Washington Supreme Court hears arguments over whether asbestos victims may sue outside workers’ comp

The Washington Supreme Court on Nov. 21, 2024 heard competing arguments about whether a worker exposed long-term to asbestos may sue an employer in tort under the Industrial Insurance Act’s deliberate-injury exception, or whether that remedy is foreclosed by the court’s prior decisions and the workers’ compensation framework.

Matthew Bergman, counsel for the petitioner Jeffrey L. Cochran, told the court that Cochrane’s employers (identified in the briefs as Alcoa) knowingly exposed him to asbestos over a roughly 30‑year period and observed similarly exposed coworkers develop compensable disease. "Geoffrey Cochrane was exposed to asbestos knowingly and deliberately over a 30 year period at Alcoa," Bergman said, arguing that when an employer observes coworkers becoming ill from the same toxin the deliberate‑injury exception should allow a jury to decide tort liability rather than forcing claimants into workers’ compensation alone.

Bergman urged the court to focus on…