The First Appellate District affirmed a judgment and remanded the action for further proceedings on punitive damages. The court held in the published portion of its opinion that a vehicle manufacturer could not assert the sophisticated user doctrine as a complete defense to asbestos-based failure to warn claims brought by a mechanic whose career began in the early 1960s. The court held further that Michigan’s ban on punitive damage awards in civil tort cases did not apply in California to preclude the mechanic from seeking such damages against Ford Motor Company, a Michigan-domiciled corporation.
Patrick Scott opened a vehicle service station in the mid-1960s, the first of several that he would own and operate over the following decades. In the course of his work, Scott was exposed to asbestos while servicing brakes and clutches supplied by a wide variety of manufacturers and merchants, including Ford Motor Company.
