MSA Safety Inc., American Optical Win Black Lung Respirator Suit

Mine Safety Appliances Co. and American Optical Corp. won dismissal of a coal miner’s claim that their respirators failed to protect him from black lung disease.

Gary Adams’s suit is untimely under Virginia’s two-year statute of limitations for personal injury actions, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia said May 28.

The evidence shows that Adams sustained the injury more than two years before filing suit, the court said.

Under Virginia law, the date an injury is discovered is irrelevant to the running of the limitations period, the court said.

The court rejected the worker’s argument that ...