Supreme Court of California

In consolidated cases that ask whether employers or landowners owe a duty of care to prevent secondary exposure to asbestos, the Court of Appeal's decision is reversed where: 1) the duty of employers and premises owners to exercise ordinary care in their use of asbestos includes preventing exposure to asbestos carried by the bodies and clothing of on-site workers; 2) where it is reasonably foreseeable that workers, their clothing, or personal effects will act as vectors carrying asbestos from the premises to household members, employers have a duty to take reasonable care to prevent this means of transmission; 3) this duty also applies to premises owners who use asbestos on their property, subject to any exceptions and affirmative defenses generally applicable to premises owners, such as the rules of contractor liability; and 4) this duty extends only to members of a worker's household, and because the duty is premised on the foreseeability of both the regularity and intensity of contact that occurs in a worker's home, it does not extend beyond this circumscribed category of potential plaintiffs.

Appellate Information

• Published 2016/12/01

Judges

• LIU

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel