In his recent decision in the asbestos litigation case of
Horst v. Union Carbide Corp., No. 2015-CV-1903 (C.P. Lacka. Co.
July 26, 2016 Nealon, J.), Judge Terrence R. Nealon of the Lackawanna County
Court of Common Pleas reviewed Motions for Summary Judgment filed by various
Defendants against punitive damages claims presented by the Plaintiffs.
After reviewing the general law regarding punitive damages,
the court also noted that the appellate courts of Pennsylvania have more specifically ruled that,
in asbestos litigation, that the existence of medical articles
and trade journal publications discussing the dangers of asbestos inhalation
are insufficient to support a claim for punitive damages absent some proof
that the asbestos Defendant knew or had reason to know of the content of that
literature.
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Judge Terrence R. Nealon
Lackawanna County
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The court noted that various Motions for Summary Judgment
previously filed by some Defendants seeking partial summary judgment with
respect to the Plaintiffs’ punitive damages claims were granted in this matter as there was no
evidence that any of those Defendants knew or had reason to know of the
articles or studies cited by the Plaintiffs and their expert.
However, based upon internal company
documentation that certain other Defendants did have a subjective appreciation
of the risk of arm, those other Defendants’ Motions in this regard were
denied.
In this particular decision, the court again denied certain Defendants
Motions for Partial Summary Judgment but denied another Defendant's motion in a mixed result decision based upon the facts at hand.
Anyone wishing to review this decision may click this
LINK.
Here is a
LINK to other Tort Talk posts on other decisions by Judge Nealon in this same asbestos litigation case.
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