Blakey

By this petition for writ of mandate Joseph Blakey et al. and Eddie Daniels et al., former employees of Fibreboard Corporation, seek to compel respondent superior court to set aside the orders sustaining without leave to amend the demurrers of real party in interest Fibreboard Corporation.

Petitioners filed their original complaints in 1979 (Blakey et al.) and 1980 (Daniels et al.) against Johns-Mansville Corporation and other asbestos producers. Each complaint alleged that each plaintiff had been exposed to asbestos during employment with Fibreboard and suffered from asbestos-related disabilities as a result of said exposure. However, Fibreboard was not named as a defendant. More than a year later, in some cases almost two years later, plaintiffs served Fibreboard as a Doe defendant pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 474.

In April 1982, Fibreboard demurred to each complaint upon grounds that (1) the actions were for illness and disability caused by exposure to asbestos, (2) each plaintiff’s knowledge that his exposure to asbestos occurred during employment with Fibreboard was explicitly alleged in the original complaint, (3) each plaintiff therefore knew…