VERDICTS

SIGNIFICANT & HISTORICAL VERDICTS AS LEAD TRIAL COUNSEL

FARRISE LAW FIRM OBTAINS JUSTICE – LOS ANGELES JURY AWARDS $14.876 MILLION, AND FINDS FLUOR CORPORATION 45% RESPONSIBLE (2008)

            The Farrise Law Firm of Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Los Angeles, obtains justice for a client dying of mesothelioma, a terminal cancer caused by asbestos exposure.  A Los Angeles, California jury awards $14,876,000  in favor of plaintiff after a trial which lasted over a month. Fluor Corporation of Texas was found 45% responsible for plaintiff's injuries. The trial effort was lead by firm founder Simona A. Farrise, LL.M.  The verdict, decided by a diverse  jury of 10 men and 2 women, held that The Fluor Corporation exposed plaintiff to asbestos and were 45% responsible for causing his terminal cancer.  Plaintiff, a U.S. citizen & father and grandfather, was exposed to asbestos by defendant corporations when he worked at 4 Iranian oil refineries.  Defendant corporation made, sold and installed  asbestos containing products and is a worldwide oil refinery builder.  Defendant exposed plaintiff and many others to deadly asbestos for decades with no warning of any hazard or health risk.  Experienced trial specialist Simona A. Farrise was hired to lead and direct the cooperative trial effort for the case which had been filed and prosecuted by an another Los Angeles law firm.

Karen Peterson and Jeffrey Peterson v. Hill Brothers Chemical Corp. (2002) – 20+ MILLION JURY VERDICT (represented a 42 year old plaintiff in one of California's largest verdicts for 2002 at $20+ million asbestos case).  Alameda County Superior Court 2001-031817.  This verdict was the largest net asbestos verdict ever awarded to a plaintiff in an asbestos case in California's history.

On June 4, 2002, after six weeks of trial, an Alameda County Superior Court jury returned a verdict in excess of $20 million for Karen and Jeffrey Peterson. Total responsibility (100%) for plaintiff's mesothelioma cancer was assessed against Hill Brothers Chemical Company, a southern California chemical company that is based in Orange, California. The jury also found that defendant acted with malice, oppression or fraud, permitting the action to proceed to a punitive damage phase.  Defendant settled the action at trial for $19.5 million for a waiver by plaintiffs of punitive damages.  Following Karen Peterson's death in 2002, Ms. Farrise again sued Hill Brothers on behalf of Karen's husband, Jeffrey Peterson  and her 8 year old two twin boys.  The wrongful death case was settled with defendant.  

Karen Peterson, age 42, was exposed to asbestos as a child in her own family home from products manufactured by defendant Hill Brothers Chemical Company from the time of her birth until she left home at age 18 to attend college. The asbestos-containing cementitious magnesite floor which exposed plaintiff to asbestos is still in place in tens of thousands of homes today. Trial evidence included an estimate of 4 million square feet of the flooring still in place in family homes in Los Angeles and elsewhere in California.

Wimberly v. Yellow Cab (1997), $25 MILLION VERDICT, COURT TRIAL (represented plaintiff in head injury case) Alameda County Superior Court 749417-2.  In one of Ms. Farrises first solo trials, a Superior Court Judge awarded damages of $25 million to her client, who had sustained severe closed head injuries following an automobile collision. At the time of the collision Mr. Wimberly was 21 years old.

Franklin v. USX Corporation (2000), $6.5 MILLION JURY VERDICT (represented plaintiff in asbestos cancer case) Alameda County Superior Court 816407-0.  Simona Farrise made United States asbestos litigation history with a verdict of $6,500,000 in an asbestos cancer case that arose after childhood household exposure to asbestos  a so-called 2nd hand asbestos case. 

Jeanette Franklin, the plaintiff, was a little girl in the 1940s when both of her parents worked at USX Corporation's Western Pipe & Steel shipyard in South San Francisco. Her father was a burner (welder) and her mother a ship's carpenter's assistant. Her parents unknowingly carried deadly asbestos fibers home on their clothing, and their young children were exposed.  In March 1999, Jeanette Franklin was diagnosed with mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer, and on August 25, 1999.  By February 2000, the case was settled with almost all of the defendants except USX Corporation. USX is the successor corporation to Western Pipe & Steel shipyard, and refused to offer even $1. The case was tried to a jury.