Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas: Asbestos Cases

Our case-law library holds 6 asbestos decisions from the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas (1979–1997). Each links to our summary and the full opinion.

• State: Pennsylvania
• Kind of court: State trial court

Decisions

• Sharpless v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas (1997). The trial court granted compulsory nonsuits for defendants Owens-Corning Fiberglas, Uniroyal and Harbison Walker Refractories against plaintiffs Dallas Sharpless and Richard Wilson, and issued this opinion explaining the nonsuits for their appeals.
• Blase v. Allied Signal Inc. (1996). The trial court denied Mildred Blase's motion for reconsideration and granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment, because she had no medical expert to prove causation of her husband's lung cancer.
• United Insurance v. France Refractories (1996). After a retrial on remand from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the court rejected J.H. France's laches defense, found that France fraudulently obtained the excess policy, and declared the $5,000,000 policy void ab initio, so United National Insurance Co. won and France lost.
• Behrendt v. GAF Corp. (1993). The trial court granted the plaintiff estate's post-trial motion and ordered a new trial limited to damages, finding the $65,000 and $5,000 awards inadequate and not a compromise verdict, against defendants GAF, National Gypsum, Owens Corning and U.S. Gypsum.
• Gill v. Pacor, Inc. (1982). The trial court denied Johns-Manville's motions for judgment n.o.v. and for a new trial, and also denied the plaintiffs' motion for a partial new trial on punitive damages, leaving the $125,000 compensatory verdict for the plaintiffs in place.
• Amatex Corp. v. Aetna (1979). The court sustained the insurers' (Aetna, American, Bellefonte, Stonewall, Interstate) preliminary objections and dismissed Amatex Corporation's petition for a declaratory judgment on insurance coverage for asbestos claims.