Carolyn Miller had no direct relationship or contact with Ford Motor Co. other than through her stepfather, whose employer was contracted to do some work at a Ford plant. In the legal terms, that made Miller a “third party.”

But when she died of lung cancer, her estate sued Ford. Miller’s lawyers took the position that she contracted the disease after washing her stepfather’s clothes from time to time during the 11 years he worked at an asbestos-tainted Ford facility in Michigan.