Judge Ana C. Viscomi of the Middlesex County Division of New Jersey Superior Court granted firm client Avon Products, Inc. (“Avon”) summary judgment on all claims alleged against it.  The previous day, Judge Viscomi had issued a tentative opinion granting Avon’s motion for summary judgment in the case.  Rather than request oral argument, Plaintiff agreed to accept Judge Viscomi’s decision.

This is the firm’s second straight summary judgment win for Avon in as many months after Judge Viscomi granted summary judgment to Avon in Johnson v. American International Industries, et al.

In Johnson, Avon argued that, despite over fifty pages of argument and thousands of pages of exhibits, plaintiff still had failed to provide any direct or circumstantial evidence that the Avon talc product plaintiff used ever contained asbestos.

The same arguments applied in Martinez, where the addition of expert reports still failed to create any triable issues of fact.  Even though Ms. Martinez submitted two opposition briefs, one after briefing had ended to correct many of the errors in her previous brief, Judge Viscomi was unconvinced by plaintiff’s conflation of talc testing from different mines and different manufacturers in its case against Avon.

Martinez v. American International Industries, et al., No. MID-L-1120-17AS (June 15, 2018)