By Bob Katzen

The House gave initial approval to a measure that would exempt situations when a person contracts a latent disease from asbestos-related or other toxic material exposure arising from property improvements, from the current statute of limitations, which limits the time period during which the person can file a lawsuit.

Under current law, actions are subject to a 3-year limitation and a 6-year statute of repose. That means that tort actions arising from improvements to real property must be brought within 3 years from when the cause of actions accrues, but, in any event, not more than 6 years after the improvement has been completed.

“This bill will move us in line with a majority of states that have protection in place for such victims of latent diseases,” said sponsor Rep. Jeff Roy (D-Franklin). “It will remove the statute of repose on tort claims arising from latent diseases, while also applying retroactively to allow any person who has been affected prior to enactment to bring an action to recover damages. The state’s Supreme Judicial Court has encouraged us to do so by stating the following in its opinion: ‘The plaintiffs point out that a number of other state legislatures have effectively exempted asbestos-related illnesses from their respective statutes of repose concerning improvements to real property. We encourage our Legislature to consider doing the same should it determine that such an exception is consonant with the commonwealth’s public policy.’”