Montgomery, AL – A sharply divided Alabama Supreme Court has reversed direction and allowed lawsuits from workers who become ill many years after being exposed to dangerous chemicals.
The court issued a 5-to-4 decision saying the two-year statute of limitations for filing suit begins to run when an injury manifests itself. That overruled a 1979 decision, where the court said the window for filing suit began to run at the last exposure to the chemicals.
That standard had made it impossible for workers to sue successfully if the illness did not show up for many years.
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