## Facts

- James Leroy Jackson, a shipyard worker, alleged occupational exposure to asbestos-containing products that caused him injury, including asbestosis.
- Jackson sued multiple asbestos-product manufacturers, including Johns-Manville Sales Corp. and Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc., in a Mississippi-law diversity action.
- A jury in the Southern District of Mississippi awarded Jackson $391,500 in compensatory damages and $625,000 in punitive damages against the principal defendants (excluding one defendant not relevant on appeal).
- A Fifth Circuit panel initially affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded for a new trial; rehearing en banc vacated the panel disposition.
- Sitting en banc, the Fifth Circuit certified questions of Mississippi law to the Mississippi Supreme Court, which declined to answer.
- The en banc Fifth Circuit then resolved the certified questions by predicting how the Mississippi Supreme Court would rule.

## Issues

1. Whether Mississippi law permits punitive damages in strict products-liability asbestos cases when defendants have been, or may be, subjected to multiple compensatory and punitive awards for the same course of conduct.
2. Whether federal mechanisms addressing asbestos harms (including mass-tort bankruptcy processes and potential federal-wide remedies) bar or require reduction of punitive damages under Mississippi tort law.
3. Whether Mississippi law permits recovery for increased risk of cancer and fear of cancer when the plaintiff has asbestosis but has not developed cancer, and what proof rules govern such damages.

## Decision

- The en banc Fifth Circuit held that Mississippi law allows punitive damages in strict products-liability cases against asbestos defendants notwithstanding the possibility of repeated punitive awards arising from the same general misconduct.
- The court held that the existence of federal remedial mechanisms, including bankruptcy-related processes, does not categorically bar or require reduction of punitive damages under Mississippi law.
- On cancer-risk theories, the court declined to recognize a broad, stand-alone right to recover for increased risk of cancer or fear of cancer absent clear Mississippi authority and treated such claims as governed by ordinary Mississippi requirements for proof of compensable injury and causation.
- The court emphasized that any major restructuring of Mississippi punitive-damages doctrine or asbestos-related damages rules should come from Mississippi’s legislature or highest court, not a federal court applying Erie.

## Legal Principles

- In diversity cases, federal courts must apply state substantive law as it exists and must predict how the state’s highest court would rule, rather than creating new state-law doctrines.
- Under Mississippi law as predicted, punitive damages remain available in strict products-liability cases upon the traditional showing required by Mississippi punitive-damages standards, even if defendants face multiple punitive awards in separate suits.
- Federal bankruptcy and other federal processes do not, without a Mississippi-law directive, displace or automatically limit Mississippi punitive-damages remedies in individual tort actions.
- Claims framed as increased risk of future disease or fear of future disease are not treated as a separate damages regime without clear state-law authorization; ordinary proof rules for present compensable injury and causation control.

## Conclusion

The en banc Fifth Circuit, applying Mississippi law under Erie, refused to create asbestos-specific limits on punitive damages based on repetitive litigation or federal bankruptcy mechanisms and declined to expand Mississippi damages law to allow broad recovery for cancer-risk and fear-of-cancer harms without clear state authority.


Jackson v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp., 781 F.2d 394 (5th Cir. 1986) (en banc)