Application of Significant Exposure Theory Upheld in Case Against Employee

NEW ORLEANS - The Louisiana Supreme Court has reversed a lower court decision to award summary judgment to an employer defendant based on a finding that a former employee's cause of action for mesothelioma may have accrued not at the time of diagnosis, but more than 25 years earlier when his alleged asbestos exposure took place. Austin, et al. v. Abney Mills, Inc., et al., No. 2001-C-1598 (La. Sup. Ct.)

In a Sept. 4 decision to remand the case, the state's High Court applied the significant tortious exposure theory adopted in Cole v. Celotex, 599 So. 2d 1058 (La. 1992) …