Indianapolis grew as a rail hub and a manufacturing capital, and the industry spread north and east into one of the densest auto-parts corridors in the country — the GM, Delco-Remy, and Guide Lamp works at Anderson, the Ball, BorgWarner, and Warner Gear plants at Muncie, and the Chrysler and Delco operations at Kokomo. Foundry, forge, and assembly work of this kind reportedly ran on asbestos-containing materials well into the 1980s.
Indiana allows two years from a mesothelioma or asbestos-cancer diagnosis to file a personal-injury claim (Ind. Code § 34-11-2-4), and two years from the date of death for a wrongful-death claim (§ 34-23-1-1). Indiana has no statute of repose for asbestos cases — the Indiana Supreme Court struck down the ten-year manufacturing cutoff in Myers v. Crouse-Hinds (2016) — so a claim is not barred by how long ago the exposure occurred. Cases are filed in the county Circuit or Superior Court of proper venue; Indiana has no statewide asbestos MDL.