{"id":190976,"date":"2026-02-24T04:19:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T04:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/190976\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T04:19:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T04:19:06","slug":"state-appeals-court-rejects-asbestos-lawsuit-by-san-diego-city-workers-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/190976\/","title":{"rendered":"State appeals court rejects asbestos lawsuit by San Diego city workers \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

A state appeals court has upheld a 2024 lower court decision dismissing claims<\/a> from dozens of San Diego city employees who said they were wrongly exposed to asbestos during the renovation of their office space.<\/p>\n

A three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal said in a ruling last week that employees who were assigned to offices in the Executive Complex building during 2018 renovations could pursue any injury claims through the worker\u2019s compensation process rather than Superior Court.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the basic conditions of workers\u2019 compensation exist, that is the exclusive remedy for an employee\u2019s emotional distress injuries, except when the employer\u2019s conduct \u2018contravenes fundamental public policy\u2019 or \u2018exceeds the risks inherent in the employment relationship,\u201d the appellate court said.<\/p>\n

The ruling issued last week is the latest setback in a lawsuit first filed in 2019<\/a> alleging that city workers were exposed to the cancer-causing material during renovations of the leased office space.<\/p>\n

The City Attorney\u2019s Office declined to comment on the ruling.<\/p>\n

But Michael Aguirre, the lawyer and former city attorney who is representing the workers, said he plans to seek a rehearing before the appeals court and take the case to the California Supreme Court if need be.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot and will not accept that they are not entitled to a jury trial until we have exhausted every legal means,\u201d Aguirre added.<\/p>\n

Five hundred or so San Diego city employees were assigned to work<\/a> in offices at 1010 Broadway when the landlord began significant renovations. The window replacements and other upgrades exposed undisturbed asbestos in the mid-century office tower.<\/p>\n

Amid a flurry of complaints, the workers were moved in 2018 to other city offices, including some to the then-newly refurbished 101 Ash St. building.<\/p>\n

Some 40 city employees sued the city, saying they were wrongly exposed to asbestos during the months-long renovation. But in 2024 the trial court judge granted the city\u2019s motion for summary judgment.<\/p>\n

The former Sempra Energy headquarters at nearby 101 Ash St. was shuttered<\/a> a few months later, after San Diego County county air-quality regulators repeatedly cited the city for asbestos violations.<\/p>\n

The Ash Street property remains unoccupied, nearly a decade after San Diego city officials first voted to acquire the building without the benefit of an independent property condition report.<\/p>\n

A development team is now working to convert the building to affordable residential housing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A state appeals court has upheld a 2024 lower court decision dismissing claims from dozens of San Diego…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1312,181,23,205,100,13,74,76,75,1696,10586],"class_list":{"0":"post-190976","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-courts","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-local-politics","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-san-diego","15":"tag-san-diego-headlines","16":"tag-san-diego-news","17":"tag-top-stories-sdut","18":"tag-watchdog"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}