Owens-Illinois4/26/2005
Having granted the petition, filed by the petitioner, Owens-Illinois, and the cross-petition, see Owens-Illinois v. Cook, 374 Md. 82, 821 A.2d 370 (2003), filed by the respondents, John A. and Shirley Gianotti, for writ of certiorari, this Court must decide four issues: whether, under the parties' 1994 settlement agreement, pursuant to which the respondents signed a release reserving their claims for certain "future disease ," in an asbestos-related personal injury case, Maryland's statutory cap on non-economic damages, Md. Code (1974, 2002 Rep. Vol.) § 11-108 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article (hereinafter "Statutory Cap"), applied to bar the respondents' claim for mesothelioma and loss of consortium; when, in a latent disease case, a loss of consortium case arises for purposes of the "cap" statute; whether, in light of our decisions in John v. Crane, Inc. v Schribner, 369 Md. 369, 372, 800 A. 2d 727,728 (2002) and Georgia-Pacific Corp. v. Pransky, 369 Md. 360, 363 A. 2d 722, 723 (2002), the respondents' loss of consortium claim, based on an injury incurred before they married, is barred as a matter of law and whether the judgment for the respondents was properly reduced pursuant to Maryland Code (1997, 2001 Rep. Vol.) § 3-1401 et. seq. of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article, the Uniform Contribution Among Tortfeasors Act ("UCATA"), based on a default judgment entered against a third party defendant, (Babcock & Wilcox), in Porter Hayden Co. v. Bullinger, 350 Md. 452, 713 A. 2d 962 (1998), an asbestos case, who is also a third party defendant in the case sub judice and where there was, in the case sub judice, no finding that the defaulting party was a joint tortfeasor. We shall affirm.
I.
The facts pertinent to the resolution of this appeal, stated in the light most favorable to the respondents, the prevailing parties on liability at trial, see Board of County Com'rs of Garrett County, Md. v. Bell Atlantic-Maryland, Inc., 346 Md. 160, 182, 695 A.2d 171, 182 (1997); Burroughs Intern. Co. v. Datronics Engineers, Inc., 254 Md. 327, 337-338, 255 A.2d 341, 346 (1969); Goodwin v. Lumbermens Cas. Co., 199 Md. 121, 129-30, 85 A.2d 759, 762-63 ( 1952), can be summarized quickly and simply. John Gianotti was exposed to asbestos between 1956 and 1974, while employed as a laborer and ceiling installer. In August 1985, he was diagnosed with "asbestos lung disease." Ten months after that diagnosis, and just short of a month before § 11-108 became effective, see Acts 1986, ch. 639, effective July 1, 1986, Mr. Gianotti and the respondent Shirley Gianotti were married. The following year, the respondents filed suit against various manufacturers and suppliers of asbestos containing products, including the petitioner, alleging both that Mr. Gianotti suffered "asbestos lung disease" as a result of exposure to their products and, as a result of that disease, loss of consortium. The petitioner and the respondents entered into a settlement agreement with respect to that suit in 1994. As required by the settlement agreement, the respondents executed a "Release and Settlement of Claim," in which they released the petitioner from the claim that John Gianotti " as contracted the disease known as asbestosis."
The release also provided:
"It is the specific intent of this release to release and discharge [Owens-Illinois] for any and all further claims relating to the matters for which recovery was sought in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, Case Number 87CG3549/45/19, including any and all claims made in the Complaint, Answers to Interrogatories, depositions, reports of medical experts prepared at the request of me/us and/or my/our attorneys, and opinions rendered con
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