AlliedSignal, Inc. v. Herring (2003)

Our plain-English summary of AlliedSignal, Inc. v. Herring (Indiana Supreme Court, March 25, 2003).

Loyd Herring worked at Cummins Engine Co. from 1942 to 1978 as a metallurgist and brake repairman and was exposed to asbestos and asbestos-containing products. He was diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma in April 1995 and died in November 1995. His wife, Lucille Herring, sued numerous companies in December 1996. The defendants argued that Indiana's general ten-year product liability repose statute barred the claims, because the asbestos-specific provision applied only to a narrow group of defendants. The trial court and the Court of Appeals sided with Ms. Herring. The Indiana Supreme Court, relying on its companion decision in AlliedSignal v. Ott, held that the asbestos-specific provision covers only those who produce raw asbestos, and nothing showed that any defendant mined asbestos. The general ten-year repose period therefore applied, and the claims were filed after it expired. The court vacated the trial court's ruling and remanded for it to decide whether a physician could have diagnosed the disease within ten years while Mr. Herring had no reason to know of it. Two justices dissented.

We wrote this summary from the court's opinion with the help of AI. It is not the court's wording, and it is not legal advice. The full opinion is below.

The decision

• Court: Indiana Supreme Court
• Decided: March 25, 2003
• Citation: 785 N.E.2d 1090
• Docket: No. 49S02-0303-CV-126
• Stage: Appeal from summary judgment
• State: Indiana

Outcome. The Indiana Supreme Court granted transfer, vacated the Court of Appeals opinion and the trial court's denial of summary judgment, and remanded for the trial court to decide whether the repose period's exception applied, which partly favored the defendants and left Lucille Herring's claims alive only if the exception applies.

What the court held. The asbestos-specific repose provision (Section 2) applies only to entities that mined raw commercial asbestos, so claims against sellers of asbestos-containing products fall under the general ten-year product liability repose period, subject to a limited exception where a reasonably experienced physician could have diagnosed the disease within the ten years but the plaintiff had no reason to know until afterward.

Issues decided: Wrongful Death and Survival, Trial Procedure and Discovery, Statute of Repose.

The people and their exposure

• Loyd Herring: mesothelioma; died

Who	Work	Where	When	Products
Loyd Herring	metallurgist and brake repairman	Cummins Engine Co., Inc.	1942-1978

The defendants

• AlliedSignal, Inc. (manufacturer)
• ACandS, Inc. (manufacturer) · its asbestos trust
• Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp. (manufacturer) · its asbestos trust
• United States Gypsum Co. (manufacturer) · its asbestos trust
• Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.

Decisions this opinion cites

Earlier decisions in our library that the court cited:

• Allied Signal, Inc. v. Herring (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2001). The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's denial of summary judgment to the Asbestos Defendants, so Lucille Herring's wrongful death claim survived the statute of repose challenge.

The court's opinion

The text below is Google Scholar's copy of the court's opinion, a public record. Numbers in brackets, such as [*921], mark where each page of the printed reporter begins.

785 N.E.2d 1090 (2003)

ALLIEDSIGNAL, INC., ACandS, Inc., A.W. Chesterton Co., Abex Corp., Ajax Magnethermic Corp.,

Amchem Products Inc., American Gas Furnace, Armstrong World Industries, Inc., Chicago

Firebrick Co., Chrysler Corp., Clark Equipment Co., Corhart Refractories, Dap, Inc., Dresser

Industries, Eaton Corp., Fargo Insulation Co., Inc., Flexitallic, Inc., Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp., General Refractories Co., Great American Peterbilt, Guard Line Inc., Hercules Chemical Co.,

Inc., Hoosier Gasket, John Crane, Inc., McMaster-Carr Supply Co., Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.,

Navistar International, Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp., Owens-Illinois, Inc., Pecora Corp.,

Ransome-Cushman-Ryan, [*1091] Rutland Fire Clay, Sager Corp., Silicon Control Rectifier, T & N,

PLC., T & N Industries, Inc., TAF International, Ltd., TBA Industrial Products, Turner and Newall,

Ltd., Turner & Newall, PLC., Tennant Co., United States Gypsum Co., United States Mineral

Products Co., Wagner Electric Co., Appellants (Defendants below),

v.

Lucille HERRING, on her own behalf and on behalf of the Estate of Loyd Herring, Deceased.,

Appellee (Plaintiff below).

No. 49S02-0303-CV-126.

March 25, 2003.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

Douglas B. King, James M. Boyers, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Dresser Industries.

Michael A. Bergin, Julia Blackwell Gelinas, Daniel M. Long, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for AlliedSignal, Inc. Timothy C. Ammer, Cincinnati, OH, Attorney for Navistar Transportation Corp.

Kenneth T. Roberts, Tasha R. Roberts, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Ford Motor Co.

[*1092] Susan E. Mehringer, Lisa Dillman, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for ACandS, Inc.

James E. Rocap, Jr., Jeffrey B. Fecht, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Fargo Insulation Co., Inc.

Susan Gunty, Chicago, IL, Attorney for Ajax Magnathermic Corp.

Jon L. Williams, Indianapolis, IN, Janet E. Golup, Philadelphia, PA, Attorneys for Amici Curiae, Asbestos Corporation limited and Bell Asbestos Mines, Ltd.

W. Russell Sipes, Linda George, Kathleen Musgrave, Indianapolis, IN, Robert Paul, Philadelphia, PA, Attorneys for Appellees.

ON PETITION TO TRANSFER

SULLIVAN, Justice.

Loyd Herring was employed at Cummins Engine Co., Inc., from 1942 to 1978 as a metallurgist and brake repairman. During the course of his employment, Mr. Herring was exposed to asbestos and asbestos-containing products.

Mr. Herring first became aware that he was experiencing a pulmonary health problem in January 1995. He was diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma on April 13, 1995. Mr. Herring died on November 22, 1995.

On December 26, 1996, Lucille Herring, Loyd Herring's wife, filed a complaint alleging that Mr. Herring's death was caused by his exposure to asbestos.

The Indiana General Assembly has enacted two statutes that limit the period of time within which individuals can file product liability claims. One of these statutes, Ind.Code § 34-20-3-1, generally applies to product liability claims and establishes a ten-year period of repose; we will refer to this statute as "Section 1." The second statute, Ind.Code § 34-20-3-2, specifically applies to certain asbestos liability claims; we will refer to this section as "Section 2." (We note that prior to recodification in 1998, Sections 1 and 2 appeared at Ind. Code § 33-1-1.5-5 and § 33-1-1.5-5, respectively.)

In the present case, the Defendants argue that Section 2 only applies to a limited class of defendants and that they do not fall within that class. As such, the Defendants contend that Ms. Herring must proceed against them under the more time restrictive Section 1. Ms. Herring responds that if Section 2(d) was restricted to miners and bankruptcy funds, it would create an impermissible privilege for solvent manufacturers under art. I, § 23 of the Indiana Constitution and that Section 1, when applied to asbestos plaintiffs, violates art. I, § 12.

The trial court agreed with Ms. Herring and construed Section 2(d)(1) to apply to both miners and manufacturers of commercial asbestos, thus denying the Defendants' Motions for Summary Judgment.

The Defendants filed a joint interlocutory appeal of the trial court's denial of their motions for summary judgment. The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court, finding that Section 2 applied to persons who mined and persons who sold commercial asbestos. Allied Signal, Inc. v. Herring, 757 N.E.2d 1030, 1035-36 (Ind.Ct.App.2001).

We hold today in AlliedSignal, Inc. v. Ott, 785 N.E.2d 1068 (Ind.2003), that the Legislature consciously intended to subject to Section 2 only those entities that produce raw asbestos, while leaving those who sell asbestos-containing products within the ambit of Section 1. We also hold that the statutory scheme does not violate either art. I, § 12 or art. I, § 23, except in the limited circumstance where a reasonably experienced physician could have diagnosed the plaintiff with an asbestos-related illness or disease within the ten-year statute of repose, yet the potential plaintiff [*1093] had no reason to know of the diagnosable condition until the ten-year period had expired.

Our reasoning in that case applies here, and we reach the same result: since the evidence did not demonstrate that any of the Defendants mined commercial asbestos, Section 2 did not apply. Since Ms. Herring's claims do not fall under Section 2, the general ten-year statute of repose found in Section 1 applies. Given that Ms. Herring's claims were filed after the expiration of the period of repose, summary judgment for the Defendants was proper unless a reasonably experienced physician could have diagnosed Mr. Herring with an asbestos-related illness or disease within the ten-year statute of repose, yet Mr. Herring had no reason to know of the diagnosable condition until the ten-year period had expired. We direct the trial court to examine this possibility on remand.

Conclusion

We grant transfer pursuant to Indiana Appellate Rule 58(A), thereby vacating the opinion of the Court of Appeals. We vacate the judgment of the trial court and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

SHEPARD, C.J., and BOEHM, J., concur.

DICKSON, J., dissents with separate opinion, in which RUCKER, J., concurs.

DICKSON, Justice, dissenting.

Asbestos-related cancer does not manifest itself until ten to twenty-five years after exposure. I believe that the General Assembly, for reasons of compassion, fairness, and justice enacted Indiana Code § 34-20-3-2 to provide relief for all asbestos victims from the general ten-year statute of repose in the Indiana Product Liability Act. Consistent with this legislative intent, I believe that the phrase "persons who mined and sold" means "persons who mined and persons who sold" and that "commercial asbestos" includes not only raw asbestos but also asbestos in commercial products. I further believe that, under the majority's restrictive construction of this section, application of the product liability statute of repose to the plaintiff's claims violates both Section 12 and Section 23 of Article 1 of the Indiana Constitution. My reasons are detailed in AlliedSignal, Inc. v. Ott, 785 N.E.2d 1068 (Ind.2003) (Dickson, J., dissenting).

RUCKER, J., concurs.

Sources

• The opinion on Google Scholar
• Indiana asbestos laws
• Indiana asbestos exposure sites