Appellate Court Rejects Death as the Only Trigger for Statute of Limitations

BALTIMORE -- A Maryland appellate court has affirmed a judgment allowing wrongful death claims to proceed in an asbestos case, agreeing with the intermediate court that it was not the death that triggered the statute of limitations, but rather the discovery of circumstances leading to the cause of death. Georgia-Pacific Corp. v. Benjamin, et al., September Term, 2005, No. 52 (Md. Ct. App.).

In the Aug. 2 opinion, the Court of Special Appeals also opined that the decedent's knowledge of cause can also trigger the running of the statute of limitations.

'Specifically, in cases involving workplace exposure to toxic substances, …