Opinion ID: 5855233
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Summary judgment on the survival action

Text: This court reviews a district court’s summary judgment decision de novo, applying the same legal standards employed by the trial court. Mills v. Davis Oil Co., 11 F.3d 1298, 1301 (5th Cir. 1994). To be clear, it is the Pennsylvania MDL court’s summary judgment that we review, but Louisiana substantive law controls. Under Louisiana law, to prevail in an asbestos injury case, “the claimant must show . . . he had significant exposure to the product complained of to the extent that it was a substantial factor in bringing about his injury.” Rando v. Anco Insulations, Inc., 16 So. 3d 1065, 1091 (La. 2009). A claimant’s evidence may be direct or circumstantial. Id. at 1089. Even if the plaintiff was only exposed to asbestos for a “short period for an employer and he had longer exposure working for others, it cannot be said the relatively short asbestos exposure was not a substantial factor in causing his mesothelioma.” Id. at 1091. The plaintiff has the burden of proof and “must establish his claim to a reasonable certainty[;] mere possibility, and even unsupported probability, are not sufficient to support a judgment in plaintiff’s favor.” Vodanovich v. A.P. Green Indus., Inc., 2003–1079, p. 6 (La. App. 4 Cir. 3/3/04); 869 So. 2d 930, 934. To defeat an asbestos defendant’s motion for summary judgment, which is the relevant motion here, the Plaintiffs need only show that a reasonable jury could conclude that it is more likely than not that Williams inhaled defendant’s asbestos fibers, even if there were only “slight exposures.” See Held v. Avondale Indus., Inc., 95-1788, p. 5 (La. App. 4 Cir. 4/3/96); 672 So. 2d 1106, 1109. The Plaintiffs’ legal argument can be summarized as this: (1) the MDL court misapplied Louisiana law in granting summary judgment and (2) the MDL court weighed improperly weighed evidence. 6 Case: 18-31158 Document: 00516164985 Page: 7 Date Filed: 01/12/2022 No. 18-31158 First, the allegedly misapplied or ignored state law is a civil law concept premised on custody that is referred to as garde. The concept is now established in Civil Code article 2317, which states that parties “are responsible, not only for the damage occasioned by [their] own act, but for that which is caused by the act of persons for whom [they] are answerable, or of the things which [they] have in [their] custody.” La. Civ. Code art. 2317. The Code continues: [t]he owner or custodian of a thing is answerable for damage occasioned by its ruin, vice, or defect, only upon a showing that he knew or, in the exercise of reasonable care, should have known of the ruin, vice, or defect which caused the damage, that the damage could have been prevented by the exercise of reasonable care, and that he failed to exercise such reasonable care. Id. art. 2317.1 Although the MDL court did not explicitly mention garde in its opinion, it analyzed evidence relevant to garde when granting summary judgment to Boeing. This is clear from three main facts taken as true by the MDL court: it accepted Boeing as the “custodian of the facility;” acknowledged Boeing’s responsibility for various services (including maintenance); and accepted as true certain evidence that Boeing was responsible for the design, approval, and installation of substantial amounts of asbestos at the facility as early as 1963. We are satisfied that the MDL court considered the proper legal concept of garde and analyzed whether Boeing had the necessary relationship to the facility. We reject the Plaintiffs’ argument that the MDL Court did not consider garde. Thus, we consider whether we can uphold this ruling about garde, expressed by the district court in equivalent terms. The MDL court considered the following facts: Williams worked in Building 350, primarily on 7 Case: 18-31158 Document: 00516164985 Page: 8 Date Filed: 01/12/2022 No. 18-31158 the second floor, and frequently visited Building 103. As early as 1963, there was “substantial” asbestos at the facility, including in Buildings 103 and 350. There was asbestos abatement work in Building 350 in the mid-to-late 1980s. Williams saw men in “moon suits” at the facility, and it was reasonably inferable that their use was as a result of asbestos remediation. In the summary judgment context, “inferences to be drawn from the underlying facts . . . must be viewed in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion.” Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587 (1986) (quotation marks and citation omitted). We consider three findings by the MDL court particularly troubling. First, the MDL court accepted that Williams worked, for some amount of time, in a building that had asbestos, and expert testimony indicates the asbestos was deteriorating and becoming airborne during his tenure. An inference taken in favor of the non-moving party would be that Williams, who for some amount of time had to breathe in the spaces where asbestos was deteriorating, was exposed to this airborne asbestos. The MDL court, though, found that there was “no evidence that [Williams] was ever exposed to respirable asbestos dust at any location in the facility.” Second, in a summary judgment order rendered that same day regarding another defendant, the MDL court relied on evidence that Williams saw individuals in moon suits to assume he was present during the asbestos remediation. Just the opposite seems to have been inferred here, as the MDL court in Boeing’s summary judgment order stated that there was “no evidence that [Williams] was working nearby (or in that building at all) when that [remediation] work was performed,” despite the fact that Williams also had witnessed the likely remediation efforts. Third, the Williams’ expert, Frank Parker, testified that Williams would have been exposed “frequently to above-average ambient background 8 Case: 18-31158 Document: 00516164985 Page: 9 Date Filed: 01/12/2022 No. 18-31158 levels of asbestos (as a result of maintenance and repair work occurring in the facility in buildings in which he worked/visited).” The MDL court, though, inferred that the presence of ambient asbestos could not have contributed to Williams’s illness. Based on this record, whether Williams was exposed to respirable asbestos is a disputed issue of fact. These inferences made in favor of Boeing, the moving party, are particularly significant in light of the MDL court’s conclusion that the evidence was “insufficient to support a finding of causation.” The MDL court found that, “[a]lthough the evidence makes clear that there was asbestos throughout the facility during and prior to Decedent’s work there, there is no evidence that Decedent was ever exposed to respirable asbestos dust at any location in the facility.” In support of this finding, the MDL court also found that the evidence that Williams primarily worked in Building 350 was not “sufficiently specific” to allow a jury to conclude he was exposed to asbestos during an abatement project because “[t]he evidence that Decedent primarily worked in Building 350 does not exclude the possibility that he was not working there during the asbestos abatement project.” Finding to the contrary, the MDL court found, “would be impermissibly speculative.” We conclude that “speculation” would not be involved, only a potentially reasonable inference. Although the MDL court concluded that the record did not support a finding that Williams was exposed, we cannot say that, taking all inferences in favor of Williams, the non-moving party, that no reasonable juror could have found for him on the evidence before the court. We reverse summary judgment on this claim.