On Wednesday, a Florida appellate court ruled that the state’s asbestos and silica medical criteria law “cannot be applied retroactively to bar suits from plaintiffs who say they suffered injuries before the law’s effective date.”

According to an article in Business Insurance News, the new ruling contradicts two other rulings by Florida appeals courts and also “shields claimants who had not filed lawsuits but had reason to believe at the time the law was passed that their exposure to asbestos and silica had harmed them.”

Florida’s medical criteria law of 2005 bars plaintiffs from seeking any compensation until they can demonstrate “permanent impairment” or the presence of cancers such as mesothelioma, caused by asbestos exposure.

“But plaintiffs argued that before the medical criteria law was enacted, Florida law had recognized the right of asbestos claimants to sue for damages even if they were not permanently impaired or diagnosed with cancer,” the article explains.

The Fourth District Appellate Court agreed with the plaintiffs, citing several earlier decisions made by Florida courts. In one such case, a state appellate court ruled that “the state’s 1987 law limiting punitive damages could not be applied to a claimant whose cause of action was established before the law was implemented but who did not file suit until after the law went into effect.”

The appellate court also cited several state supreme court rulings that they interpreted as “rejecting the notion that asbestos plaintiffs must show a manifestation of illness to recover damages.”

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