Gregg v. VJ Auto Parts, Inc.

*277 OPINION

Justice SAYLOR.1

The question presented concerns the appropriate application of the “frequency, regularity, proximity” criteria in asbestos product liability litigation.

John I. Gregg, Jr. (“Mr. Gregg”) died in March 1998. A year later, his son, Appellee John Andrew Gregg, as executor for his father’s estate, filed a product liability complaint naming more than seventy defendants and alleging civil liability on their part for Mr. Gregg’s death due to his exposure to asbestos-containing products and resultant pleural mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs. Appellee averred…