Mich. High Court Denies Rehearing Request in Secondhand Exposure Dispute

LANSING, Mich. -- The Michigan Supreme Court has denied a request to rehear arguments in a secondhand exposure dispute in which the court called the relationship between a premises owner and a woman allegedly exposed to asbestos on her husband's work clothing "highly tenuous." Miller, et al. v. Ford Motor Co., No. 131517 (Mich. Sup. Ct.).

The Sept. 28 order leaves standing the 4-3 July decision in which the court opined that the imposition of a duty of care on premises owners, under these circumstances, would be onerous and unworkable because it would "expand traditional tort concepts beyond manageable bounds …