Dauphin County Courthouse
HARRISBURG – A former city employee is suing Harrisburg, alleging he was exposed to asbestos during his few months as an electrician.
James Davis sued the City last week in the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas, seven months after being diagnosed with mesothelioma. His lawsuit points to his employment from June-September of 1966 as a cause.
“The defendant’s asbestos containing products were defective in that they were incapable of being made safe for their ordinary and intended use and purpose, and that the defendant failed to give adequate or sufficient warnings or instructions about the risks, dangers, and harm inherent in their asbestos containing products,” the lawsuit says.
It was last year that the state Supreme Court opened courts to asbestos lawsuits against employers, finding that the previous four-year window to do sue stipulated in the Occupational Disease Act did not apply to decades-old exposure to asbestos.
Statutes of limitations can create confusion in asbestos cases, given diseases like mesothelioma take decades after exposure to manifest.
Since Davis’ illness did not reveal itself until more than 300 weeks after his last occupational exposure to asbestos, he is ineligible for Workers’ Compensation, so a civil lawsuit is his only shot.
The Herold decision has allowed cases like Davis’ to be filed. One Supreme Court justice who dissented said it was up to the legislature to add that measure to state law. David Wecht, a Democrat, said others on the court were putting their own policies in place.
"What I strongly object to is the Majority's suggestion that we should... falsely assert that the General Assembly did not intend to deny a civil tort remedy to claimants whose diseases manifest too late," Wecht wrote.
"The fact is that the legislature did intend to create a dual denial system."
How lawmakers worded the ODA is unambiguous, Wecht wrote.
"Put simply, I believe that today's decision uses and abuses the tools of statutory interpretation to distort, rather than uncover, the legislature's true intent," he added.
