“The United States District Court for the Western District of Washington recently granted partial summary judgment on product liability claims to a company that built and supplied vessels to the United States Navy, on the basis that a shipbuilder’s product is the ‘ship,’ or naval vessel, and not the component parts that may have contained asbestos,” writes Paul L. Knobbe, a partner in Goldberg Segalla’s Product Liability and Toxic Torts Practice Group.

Here Paul provides analysis of the ruling in Hassebrock v. Air & Liquid Systems Corp., an important case for manufacturers or distributors of a wide range of products . While this decision relates to product liability claims against shipbuilders, the arguments and analysis may be persuasive in cases where manufacturers or distributors of products that, in part, may include some asbestos-containing component parts, have been sued under product liability theories.

Read the article here:

• “Naval Vessel Is Not the Sum of Its Asbestos-Containing Parts,” Law360, November 23, 2015 (subscription required)