ESTATE OF SANDRA BRUST AND PHILIP BRUST, ETC. VS. ACF
INDUSTRIES, LLC, ET AL.
A-3431-13T4
Sandra Brust's father, John Noga, was employed by the Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO) from 1970 to 1977. His job duties included adjustment and repair of locomotive brakes, which allegedly released friable asbestos particles into the air. He also worked on approximately one car a year for resale after hours at home, removing and replacing automotive brake shoes in the process. That also allegedly released asbestos particles into the air. The family moved from New Jersey in 1977. Brust, who was born in 1963, came into contact with Noga's asbestos-laden clothes when he came home from work and when she helped her mother wash his laundry. She developed mesothelioma in 2010. Plaintiffs sued the locomotive and automotive defendants for personal injuries based on Brust's secondary exposure to asbestos.
We conclude that Brust's state law claims against the locomotive defendants regarding her secondary exposure to asbestos in the years Noga was a PATCO employee were preempted by federal law, specifically, the Locomotive Inspection Act (LIA), 49 U.S.C.A. §§ 20701-20703. We further conclude that Brust's secondary exposure to asbestos resulting from her
father's work on cars was not sufficiently frequent, regular,
and proximate to withstand the automotive defendants' motions
for summary judgment.
