§ 25-21,285.Cumulative successor asbestos-related liabilities of successor corporation; limitations; applicability.

A cap on liability is only useful if everyone understands where it applies and where it does not. Section 25-21,285 answers that question for the Successor Asbestos-Related Liability Act. As a general rule, the limitation described in section 25-21,286 applies to any successor corporation as that term is defined in section 25-21,284.

Four categories fall outside the cap. Workers’ compensation benefits an employer pays under the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Act, or a comparable law elsewhere, are untouched. Claims against a successor corporation that are not successor asbestos-related liabilities in the first place are untouched, since the cap only limits the specific category of liability the Act defines. Obligations under the National Labor Relations Act or a collective-bargaining agreement are untouched. And the cap does not protect a successor corporation that, after its merger or consolidation, kept mining asbestos, kept selling or distributing asbestos fibers, or kept manufacturing, distributing, removing, or installing asbestos-containing products substantially the same as those the transferor made before the merger. A corporation that carried the old asbestos business forward cannot also claim the Act’s shelter from the old asbestos liability.