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Plaintiff v. Manufacturer

July 2009

Sedgwick obtained a favorable ruling from the Washington Court of Appeals affirming a judgment in favor of our client, a marine engine manufacturer, in a mass tort action. The heirs of a shipyard worker sued our client, alleging the decedent contracted a fatal disease due to asbestos exposure from insulation applied by the buyer of an engine. The insulation was not made or installed by our client. Sedgwick obtained a pre-trial ruling, and the heirs appealed. The Court of Appeals, relying on its recent decision in a similar case, reversed. The Washington Supreme Court, on review of a similar case, adopted the Sedgwick team’s analysis we urged in an amicus curiae brief and held that a product manufacturer owes no duty to warn of risks associated with products it neither designed, sold nor manufactured. The Supreme Court, pursuant to Sedgwick’s request, instructed the Court of Appeals to reconsider its holding against our client. It did so, reversed its earlier decision, and affirmed in full the judgment in favor of our client.