Skonberg v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp.

576 N.E.2d 28, 215 Ill. App. 3d 735, 159 Ill. Dec. 359, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 701
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 3, 1991
Docket1-89-1315
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 576 N.E.2d 28 (Skonberg v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Skonberg v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp., 576 N.E.2d 28, 215 Ill. App. 3d 735, 159 Ill. Dec. 359, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 701 (Ill. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

JUSTICE McNULTY

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff Louise Skonberg, as administrator of the estate of her husband, John Skonberg (decedent), filed a wrongful death and survival action against defendant Owens-Coming Fiberglas Corporation (OCF) and several other manufacturers and distributors for injuries allegedly sustained by decedent as a result of exposure to asbestos-containing products manufactured, sold or distributed by defendants. Plaintiff sought compensatory damages, asserting a theory of strict liability in tort against OCF. A jury verdict was entered in plaintiff’s favor and plaintiff was awarded a final judgment amount of $225,000.

On appeal, OCF contends that the circuit court improperly denied both its motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and also its motion for a new trial.

According to evidence adduced at trial, decedent was exposed to asbestos products during his employment as an insulator from approximately 1946 to 1977. Decedent was exposed to the asbestos products of OCF between 1960-1964. Mr. Skonberg’s death resulted from asbestosis and cancer of the lung. Decedent smoked one package of cigarettes per day from at least 1941 until November of 1977. Mrs. Skonberg admitted that although she and decedent knew of the warnings on cigarette packages, they “paid no heed” to them and continued smoking until decedent became ill. Plaintiff also testified that decedent received the Asbestos Workers magazine and read it on a regular basis in the 1960’s. Additionally, in the late 1960’s plaintiff discussed with decedent information he received from his union concerning the health hazards of asbestos but never discussed the fact that it could cause cancer.

One of plaintiff’s medical experts, Dr. Kittle, testified at trial that there is “a very definite relationship between asbestos and lung cancer.” Dr. Kittle also testified that individuals who are exposed to cigarette smoke as well as asbestos have between a 40 to a 90 times greater likelihood of developing lung cancer than those who did not come into contact with asbestos. Dr. Kittle also admitted that if an asbestos worker did not smoke, he would not get lung cancer.

Plaintiff’s other medical expert, Dr. Cugell, testified that smokers who are exposed to asbestos “have from 50 to 90 times the risk of developing cancer of the lung compared with people with neither of those hazards.” In Dr. Cugell’s opinion, the decedent suffered from asbestosis which was caused in part by his exposure to OCF asbestos products. He based his opinion on the “well-established and acknowledged synergistic effect between smoking and asbestos exposure and the occurrence of lung cancer.” On cross-examination, Dr. Cugell testified that cigarette smoking, combined with decedent’s pre-1960 asbestos exposure, could have caused decedent’s cancer.

OCF moved for a directed verdict at the end of plaintiff’s case in chief, insisting that plaintiff failed to introduce any evidence proving that OCF had a duty to warn decedent or that the lack of warning on its products was the proximate cause of his injuries. The court denied OCF’s motion.

The court ruled in OCF’s case in chief that eight issues of a union publication called Asbestos Worker, discussing the health hazards of asbestos, were admissible, but only for the purpose of impeaching the testimony of Dr. Castleman, plaintiff’s state-of-the-art expert. The court denied OCF’s request that the magazines be admitted as substantive evidence and denied admission of plaintiff’s discovery deposition as substantive evidence.

In addition, OCF’s proposed jury instructions on assumption of risk and proximate cause were denied, as well as its instructions on comparable fault and the definition of “unreasonably dangerous.” The jury returned a verdict for plaintiff in the amount of $283,000.

OCF moved unsuccessfully for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or, in the alternative, for a new trial. OCF’s motion for setoff was, however, granted. The final judgment amount was $225,000, plus costs and expenses of $1,923.21.

OCF first contends that the circuit court erred in denying its motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict since plaintiff, by neglecting to present evidence that decedent would have adhered to warnings if provided, failed to prove that asbestos proximately caused decedent’s injuries.

It is well established that a judgment notwithstanding the verdict can only be granted where all the evidence, when viewed in a light most favorable to the nonmoving party, so overwhelmingly favors the moving party that no contrary verdict could ever stand. Pedrick v. Peoria & Eastern R.R. Co. (1967), 37 Ill. 2d 494, 229 N.E.2d 504.

To recover under a strict liability theory, a plaintiff must establish that the injury proximately resulted from an unreasonably dangerous condition of the product which existed at the time it left the manufacturer’s control. (Soto v. E.W. Bliss Division of Gulf & Western Manufacturing Co. (1983), 116 Ill. App. 3d 880, 452 N.E.2d 572.) Plaintiff alleges that OCF’s products were unreasonably dangerous because OCF failed to warn of dangers associated with their use. The failure to warn of a product’s dangerous propensities may serve as a basis for holding the manufacturer strictly liable in tort. (Hammond v. North American Asbestos Corp. (1983), 97 Ill. 2d 195, 454 N.E.2d 210.) Moreover, as the supreme court noted in Hammond, a jury may properly conclude that asbestos is an unreasonably dangerous product, and accordingly, a manufacturer of asbestos products may be held strictly liable for failing to provide adequate warnings to consumers of its asbestos products. (Hammond, 97 Ill. 2d at 206.) OCF maintains that the question presented in this appeal, which was not discussed in Hammond, is whether the plaintiff may succeed on the strict liability claim although she failed to prove that had an appropriate warning label been placed on OCF’s asbestos products, decedent would have altered his conduct.

OCF maintains that its asbestos product was not the proximate cause of decedent’s injuries because decedent had a practice of ignoring the warning labels on cigarette packages and decedent had knowledge and appreciation of the dangers of asbestos. In support of its contention, OCF relies on Brossard v. Houdaille Industries, Inc. (1989), 183 Ill. App. 3d 739, 539 N.E.2d 360, in which the plaintiff sued the manufacturer of a “gate guard safety system” alleging that the manufacturer’s failure to furnish instructions for the system rendered the product defective. The court noted:

“Liability cannot be predicated upon surmise or conjecture as to the cause of a plaintiff’s injuries. Instead, proximate cause can only be established where there is a reasonable certainty that the defendant’s acts caused the injuries.” (183 Ill. App. 3d at 744.)

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Bluebook (online)
576 N.E.2d 28, 215 Ill. App. 3d 735, 159 Ill. Dec. 359, 1991 Ill. App. LEXIS 701, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/skonberg-v-owens-corning-fiberglas-corp-illappct-1991.