Ganske v. Spahn & Rose Lumber Co.

LARSON, Justice.

The district court dismissed these plaintiffs’ common-law suit for damages based on an employee’s contraction of mesothelioma. The court dismissed the suit on the ground that our workers’ compensation and occupational disease statutes are the exclusive means of obtaining benefits for that disease. See Iowa Code chs. 85, 85A (1995). We affirm.

I. Facts and Judicial Proceedings.

For many years prior to 1985, Larry J. Ganske worked for employers whose sites, he alleges, exposed him to asbestos. In 1994 Ganske was diagnosed with mesothelioma, an asbestos-related cancer. 1 Ganske and…