Calif. Appellate Court Reverses Trial Court Order, Says Iran Law Should Be Applied to Asbestos Claims

SAN FRANCISCO –– A California appellate court has reversed a trial court order that denied a defendant’s request to apply Iranian law to asbestos claims at trial, concluding that the fact that Iranian laws are secular in nature should not preclude American courts from applying them.

In the July 7 opinion, the California Court of Appeal, First District, opined that the proper choice-of-law analysis does not involve choosing the “better or worthier rule.”

The plaintiffs asserted the claims on behalf of Mahmoud Ghazanfarpour, contending that his work as an engineer at pipelines and oil refineries in Iran from 1975 to …