Supreme Court rules BNSF ‘strictly liable’ for asbestos injury claims

The Montana Supreme Court filed an opinion earlier this week stating BNSF Railway is not protected from strict liability for hundreds of injury claims filed in the state’s Asbestos Claims Court alleging the railroad company had a hand in spreading toxic asbestos fibers from Libby’s shuttered vermiculite mine.

In early 2019 a Montana Asbestos Claims Court judge ruled BNSF was not barred from liability, that plaintiffs’ claims were not pre-empted by federal law and that the railroad company could not present evidence of non-party conduct to “negate causation” and place blame elsewhere, like on the owners of the mine...