Household Exposure Duty Rejected, Court Says Liability Would be 'Limitless'

WILMINGTON, Del. -- A Delaware Superior Court has awarded summary judgment to an asbestos defendant in a take-home exposure case, finding that the relationship between the company and the wife of a former employee was "too tenuous to support a legal duty of care." In re: Asbestos Litigation, Limited To: Lillian Riedel, No. 04C-07-099-ASB (Del. Super. Ct., New Castle Cty.).

In the Dec. 21 opinion, the New Castle County Superior Court rejected the idea of "transferred negligence," stating that while the defendant owed a duty to its employee, the same employee's wife was not a reasonably foreseeable victim.

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