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Products Liability Keyed to Fischer, 6th Ed.
General Electric Co. v. Joiner
Citation:
522 U.S. 136, 118 S.Ct. 512, 139 L.Ed.2d 508 (1997)Facts
Robert Joiner worked as an electrician for the Water & Light Department of Thomasville, Georgia, from 1973. His job required him to work with and around electrical transformers that used mineral-oil-based dielectric fluid as a coolant. He frequently had to place his hands and arms into this fluid during repairs, and it would sometimes splash onto him, occasionally getting into his eyes and mouth. In 1983, the City discovered that the fluid in some transformers was contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which are considered hazardous to human health. In 1991, Joiner was diagnosed with small-cell lung cancer. He had been a smoker for approximately eight years, his parents were both smokers, and there was a history of lung cancer in his family. Joiner sued Monsanto (which manufactured PCBs from 1935 to 1977) and General Electric and Westinghouse Electric (which manufactured transformers and dielectric fluid), alleging that his exposure to PCBs and their derivatives “promoted” his cancer.
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