Maine Supreme Judicial Court: Asbestos Cases

Our case-law library holds 3 asbestos decisions from the Maine Supreme Judicial Court (1984–2010). Each links to our summary and the full opinion.

• State: Maine
• Kind of court: State supreme court

Decisions

• Godbout v. WLB Holding, Inc. (2010). The Maine Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the Superior Court's dismissal of the Godbouts' complaint against WLB Holding, Inc., holding it was barred by the three-year statute of repose for dissolved corporations.
• Bernier v. Raymark Industries, Inc. (1986). Answering questions certified by the federal district court, the Maine court held that state-of-the-art evidence is admissible in a failure-to-warn claim under section 221, that wrongful death damages are recoverable in a section 221 action, and that section 221 applies to pre-1973 inhalation only if the disease manifested after October 3, 1973; this was a partial win for each side, with two justices dissenting on the third question.
• Austin v. Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc. (1984). Answering a question certified by the federal district court, the Maine high court held that the comparative negligence statute applies to the strict liability claim against Raybestos-Manhattan, but only to compare the decedent's fault in voluntarily and unreasonably encountering a known danger.