Marc S. Gaffrey Secured Significant Victory in Wrongful Death Case before Third Circuit Court of Appeals
Supervising Partner of the firm’s Environmental & Toxic Tort Litigation Department, Marc S. Gaffrey, secured a significant victory in a wrongful death case involving a 54 year old woman with malignant pleural mesothelioma. This was an interlocutory appeal before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals wherein Marc represented The Boeing Company and worked with their National Counsel, Manion Gaynor and Manning out of Wilmington and Boston, to reverse a Remand Order that brought this case back to State Court.
This failure-to-warn suit against The Boeing Company stemmed from the death of a woman who was exposed to asbestos while washing clothes of her husbands who did maintenance work for Douglass Aircraft Co. on World-War II-era airplanes. Marc argued that the U.S. government oversaw the work done for Douglass and was in the position to understand the risk of asbestos exposure to employees more than Douglass and should absorb the responsibility. The Third Circuit agreed that in this instance the contractor was ‘acting under’ the authority of a federal officer.
It is believed that this case will have a broad impact on all Federal Subject Matter cases across the country as the opinion itself suggests its precedential impact and redefines subject matter jurisdiction in the Federal Court.