Calif. Appellate Court Affirms Judgment for Railroad Defendant in Take-Home Asbestos Exposure Case

LOS ANGELES –– A California appellate court has affirmed a demurrer sustained in favor of asbestos defendant BNSF Railway Co., finding that it did not owe a duty to protect the wife of a former employee from asbestos-related dangers.

In the June 3 opinion, the California Second Appellate District, Division 5, rejected the plaintiffs’ efforts to distinguish their claims from those in Campbell v. Ford Motor Co., (2012, 206 Cal. App.4th 15), another take-home exposure case.

The plaintiffs contended in their complaint that Lynn Haver developed mesothelioma after she was exposed to asbestos on her husband’s work clothing. Haver’s husband, …