California Court of Appeal

Judgment of nonsuit in asbestos action alleging negligence and strict liability is reversed, where: 1) the evidence presented by plaintiff at trial, evaluated in a light most favorable to plaintiff, meets the standard set forth in Rutherford and its progeny for proving causation in asbestos cases; and 2) the trial court erred in excluding evidence of defendant's lobbying activities under the Noerr-Pennington doctrine because while a corporation's petitioning of government officials may not itself form the basis of liability under the doctrine, evidence of such petitioning activity may be admissible if otherwise relevant to show the purpose and character of other actions of the corporation.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/18/2013
• Published 04/18/2013

Judges

• CHAVEZ

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel