Sparks

Owens-Illinois, Inc. (Owens-Illinois or appellant), timely appeals from a judgment entered after a jury trial, by which it was held 100 percent responsible for personal injuries to Charles Wayne Sparks (Sparks) and his wife, Betty Raley Sparks, respondents herein. The jury found that an Owens-Illinois product, an asbestos-containing thermal insulation known as Kaylo, was defective, and that the defect was the sole legal cause of injury to Sparks. Appellant contends that: (1) There was no evidence that Kaylo was defective because plaintiffs failed to show that it could have been designed more safely, i.e., without asbestos as a component; (2) There is no substantial evidence to support the jury’s decision to allocate 100 percent of the fault to Owens-Illinois, as opposed to other manufacturers of asbestos-containing products to which Sparks was or may have been exposed; and (3) It is entitled to a new trial to determine whether Sparks’s employer, the United States Navy, must bear responsibility for a portion of his non-economic damages pursuant to Civil Code section 1431.1 et seq. (hereafter Proposition 51), as that provision has been interpreted by the California Supreme…