Harig v. Johns-Manville Products Corp.
Maryland Court of Appeals
394 A.2d 299 (1978)
Frances Harig (plaintiff) worked as a secretary at a company that sold and installed asbestos products supplied by Johns-Manville (defendant) from 1940 to 1955, regularly coming into contact with asbestos dust in files and warehouse areas. In 1975, two decades later, Harig was diagnosed with cancer and sued Johns-Manville for negligence, breach of warranty, and strict liability. Under Maryland's three-year statute of limitations, Johns-Manville argued the clock started in 1955, her last date of exposure, which would make her 1975 suit far too late. Harig argued the discovery rule should apply instead, since her disease was latent and she could not have known of it decades earlier. The trial court certified the accrual-date questions to the Maryland Court of Appeals.
Whether a cause of action for a latent disease like cancer accrues on the date of last exposure to the harmful substance, or instead accrues under the discovery rule when the plaintiff discovers or reasonably should have discovered her injury.