Court Opinion

ID: 9731400
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:44:34.049242+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:17.391884
License: Public Domain

FORD ELLIOTT, Judge,
dissenting:
The reasons for my dissent, generally, have been thoroughly discussed in my dissenting Opinion in Ingenito v. A C & S, Inc., et al., 430 Pa.Super. 129, 633 A.2d 1172 (1993). That same reasoning applies with equal force in this case. Therefore, I will only undertake a review of relevant facts in this case which I believe demonstrate that summary judgment was improperly granted by the trial court on the record before it.
My review of the record leads me to conclude that there were certainly questions of fact as to whether decedent exercised due diligence in ascertaining his injury and its cause. The majority focuses upon the fact that decedent was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1981, and that during his surgery tissue was removed, and preserved in slides that indicated the presence of asbestos bodies. Thus, because the evidence was available as of 1981, decedent failed to exercise due diligence in ascertaining the cause of his cancer at that time, according to the majority. Indeed, a jury might very well agree that decedent failed to exercise due diligence.
However, a jury could just as well conclude that, under the circumstances, decedent acted reasonably in not ascertaining his injury until 1985. Following decedent’s 1981 surgery he was discharged with a diagnosis of “adenocarcinoma of the *182right upper lobe of the lung” or lung cancer, generally. At that time decedent was smoking one' to one and one-half packs of cigarettes per day and had been since 1947. There was never any discussion with decedent that his lung cancer was work-related. In fact, following the 1981 surgery; decedent had no significant medical problems until 1985, when he was again admitted to Montefiore Hospital after chest X-rays revealed a second lung mass. It was during this admission that any reference to asbestos exposure was first noted on the medical records. Interestingly, by this time appellant had not smoked in three years. Immediately following the 1985 surgery, decedent retained an attorney to investigate the matter. It was then that Dr. Reidbord was consulted and the asbestosis was confirmed. Suit was filed within two months of Dr. Reidbord’s investigation. I believe that all these factors could well support a jury conclusion that decedent acted with due diligence in ascertaining his injury and the cause thereof.
The majority’s conclusion, that decedent failed to exercise due diligence when he did not inquire as to the cause of his cancer following the 1981 surgery, fails to consider the record in a light most favorable to appellant as we are required to do. See Carns v. Yingling, 406 Pa.Super. 279, 594 A.2d 337 (1991). Considering the record in a light most favorable to appellant, we must consider that at the time of the 1981 surgery nothing was mentioned to decedent about the tissue slides or that the cancer could be work related. Recall, decedent was cleared to return to work following the surgery. It is not unreasonable to infer that decedent assumed the lung cancer was related to his smoking habit and thus made no further inquiries as to causation at that time. The inference is bolstered by the fact that the one significant change appellant made in his lifestyle following the 1981 surgery was to stop smoking. Later, in 1985, when decedent again was forced to undergo a second lung surgery and asbestos was first mentioned in the medical records, decedent immediately sought legal counsel to investigate the matter. I believe these facts cannot be interpreted, as a matter of law, as a failure to exercise due diligence.
*183As I discussed at length in Ingénito, unless the record clearly demonstrates that decedent knew or should have known that his cancer was asbestos related, then such a diagnosis, at most, triggers a duty of due diligence. Whether decedent exercised due diligence is a matter, based on this record, that is “best determined by the collective judgment, wisdom, and experience of jurors.” Petri v. Smith, 307 Pa.Super. 261, 272, 453 A.2d 342, 347 (1982).
DEL SOLE and KELLY, JJ. join in this Dissenting Opinion.