John Yorger v. Pittsburgh Corning Corporation

733 F.2d 1215, 1984 U.S. App. LEXIS 22686
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedMay 8, 1984
Docket82-2803
StatusPublished
Cited by114 cases

This text of 733 F.2d 1215 (John Yorger v. Pittsburgh Corning Corporation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
John Yorger v. Pittsburgh Corning Corporation, 733 F.2d 1215, 1984 U.S. App. LEXIS 22686 (7th Cir. 1984).

Opinion

CUMMINGS, Chief Judge.

In this diversity case plaintiff John Yorger appeals the district court’s order granting summary judgment in favor of defendant Pittsburgh Corning Corporation (PCC) which was based upon the court’s construction of an Indiana statute of limitations, Ind.Code § 33-1-1.5-5 (1978). For the reasons stated infra we vacate the judgment and remand for further proceedings in the district court.

I

Plaintiff worked with asbestos as an insulation mechanic from 1939 to 1980. Over the years plaintiff installed asbestos-containing materials such as pipe insulation and removed old materials on hundreds of commercial and industrial jobsites for various employers in Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Florida, Kentucky, and Texas. Plaintiff claims to have asbestosis (a term used generally herein to refer to any asbestos-related disease) and was diagnosed as asbestotic in 1980. 1 His last full year of work was in 1979 following which he asserts he was forced to retire due to his condition.

On October 24, 1980, plaintiff commenced this suit against numerous manufacturers of asbestos products seeking damages for alleged injuries attributable to exposure at the various jobsites. We recite in some detail the substance of the pleadings and motions because this case was decided below on summary judgment and, as discussed infra, defendant contends on appeal that plaintiff waived a factual issue in responding to defendant’s motion for summary judgment. At the time plaintiff’s second amended complaint was filed on July 6, 1982, all the original defendants except PCC and Owens-Illinois, Inc. had settled with plaintiff or had been dismissed due to lack of service of process. Owens-Illinois, Inc. subsequently filed a motion for summary judgment, was successful on that motion, and later settled with plaintiff, so that PCC is the sole remaining defendant and subject of this appeal. The two-count final complaint is grounded on negligence and defective product liability and alleges that at various locations in the aforementioned states plaintiff was exposed to asbestos manufactured by defendant, causing plaintiff’s asbestosis. The complaint requests a total of $1,000,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.

An exhibit to the complaint sets forth in detail plaintiff’s work history, listing the jobsites (to the best of his recollection), approximate dates, and the type of asbestos-containing material he allegedly handled at each jobsite. Because of the statute of limitations problem, discussed infra, most relevant are the more recent alleged exposures. The work history lists numerous exposures to asbestos-containing materials occurring after October 24, 1970, eight of which refer either to defendant PCC or “Unibestos”, an asbestos-containing pipe insulation manufactured and sold by PCC. The exposure most critical to this appeal is plaintiff’s “tear-off” (i.e., pipe insulation removal and replacement) work at the Paradise steam power plant, in Paradise, Kentucky, during 1979 (Work History, *1217 Second Amended Compl., Ex. D, pp. 38-40). In his deposition plaintiff specified that his employment at the Paradise plant by the Tennessee Valley Authority extended from approximately February 12, 1979, to June 12, 1979 (Yorger Dep., vol. Ill, p. 516).

On July 20, 1982, defendant PCC filed a motion for summary judgment claiming no genuine issue of material fact exists and that defendant is entitled to judgment on the basis of statutes of limitations, Ind. Code § 34-1-2-2 (1976) and § 33-1-1.5-5 (1978). It is undisputed that the former applies to those claims of plaintiff deemed to have accrued before June 1, 1978, and the latter applies to actions accruing after that date. The argument made in defendant’s motion for summary judgment is as follows: Section 34-1-2-2 is a two-year statute of limitations, and since plaintiff commenced this action on October 24, 1980, any claims deemed to have accrued prior to June 1, 1978, are barred by the two-year rule (Defendant’s Mem. In Support of Summary Judgment, pp. 3-4). Regarding those claims accruing after June 1, 1978, Section 33-1-1.5-5 provides:

Sec. 5. Statute of Limitations. This section applies to all persons regardless of minority or legal disability. Notwithstanding IC 34-1-2-5, any product liability action must be commenced within two (2) years after the cause of action accrues or within ten (10) years after the delivery of the product to the initial user or consumer; except that, if the cause of action accrues more than eight (8) years but not more than ten (10) years after the initial delivery, the action may be commenced at any time within two (2) years after the cause of action accrues.

Under defendant’s construction of Section 33-1-1.5-5, defendant in its summary judgment motion asserts that PCC did not deliver or sell any asbestos-containing product to companies employing plaintiff as listed on plaintiff’s work history after October 1, 1970, i.e., slightly more than ten years prior to the commencement of this action. It is undisputed that defendant manufactured Unibestos from July 1, 1962 to February 1, 1972, but the critical dates are the dates of delivery to plaintiff’s employers and, specifically, the dates of delivery to plaintiff’s jobsites. Defendant’s claim that no delivery was made to these jobsites is based upon the affidavit of Robert E. Buckley, former vice president and currently a consultant to PCC. The affidavit addresses plaintiff’s employers and job-sites from October 1, 1970, to the most recent jobsite, i.e., the Paradise plant from February 12, 1979 to June 12, 1979. The affidavit states, “[bjased upon a review of all available records of [PCC], after October 1, 1970, [PCC] did not sell or deliver asbestos thermal insulation products to [these] companies at the respective job sites * * ” (Defendant’s Mem. In Support of Summary Judgment, App. A, p. 1).

In plaintiff’s response to defendant’s motion, plaintiff asserts that there are several unresolved questions of material fact and that summary judgment in favor of defendant was therefore improper. The response alleges exposure to defendant’s products in Illinois and Kentucky and refers to several places in the work history, stating, for example, that plaintiff was exposed to Unibestos insulation at the Paradise plant in 1979 (at p. 40). The response also refers to and discusses defendant’s answers to plaintiff’s interrogatories, in which defendant lists those companies employing plaintiff to which PCC believes it sold asbestos-containing materials. In the answer defendant admits having sold asbestos insulation materials to seven of plaintiff’s past employers during periods of plaintiff’s employment, spanning from July 1964 to December 1971. Not included in defendant’s answer is a reference to the Tennessee Valley Authority which employed plaintiff at the Paradise steam plant in 1979. Defendant sold asbestos products to two of plaintiff’s seven employers after October 1, 1970, the date referred to in the Buckley affidavit as the date after which no asbestos was sold to plaintiff’s employers.

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Bluebook (online)
733 F.2d 1215, 1984 U.S. App. LEXIS 22686, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/john-yorger-v-pittsburgh-corning-corporation-ca7-1984.