The US Supreme Court's decision in an obscure tort case from West Virginia "is likely to have a very strong persuasive effect on state tort law asbestos litigation occurring around the country." This according toAnthony J. Sebok, who provides an interesting analysis of Norfolk & Western Railway v. Ayers in this CNN.com article. See my previous posts here and here for more background. The case is set for argument on November 6. It's a perceptive article, but I'm not sure whether I agree with Sebok's assertion that: "given that no other appeals court has even looked at the underlying case, one wonders if some members of the Court may be itching for a chance to decry the current failure of the state courts to police the practice of contemporary asbestos litigation." Right or wrong, the WV Supreme Court has been intimately involved in the management of asbestos litigation, and the US Supreme Court recently refused to consider an appeal from a recent decision outlining those procedures.