A Texas appellate court, in a ruling yesterday that could have wide impact, has found an employer is not liable for pre-1972 injuries caused by asbestos particles carried home on a worker's clothing.

The unanimous decision by the Houston-based Fourteenth Court of Appeals overturned a trial court verdict and found that Exxon was not liable for an employee's wife's exposure to asbestos because the risk of such exposure was not known at the time.

“This is obviously a landmark decision for premises liability asbestos litigation in Texas,” said Richard O. Faulk, environmental practice group leader at Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP in Houston. He wrote a friend of the court brief for the American Chemistry Council in the case.

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