Fla. Supreme Court: Retroactive Application of Asbestos Act is Unconstitutional

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The Florida Supreme Court has held that the state's Asbestos and Silica Compensation Fairness Act is unconstitutional when applied retroactively, opining that "common law of Florida has never required individuals who have suffered an injury to meet an arbitrarily drawn threshold of physical impairment for a cause of action to accrue." American Optical Corp., et al. v. Williams, et al., No. SC08-1617; American Optical Corp., et al., v. Spiewak, et al., No. SC08-1616 (Fla. Sup. Ct.).

In the majority decision released July 8, the high court opined 5-2 that application of the medical criteria act to the …