ABSTRACT
Where one product launched imprudently into the marketplace can destroy thousands of people, the law has necessarily had to adapt itself to a departure from traditional legal applications. The legal rights, remedies, and liabilities of the parties involved in these lawsuits are already becoming the next major area of asbestos litigation to be addressed by the courts. Litigation of personal injury claims precipitated by occupational exposure to asbestos fibers is well established. The newly posed issues facing owners and builders, contractors, architects, and tenants of buildings which contain asbestos, however, is extending the boundaries of liability even further. Asbestos has long been utilized as a source of insulation in buildings for boilers, steampipes, for fire-resistant covering for steel beams and columns as well as for ceiling and floor tiles. State statutes of repose serve to limit the liability of parties involved in the design, construction, or improvements to property over which they have ceased to exercise any control.
