On October 3, 2017, Judge Stephen Stobbs entered summary judgment in favor of defendant U. S. Steel in a case of first impression involving take-home exposure of a deceased spouse of a Local 17 insulator who was the employee of an independent contractor who provided insulation and installation services on the defendant’s South Works premises in Chicago in 1981. After discussing the issue of duty, the court entered summary judgment to the premises defendant at the outset of trial, finding that the plaintiff failed to meet the proximate cause standard of “frequency, proximity, and regularity” of the exposure as required by the Illinois Supreme Court in Thacker. A copy of the court’s ruling is available here. (PDF opens in a new window.)