Filing on behalf of the American Association for Justice, CCL argued that apparent manufacturer liability applied to Pfizer Corporation for its labeling of asbestos-based insulation as its own in the case of Rublee v. Carrier Corp., pending in the Washington Supreme Court. 

  Vernon Rublee worked in shipyards beginning in 1965. Insulation that he and coworkers handled contained asbestos, resulting in Rublee's death from mesothelioma. The packages were stamped with the dual logos of Quest and Pfizer, which had acquired Quest. Under the "apparent manufacturer" doctrine, going back a century, a company that places its name on a product as though it were its own should be treated as the manufacturer. Nonetheless, the Washington Court of Appeals rejected application of the doctrine to Pfizer. It instead held that Rublee's employer was a sophisticated purchaser who understood that Quest was the real manufacturer. 

   The AAJ brief argued, however, that the court applied the wrong test. As in much of tort law, the proper perspective was that of the ultimate user of the product. Citing cases where employees were injured by defective products purchased by the employer, courts regularly applied apparent manufacturer liability to the company that had affixed its logo onto the defective tool, regardless of what the employer knew. It further argued that the intermediate appellate court's approach undermined the compensatory and deterrent value of products liability law, which uses a strict liability regime to enable parties innocently injured by the defect to receive compensation and to change manufacturing practices and labeling. In addition, the brief argued that particularly in asbestos cases, which involve injuries that do not manifest for decades after exposure and where the rules regarding statutes of limitation and the discovery of injuries are relaxed because of these latency periods, a user-based rather than purchaser-based rule best serves the objectives of the civil justice system.