HUGE COKE OVENS IN A STEEL PLANT WERE NOT PRODUCTS IN THE STREAM OF COMMERCE, PRODUCTS LIABILITY CAUSES OF ACTION AGAINST THE MANUFACTURER OF THE OVENS IN THIS ASBESTOS CASE SHOULD HAVE BEEN DISMISSED.
The Fourth Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined the asbestos-related causes of action against Honeywell as the manufacturer of coke ovens used in a steel plant did not sound in products liability. The huge coke ovens were deemed to be part of the realty, not products in the stream of commerce. Therefore the products liability causes of action should have been dismissed:
We begin our analysis by noting that, in Matter of City of Lackawanna v State Bd. of Equalization & Assessment of State of N.Y . (16 NY2d 222, 226-227), the Court of Appeals concluded, when discussing the nature of these coke oven batteries, that “[t]here is no doubt that, by common-law standards, these structures would be deemed real property. Their magnitude, their mode of physical annexation to the land and the obvious intention of the owner that such annexation be permanent would, indeed, compel that conclusion.”
Using the construction of Battery No. 9 as an example, Honeywell’s submissions established that the construction of a coke oven battery was a multistage process that took place over approximately 18 months. The overall construction of the battery would have taken approximately 1,460,000 hours of labor to complete over six phases. * * *
.. .[W]e conclude that service predominated the transaction herein and that it was a contract for the rendition of services, i.e., a work, labor and materials contract, rather than a contract for the sale of a product … . We further conclude that a coke oven, installed as part of the construction of the “great complex of masonry structures” at Bethlehem … , permanently affixed to the real property within a coke oven battery, does not constitute a “product” for purposes of plaintiff’s products liability causes of action … . Terwilliger v Beazer E., Inc., 2017 NY Slip Op 03629, 4th Dept 5-5-17
PRODUCTS LIABILITY (HUGE COKE OVENS IN A STEEL PLANT WERE NOT PRODUCTS IN THE STREAM OF COMMERCE, PRODUCTS LIABILITY CAUSES OF ACTION AGAINST THE MANUFACTURER OF THE OVENS IN THIS ASBESTOS CASE SHOULD HAVE BEEN DISMISSED)/TOXIC TORTS (ASBESTOS, PRODUCTS LIABILITY, HUGE COKE OVENS IN A STEEL PLANT WERE NOT PRODUCTS IN THE STREAM OF COMMERCE, PRODUCTS LIABILITY CAUSES OF ACTION AGAINST THE MANUFACTURER OF THE OVENS IN THIS ASBESTOS CASE SHOULD HAVE BEEN DISMISSED)/ASBESTOS (PRODUCTS LIABILITY, HUGE COKE OVENS IN A STEEL PLANT WERE NOT PRODUCTS IN THE STREAM OF COMMERCE, PRODUCTS LIABILITY CAUSES OF ACTION AGAINST THE MANUFACTURER OF THE OVENS IN THIS ASBESTOS CASE SHOULD HAVE BEEN DISMISSED)/COKE OVENS (PRODUCTS LIABILITY, HUGE COKE OVENS IN A STEEL PLANT WERE NOT PRODUCTS IN THE STREAM OF COMMERCE, PRODUCTS LIABILITY CAUSES OF ACTION AGAINST THE MANUFACTURER OF THE OVENS IN THIS ASBESTOS CASE SHOULD HAVE BEEN DISMISSED)