The plaintiff, Robert Lee Winhauer, commenced this action alleging asbestos exposure from his personal work on his automobiles from the 1940s through the 1990s, from his work at the Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi from 1965 to 1976 and while working at Courtaulds North America Rayon Staple Plant in Le Moyne, Alabama from 1977 to 1998. Nine defendants, John Crane, John Crane Inc. (JCI), Flowserve US Inc., Carver Pump Co. , Sterling Fluid Systems (USA) LLC, FMC Corp., Velan Valve Corp., Borg-Warner (D.I. 173), and Cleaver-Brooks Inc. moved for and were granted summary judgment dismissing the plaintiff’s action.
In its decision, the court stated that the parties agreed that Mississippi substantive law applied to this diversity case. As such, the case was governed by the Mississippi Products Liability Act (MPLA). Pursuant to the MPLA, “a product may be found defective if it ‘fail[s] to contain adequate warnings.’ As such, manufacturers and sellers have a duty to warn of known hazards associated with the use of their products. However, manufacturers and sellers only have a duty to warn of dangers known to them at the time the product leaves his or her control. Plaintiff must show that at the time the product left the control of the manufacturer or seller, the manufacturer or seller knew or should have known about the danger, and ‘the ordinary user…would not realize its dangerous condition.’ The failure to warn must be the proximate cause of the injuries suffered. That causal link between the alleged injury and the inadequate warning is key to a plaintiff’s claim.” (Internal citations omitted). The court went on to assess the application of the bare metal defense and stated “Although Mississippi courts have not yet addressed the bare metal defense, this court has previously found that based on the MPLA, § 402A, and case authority that, ‘it is reasonably likely that the Supreme Court of Mississippi would follow the majority of jurisdictions that have refused to find defendants liable for other manufacturers’ asbestos products.’”
Regarding defendants Flowserve, Velan, Carver, JCI and Cleaver, the court granted summary judgment, since the “[p]laintiff did not produce any evidence whatsoever tending to establish exposure to these parties’ products, Plaintiff cannot meet Mississippi’s frequency, regularity, and proximity threshold product nexus requirement.” Regarding Sterling, the court held: “There is a complete lack of evidence to show that Sterling supplied any asbestos-containing product or instructed its customers to insulate Peerless pumps with asbestos-containing products. Therefore, Plaintiff fails to meet his burden of establishing a prima facie case of product identification, exposure, and causation under Mississippi law, and summary judgment should be granted in Sterling’s favor.” The court likewise ruled that the record did not “reflect sufficient exposure to Peerless pumps under Mississippi product identification standards” in granting FMC’s motion. Crane’s motion was granted on the bare metal defense and the court stated “under the bare metal defense, Crane is not responsible for asbestos-containing products applied to valves that Crane did not manufacture, sell, or distribute.” Finally, Borg’s motion was granted as the plaintiff’s testimony was inconsistent and showed that at most he may have worked with one asbestos-containing Borg clutch. The court found that the testimony did “not amount to frequent, regular exposure that gives rise to an inference of causation.”