Green

Plaintiffs Jennie Green and Thomas J. Flavetta (appellants) appeal from a judgment of dismissal entered after demurrers to the first amended complaint were sustained without leave to amend, and from a subsequent order staying all proceedings in the above entitled matter.

This dispute is but another chapter in the asbestos litigation that arose between Johns-Manville Products Corporation, Pittsburg, California (hereafter Manville) and some 17,000 individual plaintiffs claiming asbestos-related personal injuries which are being litigated in approximately 12,000 pending lawsuits. The relevant facts leading to the present appeal may be summarized as follows:

The original action in this case was commenced by appellants against Manville in 1981. Appellant Green, the surviving widow of James Green, brought a wrongful death action against the company, charging that her husband died from the effects of asbestos-related disease he contracted while working at Manville’s Pittsburg plant from 1948 to 1981 (Jennie Green et al. v. Manville Corporation, action No. 233426). Appellant Flavetta, an ex-employee of Manville, brought the action on his own behalf alleging that he was…