Maryland Court Tosses Chromium Exposure Claims, Says They’re Barred by Statute of Repose

BALTIMORE –– A Maryland federal court has dismissed chromium exposure claims as barred by the state’s statute of limitations, concluding that it was bound by a recent 4th Circuit ruling that the use of hazardous materials to create a vast 85-acre parcel of land that is still in use today constituted an improvement to real property.

In the Dec. 13 opinion, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland rejected the plaintiffs’ attempts to distinguish the underlying facts from the facts in that 4th Circuit opinion, concluding that the two cases were “virtually indistinguishable.”

The plaintiffs asserted the …