Georgia Rules Out Asbestos Clothing Claims

Georgia Rules Out Asbestos Clothing Claims

By Matt Brady

NU Online News Service, Jan. 25, 3:56 p.m. EST?The duty of companies to provide a safe workplace does not extend to those outside the workplace, and employers cannot be held liable for injuries resulting from exposure to contaminated clothing, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled yesterday.[@@]

In a unanimous decision authored by Justice Robert Benham, the court found that "the employer's duty to provide a safe workplace is not to be extended to persons outside the workplace and that general principles concerning a duty to prevent harm after creating a dangerous situation do not apply in the context of these cases."

The issue was raised in a case against CSX Transportation in which three plaintiffs alleged that they were exposed to airborne asbestos from the clothes of their father when they were children, and that this contributed to their asbestos-related disease. A CSX employee plaintiff blamed his asbestos-contaminated work clothes for contributing to the death of his wife.

The case was originally filed in federal district court. CSX filed a motion seeking a summary judgment in its favor based on the duty question. The court declined the summary judgment but granted the company the chance to appeal the safe workplace issue before the rest of the case proceeded.

In May of last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit filed a question with the Georgia Supreme Court asking "whether Georgia negligence law imposes any duty on an employer to a third party, non-employee, who comes into contact with its employee's asbestos-tainted work clothing at locations away from the workplace, such as the employee's home?"

As a result of the state court's ruling, the case will now return to federal court to proceed.

CSX lawyer Mary H. Moses was quoted by the Associated Press as saying the decision puts Georgia "in line with most of the other states that have dealt with this issue."

Ms. Moses said that the wrongful death cases will likely be dismissed, as will the claims under Georgia law in the other three. Those three also make claims based on the Federal Employers Liability Act, however, which are not affected by the state Supreme Court Ruling, she added.