Court Opinion

ID: 9517933
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 00:37:26.660984+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:26:08.784638
License: Public Domain

CAVANAUGH, Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the result reached by the majority and write separately to highlight two points. First, I note that of the three appellants, one, Owens-Illinois, does not raise a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence to show damage. The compensability of asymptomatic pleural thickening and asbestosis is only raised on appeal by Fibreboard Corp. and Keene Corp. I find the omission of this issue by Owens-Illinois noteworthy in light of other cases in which Owens-Illinois has joined the same co-appellants in raising the issue of recoverability where pleural thickening or pulmonary asbestosis are asymptomatic. See, e.g., Dempsey v. Pacor, Inc., 429 Pa.Super. 404, 632 A.2d 919 (1993).
Secondly, regarding the severance of Owens-Illinois’ cross-claims against settling defendants, I observe that the procedural mechanism of severance distinguishes this case from Deptula v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Company, 425 Pa.Super. 420, 625 A.2d 676 (1993). In Deptula, a formal severance had not been ordered and, therefore, the refusal of the trial court to hear the cross-claims had the effect of a nonsuit. In both this case and Deptula, Owens-Illinois will pursue in a separate trial its crossclaims against the settling defendants. Owens-*205Illinois, however, is not in the same posture in this case as it is as a result of the Deptula decision because in Deptula the judgment was vacated, whereas in the instant case, the $900,-000 judgment has been allowed to stand.