By Thaddeus Lenkiewicz ( May 2, 2018, 3:48 PM EDT) -- On April 16, 2018, a Rhode Island court addressed for the first time whether an entity has a duty of care to protect nonemployees from exposure to the asbestos-tainted work clothes of the entity's employee. In a decision denying the defendant Crane Co.'s motion for summary judgment in the matter of Carolyn Nichols as Executrix of the Estate of Iva Pearl Jones et al. v. Allis Chalmers Product Liability Trust et al.,[1] Judge Sarah Taft-Carter held that while the existence of such a duty is determined on a case-by-case basis, the plaintiffs had presented sufficient evidence to establish that Crane Co. had a duty to protect against such "secondary" or "take-home" exposure....