The Ohio Supreme Court recently ruled against a prosecutor representing a Mrs. Boley who passed away due to the “take home” effects of her husband’s work. Her husband, an employee of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, allegedly introduced dangerous asbestos fibers into their home which he was originally exposed to at his workplace.
Asbestos has been known to cause an array of serious health complications since the early 1920′s. While it has taken nearly a century to cut through the smoke-screen of misinformation deployed by a profitable and booming asbestos industry, it’s now well understood and accepted that asbestos fibers cause several different respiratory ailments, asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma, an aggressive and terminal cancer.
Asbestos has been completely banned throughout the European Union, is closely regulated and controlled by the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States, and is recognized by the World Health Organization as a toxic workplace hazard that causes terminal illnesses.
While litigation against companies which expose their employees to asbestos fibers is generally becoming more and more successful, the Ohio Supreme Court drew the line at “take home” asbestos contamination.
The prosecutors of the Boley versus Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company case were aware that Ohio law limits a company’s liability for a hazardous workplace to the injuries or damages which occur in the workplace itself, but believed that the law would not apply to the “take home” effects of asbestos.
The Ohio Supreme Court did not agree, stating:
“When the provisions of [Ohio Revised Code] 2307.941 are read in their entirety, it is evident that the General Assembly intended the phrase ‘exposure to asbestos on the premises owner’s property,’ as used in R.C. 2307.941(A), to refer to the location of the asbestos to which an individual is exposed, not the location of the exposure…
“Thus, R.C. 2307.941(A) applies to all tort actions for asbestos claims brought against premises owners relating to exposure originating from asbestos on the premises owner’s property, and R.C. 2307.941(A)(1) applies to preclude a premises owner’s liability for any asbestos exposure that does not occur at the owner’s property.”
