Pabst Loses on Non-Employee Asbestos Claims in Wisconsin (1)

Pabst Brewing Co. can be held liable under Wisconsin’s safe-place law for a former pipefitter’s exposure to asbestos, the state supreme court ruled, while disagreeing with a lower court’s award of damages.

The fact that Gerald Lorbiecki wasn’t an employee of Pabst doesn’t spare the company from liability under the safe-place statute’s heightened standard of care, Justice Rebecca Frank Dallet wrote for the court’s majority opinion.

That law imposes liability for an entity with substantial control over the conditions at a workplace, regardless of an injured person’s employment status, the court found.

There was sufficient evidence for a jury ...