Tallman v. WR Grace & Co.-Conn.

LARSON, Justice.

This is another asbestos injury case between a construction worker and the manufacturers of asbestos budding products. Among other defenses, the manufacturers raised the fifteen-year bar of Iowa Code section 614.1(11) (1993), which is applicable to injuries arising from improvements to real estate. The district court granted summary judgment to one of the defendants, W.R. Grace & Co., because, when the worker was exposed to its asbestos product, the product had already been attached to the real estate and therefore constituted an “improvement” under the statute. The court,…