Opinion ID: 1481786
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Porter's Substantial Factor Causation

Text: Porter argues that there was insufficient evidence in Knuckles to find that Knuckles was injured by Porter's products or installers. Knuckles presented two theories of liability against Porter: that Porter's employees exposed Knuckles to asbestos fibers during installation of products at the Key Highway shipyard, and that Porter sold to the shipyard Johns-Manville (Manville) asbestos products to which Knuckles was exposed. The Court of Special Appeals affirmed. We shall reverse because of missing links in the chain of causation running from Porter to Knuckles. The evidence would support finding that Manville products were a substantial factor in causing Knuckles's injury. One witness testified that he frequently worked near Knuckles and that Manville products were used often in their common area during those times. Several other witnesses testified that Manville products were used in areas of ships where Knuckles likely would come in frequent contact with them. The contact between Knuckles and Manville products, however, is not enough to hold Porter liable. Knuckles also had the burden of proving that Porter was responsible for the Manville products, either as seller to Bethlehem, or because Porter workers used them at Key Highway.
To prove that Porter sold the Manville products to Key Highway, Knuckles relies primarily on the testimony of Charles Holterman, a former Porter executive who worked in New Jersey before his assignment to Baltimore in 1982. Holterman said that Porter normally stocked Manville products, but Porter would sell the product of another manufacturer if Porter's customer so requested. So, insofar as sales were concerned, Holterman thought it fair to say that Porter was almost an exclusive distributor for Manville products. This is not evidence that Manville generally sold exclusively through Porter in Baltimore or to Key Highway. Indeed, there was considerable evidence that Manville products could have arrived at Key Highway without going through Porter. For instance, Eugene Bigham testified that Wallace & Gale, another insulation-installing firm, used Manville products at Key Highway. A storeroom clerk at Key Highway testified that at least some Manville products apparently were shipped directly from Manville. Holterman himself testified that Manville sold material directly to larger concerns. Further, there was no direct evidence that Porter sold products to Key Highway. While direct evidence is not necessarily required, Knuckles must do something more than show that Porter sold Manville products and that Key Highway purchased Manville products. In Zenobia, where the plaintiff testified to exposure to products bearing the label of Anchor, we held as to Anchor's supplier, Raymark, as follows: The mere `conjecture' that half of Anchor's asbestos products may have come from Raymark over a thirty year period is not sufficient to prove that the plaintiff Zenobia was exposed to Raymark's products during the two year period that he worked at Maryland Shipbuilding and Drydock or that Raymark's products were a substantial factor in causing the plaintiff Zenobia's injuries. Zenobia, 325 Md. at 670, 602 A.2d at 1184. From the evidence reviewed above, the Court of Special Appeals concluded that the jury reasonably could have inferred that any Johns-Manville products identified at Key Highway were Porter Hayden products. 84 Md. App. at 38, 578 A.2d at 241. We do not agree. Unknown are whether, and to what extent, Porter sold, independently of accompanying installation, asbestos products at Key Highway, whether, and to what extent, Manville sold directly to Key Highway, and whether, and to what extent, other independent contractor-installers brought Manville products to Key Highway to perform their contracts. Absent quantification of these relationships, it is speculation to assume Knuckles's proximity to Manville asbestos at Key Highway is probably proximity to Porter asbestos.
Knuckles's theory that Porter's installers caused his injury also fails. Clearly Porter installers used Manville products. But the sole evidence in the 10,000-page record extract tending to prove that Porter installers were at Key Highway came from Santo Conigliaro, an asbestos worker employed directly by Bethlehem at Key Highway from 1964 to 1968. Q. Okay. Now, during the period 1964, '68, when you worked at Key Highway, did the insulators employed by Bethlehem do all the insulation down there? A. Not always. Sometimes we were so busy they had to bring in contractors. Q. Do you recollect, sir, the names of any of the contractors that were brought in during that period to do insulation? A. Yes. Q. Could you tell us that, please, sir? A. Armstrong, Porter Hayden, Wallace & Gale. Other witnesses who were asked to identify independent contractor installers that worked at Key Highway named installers other than Porter. Because, as we have seen in Part V.A., Knuckles's exposure in proximity to Manville asbestos does not prove Knuckles's exposure to Porter-supplied asbestos, the residum of proof is that Bethlehem, between 1964 and 1968, sometimes used outside installers at Key Highway, one of whom was Porter, and that Knuckles was employed at Key Highway during the same period. This does not establish that Knuckles was frequently exposed in proximity to Porter-supplied asbestos products which were regularly used. Knuckles nevertheless contends that the evidence, as we state it, is legally sufficient to impose liability on Porter under the fiber drift theory. We use the quoted expression in the same sense in which it was explained in Robertson v. Allied Signal, Inc., 914 F.2d at 376. The `fiber drift theory' as it is described by the plaintiffs here takes as its starting point that asbestos fibers may become airborne or re-entrained and thus be carried from their source to other areas. Under this theory, however, both the specific locale of the product's use and the specific areas of the plaintiff's employment become irrelevant. The substance of the fiber drift theory is that once an asbestos-containing product can be placed anywhere in the Firestone plant, any plaintiff working at any point within that plant is entitled to have the question of causation submitted to the jury because it is likely, given that fibers can drift, that a given plaintiff was exposed to fibers originating in a particular defendant's product. So extremely attenuated is causation in fact under the fiber drift theory that it is inconsistent with the requirement of Maryland law that an actor's negligence be a substantial factor in causing the injury. The fiber drift theory as we have defined it has been expressly rejected in Robertson, 914 F.2d at 382; and Wehmeier v. UNR Indus., 157 Ill.Dec. at 268, 572 N.E.2d at 337; see also Thacker v. UNR Indus., 213 Ill. App.3d 38, 157 Ill.Dec. 272, 274-75, 572 N.E.2d 341, 343-44, appeal granted, 141 Ill.2d 562, 162 Ill.Dec. 510, 580 N.E.2d 136 (1991). Knuckles relies on Lockwood, 744 P.2d 605, as supporting the sufficiency of the evidence against Porter. In Lockwood, however, the plaintiff, a shipyard worker, at least proved that the defendant's product was used on a particular ship on which the plaintiff worked as a rigger. 744 P.2d at 612-13. We need not opine whether, on the facts of some other case, connecting the plaintiff and the defendant's asbestos product to the same ship during the same repair will satisfy the proximity requirement of substantial factor causation in asbestos disease cases. It is sufficient for present purposes to note that the proof here does not even place Knuckles on the same ship, much less during the same repair, where Porter installers were applying Porter-supplied products. For the foregoing reasons the judgment in Knuckles against Porter must be reversed.