Senate Bill 330 Summary

• Establishes a two-year statute of limitations for occupational disease, construction defect, and product liability actions based on exposure to hazardous substances (rather than previous varying timelines), measured from when the injured person knew or should have known of the disease and its causal relationship to the exposure.

• Creates a one-year "reopener" period from July 1, 2010 to July 1, 2011 allowing previously time-barred claims for hazardous substance exposure occurring before July 1, 2010 to be filed notwithstanding prior limitation periods.

• Expands product liability statute of limitations (previously limited to asbestos) to apply broadly to all hazardous substances as defined in IC 34-6-2-52, with a two-year filing deadline from when the injured person knew of the disease caused by hazardous substance exposure.

• Applies new limitations periods to construction defect actions involving hazardous substance exposure, requiring claims be filed within two years of accrual while remaining within the overall ten or twelve-year repose period depending on the type of defect claimed.

• Effective July 1, 2010, with amendments to Indiana Code sections governing workers' compensation, product liability, and construction defect statutes of limitations.