Judge Finds Reasonable Basis for Claims Against Retailers, Remands Respirator Case

OWENSBORO, Ky. - Retailers and distributors of respirators designed to protect workers from inhaling silica dust were not fraudulently joined to a lawsuit filed by several miners who claimed they developed lung disease despite wearing the devices, a federal judge in Kentucky has ruled. Adams, et al. v. Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Company, et al., No. 03-182 (W.D. Ky.).

In a decision granting the plaintiffs' motion to remand the case to state circuit court, Judge Joseph H. McKinley Jr. ruled March 30 that the plaintiffs have sufficiently alleged that the possibility of recovery against the distributors and retailers named in …