries a latency period of 20 to 50 years from exposure to diagnosis.

Iron Range Taconite Claims

University of Minnesota researchers, supported by state funding, have conducted two major studies documenting mesothelioma risk in Iron Range taconite workers. A 2016 case-control study identified 80 mesothelioma cases in the Minnesota iron-ore taconite mining cohort.

A follow-up study, published in final form in March 2025 in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, expanded the analysis to 104 mesothelioma cases and 410 controls. Both studies are peer-reviewed and published in PubMed-indexed journals.

These findings support causation arguments in individual claims by documenting an association between cumulative taconite dust exposure and mesothelioma risk among workers at Hibbing, Virginia, Eveleth, and Silver Bay.

Iron Range claims often proceed through a combination of state court litigation, workers’ compensation, and asbestos trust fund filings. Multiple trust funds hold assets from companies that manufactured or distributed asbestos-containing materials used at Iron Range facilities.

Minnesota’s Six-Year Window

Personal Injury Claims

Minnesota Statute § 541.05, subdivision 1(5) imposes a six-year limitation period for personal injury actions “not arising on contract,” which Minnesota courts apply to mesothelioma personal injury claims.

The six-year period runs from discovery of the injury and its causal link to asbestos, not from the date of initial exposure, which may have occurred decades earlier.

Wrongful Death Claims

Minnesota Statute § 573.02, subdivision 1 provides three years from the date of death for wrongful death actions, subject to an outer limit of six years from the act or omission.

The Minnesota Supreme Court addressed the accrual rule in Palmer v. Walker Jamar Co. (trustee for estate of Gary Palmer) v. Honeywell International, Inc., 945 N.W.2d 844 (Minn. 2020).

In that case, the court held, under § 573.02, that the SOL clock starts when the decedent learns the disease is causally linked to asbestos. The court does not require the plaintiff to identify a specific defendant or product for the clock to begin.

Because Gary Palmer learned of the asbestos link in January 2012 and his wife did not file until February 2018, more than six years later, the claim was time-barred.

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

Settlements and the County Dockets

Most Minnesota mesothelioma cases do not reach trial. Companies that manufactured or distributed asbestos-containing products, including insulation, ceiling tiles, gaskets, and talc, established bankruptcy trust funds to compensate claimants without individual litigation. Trust fund claims often process faster than lawsuits and can run in parallel with any active litigation.

Ramsey County District Court and Hennepin County District Court handle the majority of Minnesota asbestos litigation. Both courts have experience with toxic tort and product liability cases and routinely expedite scheduling when a plaintiff has a confirmed mesothelioma diagnosis.