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Ragin v. Porter Hayden Co.6/29/2000
This case is a by-product of the consolidated asbestos trials conducted in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. We are called upon here to consider the scope of a stipulation as to liability executed in connection with a consolidated asbestos case, and to construe a jury verdict in a case that was previously considered by the Court of Appeals in 1995.
Joyce Ragin, appellant, is the daughter of the late Flemmie Pettiford and personal representative of his estate. In 1990, appellant initiated a wrongful death and survival action in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City against more than a dozen defendants, including Porter Hayden Company ("Porter Hayden"), appellee, a supplier and installer of products containing asbestos. She alleged that Pettiford suffered from asbestosis as a result of his occupational exposure to asbestos-containing products, for which the defendants were allegedly responsible. It is undisputed that Pettiford's asbestos exposure ended in 1945.
Appellant's suit was subsequently consolidated with 8,554 other actions involving claims for personal injuries or wrongful death arising from asbestos exposure. The cases were consolidated in order to resolve at one trial various common issues, including "state of the art" and punitive damages. That trial was conducted in four phases in 1992 in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, (Levin, J. presiding), and is commonly referred to among asbestos litigators as Abate I.
In Abate I, the jury found, inter alia, that Porter Hayden was liable for compensatory damages as to users and bystanders on a negligence basis for the period 1956 through 1979, and that it was strictly liable to users and bystanders from 1956 to the present. Godwin, 340 Md. at 380. In addition, the jury determined that appellee was liable for punitive damages from 1965 to July 30, 1992, the date of verdict on that issue. Post trial motions were denied in a 225 page opinion issued by Judge Levin in June 1993. Following additional legal proceedings, a final judgment was entered in November 1993.
A second consolidated asbestos trial, known as Abate II, was held in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City over a period of many months, beginning in June 1994 and concluding in February 1995 (Rombro, J., presiding). With respect to approximately 1,300 plaintiffs, Abate II resolved common issues identical to the common issues tried in Abate I. During the trial of Abate II, appellee reached an agreement with some of the plaintiffs in that case, in the form of a "Stipulation," in which appellee waived proof of negligence and strict liability in return for the plaintiffs' agreement to waive their claims with respect to punitive damages, breach of warranty, fraud, and conspiracy.
The plan for asbestos litigation in the circuit court also contemplated so-called "mini-trials," to be held after the consolidated trials, at which the claims of the common issue plaintiffs would be finally adjudicated upon determination of whether an individual common issue plaintiff was actually exposed to and injured by asbestos products. Appellant's mini-trial never took place, however, because the circuit court granted appellee's motion for summary judgment; that ruling is at issue here. In granting summary judgment, the court reasoned that appellant was not entitled to pursue her claim because Pettiford's asbestos exposure ended in 1945 and the jury had determined in Abate I that appellee was not liable to any common issue plaintiffs whose last exposure to asbestos occurred before 1956.
After the court denied appellant's motion to alter or amend judgment, appellant noted this appeal. She presents the following questions for our review, which we h
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