Lawyers for The federal government and a private laboratory argued, in a lawsuit over the anthrax death of a supermarket tabloid photo editor, that thave no duty under state law (Florida) to protect the public from lethal materials.

Oral arguments on the issue came at the request of a federal appeals court trying to decide whether the lawsuit should go to trial.

Robert Stevens died Oct. 5, 2001, after being exposed to anthrax. It was in an envelope mailed to the offices of American Media Inc.. His wife, Maureen Stevens, sued the government and Battelle Memorial Institute, a research company in Columbus, Ohio, alleging they were a source of the anthrax strain that killed her husband.

Investigators have been unable to determine who sent the anthrax or how it was obtained.

Justice Department attorneys argued that there is no way their clients could foresee the material would be used as a terror weapon because it had never happened before.

The facilities use anthrax to develop countermeasures and drugs to protect against or treat it, the lawyers said.

Since Stevens’ death, four other people have died – two workers in a Washington, D.C., postal facility that received mail containing the bacteria and two women in Connecticut and New York City whose source of exposure has not been determined.

Stevens’ lawyer argued such high-risk materials are an exception to the special relationship rule and that its potential misuse should have been obvious.

The Supreme Court did not indicate when it would rule.