Ill. Court Says Asbestos Suit is Not Barred by Exclusivity Provision in Workers’ Compensation Act

CHICAGO –– An Illinois appellate court has reversed the dismissal of asbestos claims against Ferro Engineering, ruling that the plaintiffs’ suit is not precluded by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act, despite being time-barred under the Act’s 25-year statute of repose.

In the June 27 opinion, the Illinois 1st District Court of Appeal, 5th Division, wrote that its finding was confined to the underlying case’s specific fact pattern, “in which an injured employee’s potential claim under the Act is time-barred before he ever learns of it, thus necessarily depriving him of any potential for compensation under the Act.”

At …