Illinois high court says 2019 law allows civil action for disease to proceed

The Illinois Supreme Court said legislation authorizing civil actions after the close of statutory limits for occupational disease claims applies to illnesses discovered after the law was enacted in 2019.

After the high court in 2015 held that state law effectively precludes any cause of action for all occupational diseases after 25 years, lawmakers added a section to the Workers’ Occupational Diseases Act allowing civil actions for any injury or death that is otherwise time-barred. The new law took effect in May 2019.

“Applying (the new section) prospectively means to apply it to cases where an employee’s claims under the Workers’ Occupational Diseases Act were barred due to the discovery of an illness after (it) was enacted,” the high court said Friday in Candice Martin v. B.F. Goodrich Corp. et al.

Rodney Martin worked for B.F. Goodrich from 1966 to 2012. He was exposed to vinyl chloride monomer and products containing vinyl chloride, chemicals alleged to be causes of angiosarcoma of the liver, during the first 12 years of his employment. Mr. Martin was diagnosed with angiosarcoma of the liver, an aggressive form of cancer, in December 2019. He died July 9, 2020.

His widow, Candice Martin, filed a civil action against B.F. Goodrich in November 2021, alleging occupational exposure to hazardous levels of vinyl chloride monomer caused her husband’s illness and death. B.F. Goodrich argued that the occupational disease law was the exclusive remedy for the claim. A district court denied the motions.

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