Public Policy Group Asks New Jersey Supreme Court to Limit Liability of Manufacturers

Partners Mark Behrens and Phil Goldberg, co-chairs of Shook’s Public Policy Group, have filed an amicus brief in the New Jersey Supreme Court in an asbestos case in which the plaintiffs want the court to impose liability against manufacturers for harm caused by exposure to asbestos-containing replacement parts made by others. 

The brief, filed on behalf of the Coalition for Litigation Justice, Inc., explains why expanding the scope of products liability in this way runs contrary to the fundamental principles of tort law and impose an unsound, unpredictable and potentially endless duty on product manufacturers to warn of potential harms of products they do not even make. 

The brief also explains how such a liability rule would perpetuate and worsen the decades-long asbestos litigation by creating new liability for many entities far removed from the litigation or any putative wrongdoing.

The case is Whelan v. Armstrong Int’l, Inc., No. 081810 (N.J.)