Summary Judgment Awarded To UCC In Asbestos Case

Summary Judgment Awarded To UCC In Asbestos Case

Introduction

The Delaware trial court awarded summary judgment to Union Carbide Corp. over an asbestos lawsuit filed against it after finding that the chemical company relied on Georgia-Pacific to warn the end-users for its joint compound products that included Union Carbide’s Calidria asbestos.

The plaintiff purchased and used a joint compound product containing an asbestos product known as Calidria, manufactured by UCC, on multiple occasions between 1971 and 1982. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2016 and died later. His wife filed a lawsuit against UCC, alleging that the defendants failed to warn about hazards associated with Calidria, and she also sought relief under the Ohio statue which provided strict liability for defectively formulated products.

UCC filed for summary judgment stating that it provided warnings to Georgia-Pacific. The court found that the defendants relied on Georgia-Pacific to provide warnings to the purchasers of its joint compounds, so the summary judgment was granted in favor of UCC on the claim.

In the U.S., the earliest known asbestos-related lawsuit was filed by a woman in 1929 in the Newark (NJ) Federal Court. Along with her, at least 15 other individuals with asbestos-related claims were trying to get compensation. Unfortunately, the woman's lawsuit was thrown out in 1934, but it brought forth the wave of many such lawsuits. One of the biggest companies targeted by these lawsuits was Johns-Manville Corporation, which filed for bankruptcy in 1982.

J&J is also facing similar lawsuits, each raising a common allegation that asbestos exposure from the company’s talc-based products causes ovarian cancer or mesothelioma.