Dummitt v. Chesterton (In re N.Y.C. Asbestos Litig.)

• Decision Date: 28 June 2016
• Citation: 27 N.Y.3d 765,2016 N.Y. Slip Op. 05063,59 N.E.3d 458,37 N.Y.S.3d 723
• Parties: In the Matter of NEW YORK CITY ASBESTOS LITIGATION. Doris Kay Dummitt, Individually and as Executrix of Ronald Dummitt, Deceased, Respondent, v. A.W. Chesterton et al., Defendants, and Crane Co., Appellant. In the Matter of Eighth Judicial District Asbestos Litigation. Joann H. Suttner, Individually and as Executrix of Gerald W. Suttner, Deceased, Respondent, v. A.W. Chesterton Company et al., Defendants, and Crane Co., Appellant.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

27 N.Y.3d 765

59 N.E.3d 458

37 N.Y.S.3d 723

2016 N.Y. Slip Op. 05063

In the Matter of NEW YORK CITY ASBESTOS LITIGATION.

Doris Kay Dummitt, Individually and as Executrix of Ronald Dummitt, Deceased, Respondent,

v.A.W. Chesterton et al., Defendants, and Crane Co., Appellant.

In the Matter of Eighth Judicial District Asbestos Litigation.

Joann H. Suttner, Individually and as Executrix of Gerald W. Suttner, Deceased, Respondent,

v.A.W. Chesterton Company et al., Defendants,andCrane Co., Appellant.

Court of Appeals of New York.

June 28, 2016.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, New York City (Caitlin J. Halligan of counsel), K & L Gates LLP, New York City (Eric R.I. Cottle and Angela DiGiglio of counsel), and K & L Gates LLP, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Nicholas P. Vari and Michael J. Ross of counsel), for appellant in the first above-entitled action.

Belluck & Fox LLP, New York City (Seth A. Dymond of counsel), for respondent in the first above-entitled action.

Shook, Hardy & Bacon, LLP, Washington, D.C. (Victor E. Schwartz and Mark A. Behrens of counsel), for Business Council of New York State and others, amici curiae in the first above-entitled action.

Pacific Legal Foundation, Sacramento, California (Theodore Hadzi–Antich and Deborah J. La Fetra of counsel), for Pacific Legal Foundation, amicus curiae in the first above-entitled action.

Michael S. Levine, New York State Trial Lawyers Association, New York City, for New York State Trial Lawyers Association, amicus curiae in the first above-entitled action.

Karst & von Oiste, LLP, New York City (Douglas D. von Oiste of counsel), for The Retired Enlisted Association and another, amici curiae in the first above-entitled action.

Reed Smith LLP, New York City (Daniel K. Winters of counsel), Reed Smith LLP, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (James M. Beck of counsel), Reed Smith LLP, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (David J. Bird of counsel), and Hugh F. Young, Jr., Product Liability Advisory Council, Inc., Reston, Virginia, for Product Liability Advisory Council, amicus curiae in the first above-entitled action.

O'Connell & Aronowitz, Albany (Stephen R. Coffey of counsel), for United Steel and others, amici curiae in the first above-entitled action.

Stephen Halpern, Buffalo, and Russ Haven, New York Public Interest Research Group, Inc., Albany, for Environmental Working Group and others, amici curiae in the first above-entitled action.

Sidley Austin LLP, New York City (Eamon P. Joyce of counsel), Sidley Austin LLP, Chicago, Illinois (Timothy E. Kapshandy, John A. Heller and Laura A. Sexton of counsel), and Sidley Austin LLP, Washington, D.C. (Rebecca K. Wood of counsel), for General Electric, amicus curiae in the first above-entitled action.

Jones Day, Washington, D.C. (Shay Dvoretzky and Emily J. Kennedy of counsel), and Evert Weathersby Houff, Bogart, Georgia (Christopher G. Conley of counsel), for CBS Corporation, amicus curiae in the first above-entitled action.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, New York City (Caitlin J. Halligan of counsel), K & L Gates LLP, New York City (Eric R.I. Cottle and Angela DiGiglio of counsel), and K & L Gates LLP, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Nicholas P. Vari and Michael J. Ross of counsel), for appellant in the second above-entitled action.

Lipsitz & Ponterio, LLC, Buffalo (John N. Lipsitz, Dennis P. Harlow and Anne E. Joynt of counsel), for respondent in the second above-entitled action.

Shook, Hardy & Bacon, LLP, Washington, D.C. (Victor E. Schwartz and Mark A. Behrens of counsel), for Business Council of New York State and others, amici curiae in the second above-entitled action.

Jones Day, Washington, D.C. (Shay Dvoretzky and Emily J. Kennedy of counsel), and Evert Weathersby Houff, Bogart, Georgia (Christopher G. Conley of counsel), for CBS Corporation, amicus curiae in the second above-entitled action.

Consovoy McCarthy Park PLLC, New York City (Michael H. Park of counsel), and James A. Henderson, Jr., Cornell Law School, Vero Beach, Florida, for United States Chamber of Commerce, amicus curiae in the second above-entitled action.

OPINION OF THE COURT

ABDUS–SALAAM, J.

In these appeals, we are called upon to decide when, if ever, a manufacturer must warn against the danger inherent in using the manufacturer's product together with a product designed and produced by another company. Consistent with our decision in Rastelli v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. , 79 N.Y.2d 289, 582 N.Y.S.2d 373, 591 N.E.2d 222 (1992), we hold that the manufacturer of a product has a duty to warn of the danger arising from the known and reasonably foreseeable use of its product in combination with a third-party product which, as a matter of design, mechanics or economic necessity, is necessary to enable the manufacturer's product to function as intended. We further conclude that, given the proof of defendant Crane Co.'s affirmative steps to integrate its valves with third-party asbestos-laden products and other relevant evidence, the courts below properly applied this principle to the instant cases and correctly resolved the remaining legal issues.

I.

Matter of New York City Asbestos Litig. (Dummitt v. A.W. Chesterton)

There was evidence that, during World War II and thereafter, defendant Crane Co. sold valves to the United States Navy for use in high-pressure, high-temperature steam pipe systems on Navy ships. As far as the record shows, Crane's valves did not contain asbestos or other hazardous materials. However, Crane's valves could not practically function in a high-pressure, high-temperature steam pipe system without gaskets, insulation and packing for the valve stems, and Crane's technical drawings for the valves specified the use of asbestos-based sealing components. Accordingly, when Crane supplied the valves to the Navy, it packaged the valves with bonnet gaskets, each of which consisted, in essence, of an asbestos disc sealed by a layer of rubber. Crane also packaged the valves with braided asbestos-based stem packing. Crane's provision of asbestos-based components comported with Navy specifications, which called for gaskets, valves and insulation that contained asbestos.

As Crane knew, because the high temperatures and pressures in the steam pipe systems at issue caused asbestos-based gaskets and packing to wear out, Crane's customers, including the Navy, had to replace those components with similar ones. Thus, during the period in which Crane sold these valves and related parts, the company marketed a material called “Cranite,” an asbestos-based sheet material that could be used to produce replacements for the asbestos-containing gaskets and packing originally sold with Crane's valves. In catalogs issued between 1923 and 1962, Crane recommended Cranite gaskets, packing and insulation for use in high-temperature, high-pressure steam services. The catalogs noted that gaskets and packing composed of other materials were available. The catalogs did not indicate the temperature or pressure ratings for some of those alternative products, and it rated others only for low-temperature services, low-pressure services or both.

A few years after Crane started supplying the valves at issue here and the associated asbestos-bearing components to the Navy, the Navy revised a manual entitled “Naval Machinery.” The revised manual specified that Navy employees should install asbestos-based gaskets on the relevant valves on Navy ships. The manual further noted that “insulation” generally “ [wa]s essential to economical operation” of a ship's steam pipe systems, and the manual included diagrams of the attachment of asbestos-based gaskets, packing and insulation to valves of the kind supplied by Crane.¹ In the acknowledgments section, the manual stated that “valuable assistance” in the revision of the manual “was rendered by the manufacturers named herewith” and that “[m]any of the figures in the book were made from illustrations furnished by these manufacturers.” The manual listed Crane among the manufacturers who assisted in the revision.

Meanwhile, starting in the 1930s, certain trade associations, including associations to which Crane executives and employees belonged, issued publications describing the hazards of exposure to dust from asbestos-based products. In the late 1960s, one such trade group published an article summarizing the growing evidence of a connection between asbestos exposure and a type of cancer called mesothelioma. By Crane's admission in this litigation, its executives became aware of the dangers of exposure to breathable asbestos dust in the early 1970s. From the time of Crane's sale of valves to the Navy in the 1930s until at least 1980, Crane never provided warnings about the hazards of exposure to asbestos dust resulting from the combined use of its valves and asbestos-based products.

From 1960 to 1977, plaintiff Doris Kay Dummitt's husband, decedent Ronald Dummitt (Dummitt), was a Navy boiler technician, and during part of his Navy career, he also acted as the liaison between the commanding officers and the boiler room staff on various ships. As staff liaison, Dummitt often received manufacturers' warnings about the perils of using their products and passed along those warnings to the boiler room technicians under his supervision. Throughout his time in the Navy, Dummitt frequently consulted manuals and instructional pamphlets for boiler room equipment, reading any safety warnings contained therein.

In the course of his duties in maintaining naval steam pipe systems, Dummitt worked on Crane's valves, on which were installed asbestos-based gaskets, packing and insulation. Those asbestos-bearing products were designed and manufactured by companies other than Crane. Dummitt regularly changed the gaskets and packing on the valves by removing lagging pads from each valve, pulling back the packing, scraping off the gaskets, blasting the assembly with compressed air and installing a replacement set of third-party sealing and insulating parts. Because those components contained friable asbestos,...