Companies aren't strictly liable for asbestos injuries caused by aftermarket parts they didn't manufacture, but they might be liable for a claim of negligence, a federal judge in Pennsylvania has ruled, predicting how the state Supreme Court would come down.

U.S. District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, who is handling the asbestos multidistrict litigation, leaned heavily on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's recent decision in Tincher v. Omega Flex to predict how the state's high court would rule on the question of liability for companies that didn't manufacture or supply parts that contain asbestos, but made products that are later outfitted with parts that contain asbestos.

The makers of the bare metal products—in the case that Robreno ruled on, the plaintiff had worked as a propeller mechanic on airplanes and the defendant made the airplane engines that were used with insulation added after market—often argue that they can't be held liable for injuries from asbestos-containing products that they didn't manufacture. It is the so-called “bare metal defense.”