The Pennsylvania Superior Court recently addressed the timeliness of an asbestos-related wrongful death action.  In Wygant v. GE, 2015 Pa. Super. LEXIS 118, 2015 PA Super 56 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2015), the Superior Court concluded, among other things, that the two-year statute of limitations applicable to asbestos-related wrongful death actions begins to run at the time of diagnosis.  The case specifically addressed an asbestos-related wrongful death claim wherein Plaintiff’s case was filed more than two years after diagnosis but within two years of the date of Plaintiff’s Decedent’s death. 

In its decision, the Court cited statutory language and concluded that the statute called into question did, in fact, apply to asbestos-related wrongful death actions and that the instant wrongful death action was time barred, having been filed more than two years after Plaintiff’s Decedent was diagnosed with mesothelioma. 

In light of the specific statutory language referenced by the Court and this Superior Court decision, it would be advantageous for an asbestos defendant to establish that the injured person was informed by a licensed physician that his/her injuries were the result of asbestos exposure.  This type of information removes some of the guesswork related to when a person knew, or in the exercise of reasonable diligence should have known, that an alleged injury was caused by such exposure.  The statute provides in pertinent part that the two-year period begins to run from the date on which the person is informed by a licensed physician that the person has been injured by exposure to asbestos, or upon the date on which the person knew or in the exercise of reasonable diligence should have known that the person had an injury which was caused by such exposure, whichever date occurs first.