In another pro-plaintiff holding in an important case for the business community, the Washington Supreme Court this morning released its decision in Lunsford v. Saberhagen Holdings, a products liability case involving asbestos exposure.
The court held 9-0 that strict liability applies retroactively to all claims, even those occurring before the state actually adopted the rule of strict liability against manufacturers and sellers.
In general, strict liability means a manufacturer or seller is liable for a defective or dangerous product even if it wasn't negligent in manufacturing or selling the product.
Here, Lunsford's claim arose in 1958. Washington adopted strict products liability in 1969 against manufacturers, and 1975 against sellers. Today, the court held this half-century old claim will be governed by rules that didn't exist -- and couldn't be planned against -- at the time.
The US Chamber of Commerce, our national affiliate, filed a coalition friend of the court brief in the case arguing against retroactive application. The Chamber pointed out that retroactive application of strict liability would be inconsistent with the court's own recent rulings about retroactivity and particularly troubling for products liability defendants in the state.
Interestingly, last year, the Supreme Court of Ohio had a virtually identical case before it and reached the exact opposite result, which was left undisturbed on appeal to the US Supreme Court.
