Frank and Margaret IEROPOLI, Appellants v. AC&S CORPORATION, National Gypsum Company, Asbestos Corporation, Ltd., Bell Asbestos Mines, Inc., Combustion Engineering Inc., Crown Cork Seal Company, Inc., Flexitallic Gasket Company, Gaf Corporation, Garfield Molding Company, Inc., Garlock, Inc., Hajoca Plumbing Supply Company, Hopeman Brothers, Inc., Meriden Molded Plastics, Metropolitan Life Insurance, Nosroc Corporation, Owens-Illinois, Inc., Peltz Rowley Chemicals Company, Pfizer, Inc., Rapid American Corporation, Bevco Industries, Turner & Newall, Ltd., Union Carbide Corporation, U.S. Gypsum Company, U.S. Mineral Products, W.R. Grace & Company Petition of Crown Cork & Seal Company, Inc.
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Feb. 20, 2004
842 A.2d 919
Argued Oct. 22, 2002. Resubmitted Dec. 23, 2003.
ORDER
PER CURIAM.
AND NOW, this 19th day of February, 2004, the appeal is hereby dismissed as having been improvidently granted.
Former Justice LAMB did not participate in the decision of this case.
Justice EAKIN dissents and would address the merits of the case.
John G. Knorr, III, Harrisburg, for petitioner amicus curiae, Atty. Gen. of PA.
Gregory Barton Abeln, Carlisle, for petitioner amicus curiae Washington Legal Foundation (WLF).
Robert L. Pratter, for petitioner amicus curiae PA Mfrs. Ass‘n.
Bernard J. Farris, for petitioner amicus curiae, Local Union 188.
Anthony Casey, for petitioner amicus curiae, Local Union 107.
Richard H. Markowitz, Philadelphia, Richard Matthew Pettigrew, for petitioner amicus curiae, Intern. Ass‘n of Machinists & Aerospace Workers‘.
Thomas Herman Kohn, Philadelphia, for petitioner amicus curiae, Teamsters Joint Council No. 53‘s.
Clayton Richard Polley, for Rapid American Corp.
Frank C.B. Friestedt, Philadelphia, for U.S. Mineral Products.
Nathan A. Schachtman, Philadelphia, for Owens-Illinois Inc.
Robert Walter Rowan, Philadelphia, for AC&S, Inc.
Stewart R. Singer, Philadelphia, for Metropolitan Life Ins.
Jennifer Margiotta Davies, for Pfizer, Inc.
James P. Gannon, Media, for W.R. Grace & Co.
Irving Steven Levy, for Meriden Molded Plastics.
George B. Bruch, for Peltz Rowley Chemicals and Bevco (Rite House & Packing).
Daniel J. Ryan, Philadelphia, for Hopeman Bros., Inc.
Frederic L. Goldfein, Philadelphia, for Garlick, Inc., Asbestos Corp., Ltd. and Bell Asbestos Mines.
Mark Gerard Lionetti, Philadelphia, for Hajoca Plumbing.
Barbara J. Buba, Philadelphia, for Union Carbide and Nosroc Corp.
Before: CAPPY, C.J., and CASTILLE, NIGRO, NEWMAN, SAYLOR, EAKIN and BAER, JJ.
OPINION
Chief Justice CAPPY.
In this appeal, we review the order of the court of common pleas granting summary judgment to Appellee Crown Cork & Seal Company, Inc. (“Crown Cork“) pursuant to the newly enacted statute (“Statute“) that limits the successor asbestos-related liabilities of certain Pennsylvania corporations.
On December 19, 2000, Appellants, Frank and Margaret Ieropoli, commenced a civil action, filing a complaint against Crown Cork and twenty-four other defendants. In their complaint, Appellants alleged that Frank Ieropoli was exposed to defendants’ respective asbestos products while working as a machinist with General Electric from 1947 until 1979, and that as a result, he sustained pleural effusion and parenchymal scarring. Appellants asserted several causes of action against Crown Cork sounding in tort or contract. For the most part, Appellants asserted these same causes of action against Crown Cork‘s co-defendants. Appellants requested that a
The Statute was passed by the General Assembly, signed into law on December 17, 2001, and made immediately effective. The Statute limits the asbestos-related liabilities of corporations incorporated in Pennsylvania before May 1, 2001 that arise out of mergers or consolidations. The Statute provides:
§ 1929.1. Limitations on asbestos-related liabilities relating to certain mergers or consolidations.—
(a) Limitation on successor asbestos-related liabilities.
(1) Except as further limited in paragraph (2) 2 the cumulative successor asbestos-related liabilities 3 of a domestic business corporation that was incorporated in this Commonwealth prior to May 1, 2001, shall be limited to the fair
As to its application, the Statute expressly states that it shall apply to mergers or consolidations which occurred prior to May 1, 2001, and to all asbestos claims,5 including existing asbestos claims, and to all litigation, including existing litigation.
On February 7, 2002, Crown Cork filed a “Global Motion for Summary Judgment In All Cases Where It Is A Defendant Or Additional Defendant” (“Motion“), requesting that judgment be entered in its favor in several hundred asbestos cases pending against it in the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia County.6
In its Motion, Crown Cork set forth the following undisputed, material facts of record: Crown Cork is a Pennsylvania business corporation and a manufacturer of beverage cans; Crown Cork purchased a majority of the stock of Mundet Cork Corporation (“Mundet Cork“) in November 1963; Mun-
Based on these facts, Crown Cork asserted that because all of the cases that are the subject of its Motion come within the Statute‘s definition of “asbestos claims“; because it has already paid an amount in excess of the limit on liability created by the Statute; and because Appellants no longer have a damages remedy for the claims they asserted against it, the Statute required that its Motion be granted.
In their Response to Crown Cork‘s Motion, Appellants did not assert that the presence of genuine issues of material facts precluded the entry of summary judgment in Crown Cork‘s favor. See
The trial court rejected Appellants’ argument. While acknowledging that the Appellants’ causes of action against Crown Cork accrued prior to the Statute‘s enactment,8 the trial court concluded that the Statute did not extinguish any cause of action. The trial court stated:
The effect [of the Statute] is not an extinguishment of plaintiffs’ causes of action, as [p]laintiffs argue, but rather, a variation of their available remedy. Plaintiffs are not without alternative avenues to pursue their remedies. In fact, the average number of defendants in plaintiffs’ lawsuits is 34, and under the theory of joint tortfeasor liability, all of plaintiffs’ damages are recoverable against the remaining defendants.
* * *
[T]he statute at issue [in Gibson v. Commonwealth, 490 Pa. 156, 415 A.2d 80 (Pa.1980)] completely extinguished plaintiffs’ claims, thus barring plaintiffs from any recovery. The Court finds this case more analogous to what transpired in [Bible v. Commonwealth, 548 Pa. 247, 696 A.2d 1149 (Pa.1997)] where the Supreme Court upheld an amendment to the Worker‘s Compensation Act, which merely changed the plaintiffs’ remedy. Here, the Asbestos plaintiffs’ claims will continue through the litigation and should plaintiffs succeed in proving the liability portion of their claims, they will then be required to prove the damages aspect of their claims. Plaintiffs will only be entitled to recover damages against the remaining defendants, if they are able to prove that the negligence of the defendants was a cause in fact of their damages. Retrospective laws are permitted “when
(Trial Court Opinion at 20-21). Accordingly, the trial court entered an order granting Crown Cork‘s Motion and dismissing Crown Cork from 376 asbestos cases.
Appellants filed an appeal from the trial court‘s order with the Superior Court. Crown Cork filed an Application for Extraordinary Relief in this court, asking that pursuant to
We begin with a discussion of Article 1, Section 11 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. Article I, Section 11 has been in the Pennsylvania Constitution since 1790, and is part of the Constitution‘s Declaration of Rights.11 Article I, Section 11 states:
§ 11. Courts to be open; suits against the Commonwealth
All courts shall be open; and every man for an injury done him in his lands, goods, person or reputation shall have
The constitutions of thirty-nine states contain a provision that is substantially similar to that part of Article 1, Section 11 that is highlighted. See David Schuman, The Right to a Remedy, 65 TEMP. L. REV. 1197, 1201 (1992) (“The Schuman Article“). This provision, commonly referred to as the “open courts” or “remedies” clause, is derived from Magna Carta and Sir Edward Coke‘s Seventeenth Century commentary on the Great Charter, which was relied upon by the drafters of early American state constitutions. Jennifer Friesen, State Constitutional Law: Litigating Individual Rights, Claims, and Defenses § 6-2(a) (3d ed. 2000).12
In a case like this one, which calls upon the court to construe an Article of the Pennsylvania Constitution, the fundamental rule of construction which guides us is that the Constitution‘s language controls and must be interpreted in its popular sense, as understood by the people when they voted on its adoption. Firing v. Kephart, 466 Pa. 560, 353 A.2d 833, 835-36 (1976).
In Menges v. Dentler, 33 Pa. 495 (1859), we discussed the origin and meaning of Article 1, Section 11. In that case, the heirs of Solomon Menges had secured a decision from this court that they had title to certain land, and that George Oyster‘s possession of the land under a sheriff‘s deed was unlawful. Following our ruling, the General Assembly passed an act, declaring that Oyster‘s sheriff‘s deed to the land was valid. One of the Menges’ heirs brought an action and asserted that the legislation was unconstitutional.
Further, we explained that the guarantee of a “remedy by due course of law” in Article 1, Section 11, means that a case cannot be altered, in its “substance“, by a subsequent law:
[L]et us endeavor to get a clear view of the thought intended to be expressed by the phrases “by due course of law” and “by the law of the land.” So far as they relate to the forms of remedy, we need only say, that no one can justly complain of a change in them, after the arising of his cause of action, provided an adequate remedy is still allowed him. There is a more fundamental thought involved in these words.
The law which gives character to a case, and by which it is to be decided (excluding the forms of coming to a decision), is the law that is inherent in the case, and constitutes part of it when it arises as a complete transaction between the parties. If this law be changed or annulled, the case is changed, and justice denied, and due course of law violated.
*
When, therefore, the constitution declares that it is the exclusive function of the courts to try private cases of disputed right, and that they shall administer justice “by the law of the land,” and “by due course of law;” it means to say, that the law relating to the transaction in controversy, at the time when it is complete, shall be an inherent element
Based on these principles, we refused to apply the legislation to the case before us. We concluded that “[w]e are therefore bound to declare the Act of the Assembly, passed for the purpose of deciding this controversy as it originally arose, constitutes no part of the present case, and cannot be allowed to influence our judgment relative to the effect of the sheriff‘s deed to Oyster.” Id. at 499.
Subsequently, these same principles guided our decision in Lewis v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 220 Pa. 317, 69 A. 821 (1908). In Lewis, the plaintiff, the widow of a Pullman car conductor who had lost his life in an accident while on a railroad line, brought a cause of action for negligence against the railroad. The Act of April 4, 1868, which was in effect at the time of the conductor‘s death, provided that when a person sustained personal injury or loss of life while lawfully engaged on the premises of a railroad company on behalf of his employer, the right of action and recovery in any case against the railroad was such as only would have existed if that person had been an employee of the railroad. See Peplinski v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 203 Pa. 52, 52 A. 32 (1902). At that time, a railroad employee could not recover against his railroad company employer for the negligent acts of a fellow employee. Id. While the plaintiff‘s case was pending, the Act of June 10, 1907 repealed the Act of April 4, 1868, thereby expanding the circumstances under which a railroad could be held liable to parties like the plaintiff. The plaintiff sought to recover in her case against the defendant railroad under the later-enacted statute. This court did not allow her to do so. We held that both the plaintiff‘s right of action and the defendant‘s liability to the plaintiff on her action was controlled by the Act of April 4, 1868, the law that was in force at the time the cause of action arose. Citing Menges v. Dentler, we likened a complete cause of action and a legal exemption from liability on that cause of action as involving vested rights, and stated:
In Gibson v. Commonwealth, 490 Pa. 156, 415 A.2d 80 (1980), the case that Appellants rely upon presently, we directly considered whether Article 1, Section 11 precluded the application of subsequent legislation to an accrued cause of action. In Mayle v. Pennsylvania Department of Highways, 479 Pa. 384, 388 A.2d 709 (1978), this court abrogated the doctrine of sovereign immunity. Thereafter, the legislature promulgated the Sovereign Immunity Act (“Act“), wherein the legislature reinstated the bar of sovereign immunity, but declared that the bar was waived as to a cause of action for damages arising out of a negligent act against Commonwealth parties only to the extent set forth in certain listed exceptions. See
In light of Mayle, plaintiffs commenced several civil actions against the Commonwealth, alleging that the Commonwealth‘s negligent supervision of a dam led to a flood, causing them
On appeal, plaintiffs conceded that under the Act, the causes of action they had brought were no longer available against the Commonwealth. They argued, however, that application of the Act to the particular causes of action they asserted offended, inter alia, Article 1, Section 11 of the Pennsylvania Constitution because those claims had accrued prior to the Act‘s passage.
We agreed with plaintiffs, and held that the Act could not constitutionally govern plaintiffs’ accrued causes of action because an accrued cause of action is a vested right which legislation may not extinguish. Quoting from the Lewis case, we stated:
‘There is a vested right in an accrued cause of action.... A law can be repealed by the law giver; but the rights which have been acquired under it, while it was in force, do not thereby cease. It would be an absolute injustice to abolish with the law all the effects it had produced. This is a principle of general jurisprudence; but a right to be within its protection must be a vested right.’
415 A.2d at 83 (quoting Lewis, 69 A. at 823); see also Jenkins v. Hospital of the Medical College of Pennsylvania, 535 Pa. 252, 634 A.2d 1099 (1992) (holding that it was unconstitutional to apply
Crown Cork counters with the trial court‘s reasoning and contends that the Statute merely varies the remedy that was available to Appellants. Crown Cork further contends that the fact that Appellants have collected settlement monies or will recover damages from its co-defendants shows that Article 1, Section 11 is not violated. Finally, citing Smith v. Fenner, 399 Pa. 633, 161 A.2d 150 (1960), Crown Cork asserts that because the Statute only alters the allocation of damages among multiple defendants, Article 1, Section 11 is not implicated.16
At this point it is important to observe that the Statute, like any legislative enactment, enjoys a presumption of constitutionality; that Appellants bear a heavy burden to
We begin our analysis of Appellant‘s constitutional challenge to the Statute by determining what the Statute‘s application in this case means for Crown Cork. This determination is a matter of statutory construction. As such, the principles set forth in the Statutory Construction Act of 1972 (“Act“),
Through the causes of action they brought against Crown Cork, Appellants seek a payment of damages from the company for the losses they allegedly sustained as a result of Frank Ieropoli‘s exposure to certain asbestos products that Crown Cork‘s merger partner manufactured and sold. Because Crown Cork has met
In our view, the Statute is clear and unambiguous as to the protection the General Assembly intended to give to Crown Cork. The words of the Statute state that a qualified corporation is not responsible for any liability that is related to any claim for relief related to asbestos. Thus, in the present case, the Statute protects Crown Cork from any liability to Appellants on the causes of action they brought against it.
It now remains to determine whether the protection from liability on Appellants’ causes of action that the Statute gives to Crown Cork affects those causes of action in a way that Article 1, Section 11 prohibits. For this, we begin with the meaning of the phrase “cause of action“. As we have stated in other cases, the phrase does not have a single definition, and means different things depending on context. See Fisher v. Hill, 368 Pa. 53, 81 A.2d 860, 863-64 (1951).17 In this case, “cause of action” relates to remedy. It is the vehicle by which a person secures redress from another person for the consequences of an event that is a legal injury. See Singer v. Sheppard, 464 Pa. 387, 346 A.2d 897, 902-05 (1975). Moreover, as we have seen, a cause of action that has accrued takes on an even greater meaning. It is a vested right, which under Article 1, Section 11, may not be eliminated by subse-
In light of these principles, the violation of Article 1, Section 11 that the Statute‘s application occasions in this case is clear. Before the Statute‘s enactment, each cause of action that Appellants brought against Crown Cork was a remedy—it was the vehicle by which Appellants lawfully pursued redress, in the form of damages, from Crown Cork for an alleged legal injury. But under the Statute, Appellants cannot obligate Crown Cork to pay them damages on those causes of action. In this way, each cause of action has been stripped of its remedial significance, as it can no longer function as the means by which Appellants may secure redress from Crown Cork. As a remedy, each cause of action has been, in essence, extinguished. Under Article 1, Section 11, however, a statute may not extinguish a cause of action that has accrued. Gibson, 415 A.2d at 82-83. Therefore, as Appellants’ causes of action accrued before the Statute was enacted, we hold that the Statute‘s application to Appellants’ causes of action is unconstitutional under Article 1, Section 11.
The trial court reasoned and Crown Cork argues that the Statute does not offend Article 1, Section 11 because Appellants have settled with some of Crown Cork‘s co-defendants and continue to pursue a theory of joint tortfeasor liability against others. In other words, because the Statute‘s application has not and will not prevent Appellants from recovering money from other defendants by way of settlement or judgment, no cause of action has been extinguished.
What this reasoning overlooks is the individual nature of a cause of action. A plaintiff does not assert one cause of action against multiple defendants. Rather, a plaintiff asserts one cause of action (or two or several causes of action) against a single defendant. While a plaintiff may, under the appropriate circumstances, join the cause of action he has against one defendant with the cause of action he has against another defendant in one lawsuit, the cause of action he asserts against each defendant remains distinct. General Electric Credit
Likewise, the fact that Appellants might under the comparative negligence statute,
Citing Smith v. Fenner, 161 A.2d at 150, Crown Cork further asserts that the Statute‘s application passes constitutional muster because it does no more than alter the allocation of damages among multiple defendants. Crown Cork‘s argument is without merit for several reasons. First, it mischaracterizes the gist of the Statute‘s function, which is to shield Crown Cork from an obligation to pay damages on Appellants’ asbestos-related causes of action. Second, it ignores the constitutional issue that is raised by the fact that Crown Cork is no longer among the defendants against whom Appellants’ damages may be assessed and from whom Appellants may recover on accrued causes of action because of the Statute‘s application.
Third, the case of Smith v. Fenner is inapt. In Smith v. Fenner, we considered whether the Uniform Contribution Among Tortfeasors Act (“Uniform Act“), which states, inter alia, that a release of one joint tortfeasor does not discharge another joint tortfeasor, unless the release so provides, could be applied retroactively to an accrued cause of action.
On June 4, 1950—the date of this accident—a cause of action arose against all three appellees. Any one or all three appellees might have been liable for all of Smith‘s damages. As the law stood at the time of the happening of the accident if any one of the three appellees had entered into a settlement of Smith‘s claim against that particular appellee and if Smith had given a release to such appellee, the other two appellees would thereby have been released from any claim by Smith. The Uniform Act changed the effect of such release, if given, but it effected no change in the cause of action nor did it increase what could have been the liability of any one or all appellees at the time the cause of action arose. None of the appellees had any vested right to be exonerated from liability at the time of securing of a release by one or the other appellees. The change effected by the Uniform Act [was one of procedure which] did not disturb any substantive right of any appellees.
Id. at 155 (citations and footnotes omitted) (emphasis in original). The present case is vastly different. It raises a question under Article 1, Section 11; the Statute has an effect on accrued causes of action, which are vested rights; and it concerns legislation that shields Crown Cork from liability on Appellants’ causes of action, a liability that Appellants could have imposed upon Crown Cork under the law that existed prior to its passage.
Finally, the trial court‘s and Crown Cork‘s reliance on Bible v. Commonwealth, 548 Pa. 247, 696 A.2d 1149 (1997), to state that the Statute merely varied Appellants’ remedy is misplaced. In that case, the remedy at issue was the claim that a person may assert under the Workers’ Compensation Act for a complete loss of hearing.
By way of conclusion, we in the majority point out that we are as concerned with the heavy toll that asbestos litigation is visiting upon certain Commonwealth corporations as are our respected colleagues in the dissent. Nevertheless, any statutory effort aimed at reformation must not offend the Remedies Clause, if it is to pass constitutional muster. That Clause, which binds both the legislature and the courts, see Menges v. Dentler, 33 Pa. at 498, provides that an accrued cause of action is a vested right and as such, cannot be eliminated by subsequent legislation. This is the basic and undeniable principle that applies here. We know of no authority that supports the proposition that an accrued cause of action that is the subject of a merger does not receive the Remedies Clause‘s full protection. Likewise, we know of no authority (separate from the Statute) that would in these circumstances, override the general tenet of corporate law that states that the corporation that absorbs another corporation in a merger becomes legally responsible in every sense of the word for the latter‘s liabilities and debts. See William M. Fletcher, Fletcher Cyclopedia of the Law of Private Corporations, Vol. 15, § 7121 (rev. ed. 1999).
Thus, for all of the foregoing reasons, we hold that the Statute as applied in this case is unconstitutional under Article 1, Section 11. Accordingly, the Order of the trial court granting Crown Cork‘s Motion for Summary Judgment and dismissing it from the 376 captioned cases found in Appendix
Justice NEWMAN files a dissenting opinion in which Justice EAKIN joins.
Justice SAYLOR files a dissenting opinion in which Justice EAKIN joins.
Justice NEWMAN, dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the decision announced by the Court this day. I believe that the statute at issue does not “clearly, plainly, and palpably” violate the state or federal Constitution and, accordingly, I would affirm the Order of the trial court granting summary judgment to Crown, Cork & Seal Company, Inc. (Crown).
The General Assembly enacted
The majority finds Section 1929.1 repugnant to Article I, Section 11 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, which states that “[a]ll courts shall be open; and every man for an injury done him in his lands, goods, person or reputation shall have remedy by due course of law, and right and justice administered without sale, denial or delay.” (emphasis added). Accord Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, 5 U.S. 137, 163, 2 L.Ed. 60 (1803) (the “very essence of civil liberty certainly consists in the right of every individual to claim the protection of the laws, whenever he receives an injury“). We have explained that this provision of our state Constitution ensures “that the Legislature may not extinguish a right of action which has already accrued to a claimant.” Gibson v. Commonwealth, 490 Pa. 156, 415 A.2d 80, 83 (1980).
“There is, of course, a strong presumption in favor of the constitutionality of statutes—a presumption which reflects on the part of the judiciary the respect due to the legislature as a co-equal branch of government.” School Districts of Deer
A right of action implicates the right of an injured party to secure redress for violation of his rights by bringing a cause of action in tort. Blacks Law Dictionary 1325 (6th ed. 1991). A cause of action in tort accrues on the date that the accident or the injury occurs. Smith v. Fenner, 399 Pa. 633, 161 A.2d 150, 154-155 (1960). The phrase cause of action is incapable of a precise definition, as the majority aptly notes. See also United States v. Memphis Cotton Oil Co., 288 U.S. 62, 67-68, 53 S.Ct. 278, 77 L.Ed. 619 (1933). In the present case, the majority defines cause of action as a right to a remedy: the vehicle by which a person secures redress from another person for the consequences of an event that is a legal injury. Majority Opinion at 16, n. 17. I must quarrel with the breadth of this concept because it fails to limit adequately the class of entities from which the injured party can seek that redress. Instead, I note that a cause of action in tort necessarily requires a set of facts that gives rise to an obligation between the party claiming injury and the party that is allegedly responsible for that injury. What is necessary to the definition of “cause of action” is the identification of a party responsible for the injury allegedly suffered.
The problem in the instant case is the identification of the party legally responsible for the injuries suffered by the Ieropolis. The responsible party in the instant case is not Crown; rather it is Mundet Cork. My point in this regard is not intended to undo a century of successor liability law, but to acknowledge the artifice of deeming a successor corporation responsible for the injury. The cause of action in this case
Conceived of in this way, Section 1929.1 does not extinguish a vested right or an accrued cause of action. Neither does it eliminate a right to a remedy. Instead, Section 1929.1 limits the amount of liability that successor corporations can be made to be accountable for and, ultimately, limits the class of entities who can be made to bear the burden of that right. This is not to say that the legislature could constitutionally provide that all pending asbestos cases are summarily dismissed—this would extinguish vested causes of action against entities responsible for injuries. But the constitutional provision with which we are concerned, Article I, Section 11, does not estop the General Assembly from limiting (or eliminating) the effect of successor liability, even retroactively. See Jenkins v. Hospital of the Medical College of Pennsylvania, 535 Pa. 252, 634 A.2d 1099, 1104 (1993) (“[n]either the federal constitution nor our state constitution invalidates a non-penal statute merely because it is retroactive, unless such legislation impairs contractual or other vested rights“) (internal citation omitted). Section 1929.1 does not retroactively limit or extinguish the liability because the successor corporation (in the case sub judice, Crown) is not the tortfeasor.
I recognize that the Ieropolis have presented five other constitutional challenges to Section 1929.1:(1) violation of the Commerce Clause; (2) violation of equal protection principles; (3) the statute was not properly enacted, in violation of Article III, Sections 1 and 3 of the Pennsylvania Constitution; (4) the statute is a special law, in violation of Article III, Section 32; and (5) the statute sets an unconstitutional limit on personal injury damages, in violation of Article III, Section 18. However, rather than discussing these meritless challenges seriatim, I would instead affirm the well-reasoned Opinion of the trial court rejecting each of these contentions. See In Re: Asbestos Litigation, 59 Pa. D. & C. 4th 62, 72-80, 88-99 (Ct.Com.Pl. 2002).
Justice EAKIN joins this dissenting opinion.
Justice SAYLOR, dissenting.
As indicated in the common pleas court‘s summary of the undisputed facts, Crown Cork is a Pennsylvania packaging manufacturing corporation that has never in its 110-year history made, distributed, or sold asbestos—its potential liability to plaintiffs in asbestos-related causes of action is predicated solely on the theory of successor liability based upon its brief, passive ownership of a company that once produced asbestos but did not do so while in Crown Cork‘s control. None of the cases presently cited by the majority involves a successor liability paradigm; rather, each concerns attempts to adjust interests and/or liabilities between parties with more
In my view, this attribute of the potential liabilities that the General Assembly has sought to address is due a greater role than the majority allows it in the assessment of the legislation‘s consonance with the Remedies Clause,
Justice EAKIN joins this dissenting opinion.