Wash. Court Awards Summary Judgment to 3 Defendants in Asbestos Case, Says Causation Lacking

TACOMA, Wash. –– A Washington federal court has awarded summary judgment to several defendants named in an asbestos case, finding that the plaintiffs had failed to connect the former shipfitter’s presence on a particular ship with a particular asbestos-containing product.

In the Aug. 19 order, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington found that the plaintiffs’ testimony only establishes the presence of the defendants’ products, but it is “insufficient to establish exposure much less substantial exposure.”

Plaintiffs Donald and Marietta Yaw filed the underlying complaint, contending that Donald Yaw’s work at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard from 1964 …