156
Opinion of the Court
plaintiff] has been injuriously exposed to a substantial amount of asbestos, a reminder which may both qualitatively and quantitatively intensify his fear." Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc. v. Cox, 481 So. 2d, at 529.
Norfolk understandably underscores a point central to the Court's decision in Metro-North. Reply Brief 10. The Court's opinion in Metro-North stressed that holding employers liable to workers merely exposed to asbestos would risk "unlimited and unpredictable liability." 521 U. S., at 435 (internal quotation marks omitted) (quoting Gottshall, 512 U. S., at 557). But as earlier observed, see supra, at 147, Metro-North sharply distinguished exposure-only plaintiffs from "plaintiffs who suffer from a disease," and stated, unambiguously, that "[t]he common law permits emotional distress recovery for [the latter] category." 521 U. S., at 436; see id., at 432. Commentary similarly distinguishes asymptomatic asbestos plaintiffs from plaintiffs who "developed asbestosis and thus suffered real physical harm." Henderson & Twerski, Asbestos Litigation Gone Mad: Exposure-Based Recovery for Increased Risk, Mental Distress, and Medical Monitoring, 53 S. C. L. Rev. 815, 830 (2002); see id., at 830, 833-834 (classifying plaintiffs with pleural thickening as asymptomatic and observing that, unlike asbestosis sufferers, they face no "significantly increased risk of developing cancer" and do not "suffe[r] current pain that serves as a constant reminder that a more serious disease may come upon [them]").16
16 Unconstrained by "the majority rule or the rule of the Restatement," post, at 177 (Kennedy, J.), the principal dissent would erase the line drawn in Metro-North between exposure-only asbestos claimants, and those who "suffe[r] from a disease," 521 U. S., at 432. Repeatedly, that dissent recites as properly controlling here case law governing "stand-alone tort action[s] for negligent infliction of emotional distress." Post, at 171 (citing Consolidated Rail Corporation v. Gottshall, 512 U. S. 532 (1994)); see post, at 169 (quoting from Metro-North's justification for disallowing recovery to exposure-only asbestos claimants); 173 (bracketing exposure-only and asbestosis claimants); 177 (asbestosis claimants entitled
Page: Index Previous 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007