07/26/2007
CONTACT: Melissa Sharp, 202-314-2068
Washington, D.C.--The Michigan Supreme Court handed down a critical decision this week finding that third-party liability in asbestos cases cannot be extended to a business when the plaintiff has never been on or near the defendant's property. The case was Miller v. Ford Motor Company. The National Federation of Independent Business Legal Foundation filed an amicus brief in this case urging the court not to extend liability to non-employee third parties.
At issue was whether, under Michigan law, a premises owner owes a duty to protect non-employee third parties from exposure to toxic materials. The plaintiff in this case was the stepdaughter of a former Ford employee who claimed Ford was liable for the illness she developed from exposure to her stepfather's clothes.
The Michigan Supreme Court determined that Ford did not owe the stepdaughter a legal duty to protect her from asbestos-containing products located on Ford's property due to the lack of relationship between Ford and the stepdaughter. Having never been on or near Ford's property, the court ruled that the highly tenuous relationship between the parties was insufficient to outweigh the burden of imposing liability on the defendant.
"The Michigan Supreme Court made the right decision in this case," said Karen Harned, executive director of NFIB's Legal Foundation. "Extending liability to every non-employee that comes in contact with an employee, or in this case the clothing of an employee, would have created a dangerous and unworkable precedent for all business owners. The current asbestos-litigation crisis demonstrates the real need for clear limits on how far liability can be extended. Here, the plaintiff never stepped foot on the defendant's property, and the individual exposed to asbestos worked for an independent contractor that was hired by Ford. The relationship between the defendant and the plaintiff in this case was simply far too distant to demand that the business should have foreseen the harm caused to the plaintiff."
This is the third case dealing with third-party liability in which the NFIB Legal Foundation has filed an amicus brief. The Legal Foundation and NFIB members firmly believe that business owners should not be held liable for third-party injuries.
The case decided was Miller v. Ford Motor Company, No. 131517.
