In Waltson v. Boeing Co., a 5-4 majority of the Washington Supreme Court held that Boeing did not have actual knowledge in 1985 that asbestos exposure would cause certain injury and that its former employee was therefore only entitled to worker’s compensation payment for the cost of the mesothelioma that likely resulted from that exposure. While evidence showed Boeing knew that asbestos caused cellular damage and posed a risk of mesothelioma, the Court held that awareness of risk was not sufficient to defeat an employer’s tort immunity under the worker’s compensation system. Had Boeing known that asbestos would cause certain injury, the employee’s estate would have been able to put aside worker’s compensation to sue Boeing for torts related to his disease and death.
Continue Reading Seeking Absolutes in a World of Probabilities: Washington Supreme Court Finds Mesothelioma to be Risk of Asbestos Exposure Rather than a Certain Harm
workers compensation
Appellate Update: Raum v. City of Bellevue [Wash. App. No. 67213-4-I]
By Hunter Ferguson, Leonard Feldman & J. Will Eidson on
Posted in Notice of Appeal Archive
The City of Bellevue employed Raum as a firefighter for more than 19 years. Over the course of his career, Raum was evaluated several times for smoke inhalation at the scene of a fire. Sometime in 2008, Raum began experiencing chest pain. He experienced such pain three different times while at work. After the third…