Ohio Supreme Court Reverses Ruling Allowing Testimony in Asbestos Civil Action to be used in Workers’ Comp Case

COLUMBUS, Ohio –– The Ohio Supreme Court has reversed a lower court’s ruling allowing a maintenance worker’s testimony to support his widow’s workers’ compensation claim, ruling that his former employer did not have the same motives as asbestos defendants named in the civil action in which the testimony was taken.

In the Sept. 3 opinion, the high court explained that the asbestos defendants in the civil action had incentive to prove that the decedent was not exposed to asbestos in their products alone and were not focused on disproving workplace exposure as a whole.

The Supreme Court also found that …