Arizona Supreme Court: Employer Doesn’t Owe Duty to Public Regarding Secondary Asbestos Exposure

PHOENIX –– The Arizona Supreme Court has weighed in on a take-home asbestos exposure dispute, ruling that given that no common law special relationship existed requiring the employer to protect the public from secondary asbestos exposure, the employer-defendant did not owe a duty to the public to warn of such dangers.

In the May 11 opinion, the state high court opined that the plaintiffs had failed to identify a public policy giving rise to such a duty.

“In reaching our decision today, we affirm Arizona’s current duty framework in several key respects,” the high court wrote. “First, duty is …