No Duty To Warn Worker’s Wife Allegedly Exposed To Asbestos Under Oklahoma Products Liability Law
The estate for the wife of a factory worker brought suit contending that the clothing she laundered for her husband was contaminated with asbestos and caused her mesothelioma. The estate sued multiple parties including the company that manufactured the boilers allegedly present at one or more of the factories where the husband worked.
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma granted summary judgment to the defendants, relying heavily on the Tenth Circuit’s previous decision in Rohrbaugh v. Owens-Corning Fiberglass Corp., 965 F.2d 844 (10th Cir. 1992), which found: “Under Oklahoma law, a manufacturer may have a duty to warn consumers of potential hazards which occur from the use of its products. … This duty to warn, however, only extends to ordinary consumers and users of the products.” The Oklahoma court concluded that the wife was not a foreseeable purchaser or user of the boilers that allegedly contained asbestos and to hold that the manufacturer could reasonably foresee that she would be affected by its products would be an “overextension” of Oklahoma products liability law.
