Company With No Knowledge of Silica Regulations Can't Be Considered Sophisticated User, Plaintiff Urges

ST. LOUIS - An appeal filed recently in federal circuit court claims that a lower court erred when it awarded summary judgment to a company that supplied silica sand to a facility operated by the John Deere Co., which the court said should be considered a sophisticated user of the product. Bergfeld v. Martin Marietta Corp., et al., No. 02-2114 (8th Cir.).

The appeal, which has been briefed before the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, arose after the U.S. District Court for the District of Iowa awarded summary judgment to Lockheed Martin, which supplied Deere with sand that allegedly …