ATRA LAUDS ILLINOIS SUPREME COURT DECISION ON ASBESTOS EVIDENCE

Says Opinion Will Have Positive Effect in State’s ‘Judicial Hellholes’

Washington, DC, April 16, 2009 -- The American Tort Reform Association today welcomed a long-awaited Illinois Supreme Court decision in Nolan v. Weil-McLain. The central issue was the so-called "Lipke rule," from an Illinois appellate decision (Lipke v. Celotex Corp., 1987) that had been misinterpreted and expanded to prevent an at-trial defendant from introducing evidence that a plaintiff had been exposed to products made or sold by responsible parties that had already settled, are insolvent, or are otherwise unavailable for trial.

“Today, the Illinois Supreme Court took a significant step toward bringing fairness and rationality to asbestos litigation in the Land of Lincoln,” began ATRA president Tiger Joyce.

“The ‘Lipke rule’ kept juries in the dark about central facts bearing on causation,” explained Joyce. “For instance, the jury could not be told that a plaintiff worked for decades in a number of high-exposure environments; jurors would only hear of the exposure to the defendant’s asbestos-containing product.

“As a result, jurors could be led to conclude that a plaintiff was exposed only to asbestos attributed to the non-settling defendant, and that exposure must have caused the plaintiff’s asbestos-related disease,” Joyce continued. “As a result, there was great pressure to settle such cases, particularly in Illinois’ ‘Judicial Hellholes’ jurisdictions, because defendants would not want to be the only non-settling defendant left at the time of trial.

“Illinois law has been unique in preventing a defendant at trial from showing that other exposures were the sole proximate cause of the plaintiff's harm. In all other states, juries can be informed that the plaintiff had been exposed to a product or products other than the defendant’s, and that such exposure constituted the sole proximate cause of the plaintiff’s alleged injuries.”

Joyce concluded by noting that the high court’s opinion adopted arguments made in a friend of the court brief filed earlier by ATRA and a number of business associations.

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The American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) is the only national organization dedicated exclusively to tort and liability reform through public education and the enactment of legislation. ATRA's membership includes non profits, small and large companies, as well as state and national trade, business, and professional associations.