When the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued its ruling in the closely watched decision Roverano v. John Crane last week, the majority appeared to limit its decision to the asbestos arena for now. But, according to attorneys, the decision dealt a blow to the Fair Share Act’s liability regime, and efforts to expand the holding more broadly into products liability law could further undercut the act, leading to a clash with the central holdings of the Supreme Court’s game-changing products liability ruling, Tincher v. Omega Flex.

On Feb. 19, the Supreme Court ruled 6-1 to do away with the practice of having juries apportion individual liability percentages against defendants in asbestos cases, and held that courts should instead apportion liability evenly on a per capita basis for each defendant on the verdict sheet.