Plaintiff Roger Botts, a former deliveryman who developed mesothelioma after being around work which exposed him to asbestos, including the removal, installation, and fabrication of asbestos on board ships and around the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard between 1970 and 1976, sued the United States Government in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The government subsequently filed a motion for summary judgment asserting that the plaintiffs had not proven causation. In granting summary judgment, the District Court found that the plaintiffs failed to produce from which a finder of fact could reasonably conclude “that asbestos exposure at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard…resulting from violation of the Navy’s mandatory rules [as to the containment of asbestos] after March 1970 was a substantial factor in causing Roger Botts’ mesothelioma.” The plaintiffs’ appealed the District Court ruling.
On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the District Court’s ruling. In doing so, the Ninth Circuit found that the plaintiffs did, in fact, produce evidence from which a finder of fact could reasonably conclude that Roger Botts’ exposure to asbestos at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard following violations of the Navy’s mandatory rules after March 1970 was a substantial factor in his getting mesothelioma. The Ninth Circuit pointed to several points of evidence in the record in support of its position, including that “Navy personnel did not comply with the containment regulations [for asbestos] after they came into effect in March 1970, and that, had the containment regulations been complied with, the volume and spread of asbestos fibers on ships due to just removal and cleanup activities would have been reduced by 90%[,]” that asbestos removal, installation, and fabrication “took place both on board ships and around the shipyard while Botts made deliveries to the shipyard from 1970 to 1976[,]” that violations of the Navy’s asbestos containment regulations began in March 1970, and there is evidence that, from 1970 to 1976, Botts spent as much as 20 percent of his working time each year at the shipyard, and that, relatedly “[t]here was expert testimony that working for less than a year in total in a shipyard during [that] time period could result in anywhere between a two- to-eight-fold increase in the risk of developing mesothelioma due to asbestos exposure.” Accordingly, the Ninth Circuit found that the plaintiffs provided sufficient evidence of causation, reversed the District Court’s grant of summary judgment, and remanded the case for further proceedings.