A state court case significantly expanded the class of persons who can recover for asbestos exposure to include family members never exposed at work.
August 01, 2019 Top Story
Family Members Can Recover for Asbestos Exposure at Home
Daughter recovers for mesothelioma contracted from washing her father’s clothes
By Erik A. Christiansen
In a 5–4 decision, the Virginia Supreme Court held the daughter of a shipyard worker may pursue a negligence claim against her father’s employer. Quisenberry v. Huntington Ingalls Inc. allowed the daughter to recover for her malignant pleural mesothelioma because she helped wash her father’s asbestos-covered clothing in the 1950s and 1960s.
The plaintiff daughter could not allege a duty arising out of an agency, contractual, familial, or employer-employee relationship. As described by the supreme court, the shipyard and the daughter are “strangers under the law.” Nevertheless, Quisenberry held in favor of take-home liability, even though “[w]here no relationship exists, it is axiomatic that there is no duty.”
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