U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit: Asbestos Cases

Our case-law library holds 7 asbestos decisions from the U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit (1977–2014). Each links to our summary and the full opinion.

• Kind of court: Federal appeals court

Decisions

• Wannall v. Honeywell, Inc. (2014). The D.C. Circuit affirmed the district court's exclusion of the plaintiff's late expert declaration and its grant of summary judgment for Honeywell, the successor to Bendix, against the estate of John Tyler.
• Consolidated Rail v. Ray ex rel. Estate of Boyd (2011). The D.C. Circuit affirmed the district court's judgment for the estate of Harold Boyd (represented by James Ray) and against Conrail, holding that Conrail was not shielded from liability for Boyd's pre-conveyance asbestos exposure.
• Carey Canada, Inc. v. Columbia Cas. Co. (1991). The D.C. Circuit affirmed the district court's finding that the 1977 National Union policy exclusion was ambiguous and covered all asbestos claims, but vacated and remanded as to the Columbia Casualty and 1979 National Union policies, so Carey Canada and Celotex won in part and Columbia Casualty and National Union won in part.
• Building and Const. Trades Dept., Afl-Cio v. Brock (1988). The court upheld OSHA's findings of significant risk and feasibility of the 0.2 f/cc asbestos PEL, but struck the ban on spraying asbestos products and remanded several issues (lower PELs for some sectors, a STEL, smoking controls, some union-proposed measures) to the agency, so industry and unions each partly won and lost.
• Wilson v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp. (1982). The D.C. Circuit reversed the district court's summary judgment for Johns-Manville and the other asbestos defendants, which had dismissed Blannie Wilson's survival and wrongful death claims as time-barred, and remanded for further proceedings.
• Keene Corp. v. Ins. Co. of North America (1981). The court reversed the district court's summary judgment, which had prorated costs among Keene's insurers. It held that each insurer on the risk between initial exposure and manifestation is fully liable to Keene (Keene prevailed on both issues: the court held the dispute justiciable and rejected proration), and it remanded for trial on damages and on Liberty's 1967 policy.
• National Ass'n of Demolition Contractors v. Costle (1977). The D.C. Circuit denied the demolition contractors' association's petitions for review and upheld the EPA Administrator's 1974 and 1975 amendments to the asbestos demolition regulations.