This decision reverses a judgment based on a jury verdict for the defendant based on the sophisticated user defense to a duty to warn negligence and products liability action against the manufacturer of industrial boilers that required interior insulation (refractory) that contained asbestos. The decision holds that the defendant failed to introduce any substantial evidence that the plaintiff, though a salesman of asbestos-containing insulation and refractory, was aware of its cancer-causing quality as required for the defense to be established.
California Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 4 (Willhite, Acting P.J.); April 13, 2016; 2016 WL 1450233