Mont. High Court: Workers’ Compensation Insurer Not Entitled to Summary Judgment

HELENA, Mont. –– Montana’s highest court has found that a workers’ compensation insurer is not entitled to summary judgment in an asbestos personal injury action involving Libby, Mont. exposure, adopting an elemental formulation of Restatement (Second) of Torts § 324 “as an additional prerequisite for determining whether one who affirmatively undertakes to render aid or services to a third party owes a duty of reasonable care to others regarding foreseeable risks of harm directly created or resulting from the conduct of the third party.”

In the March 25 opinion, the Montana Supreme Court found that the insurer’s duty arose out …