VERDICTS
SIGNIFICANT & HISTORICAL VERDICTS AS LEAD TRIAL COUNSEL
FARRISE LAW FIRM HELPS OBTAIN JUSTICE FOR MAN DYING OF MESOTHELIOMA --- LOS ANGELES JURY AWARDS $9.2 MILLION & FINDS CHEMICAL MAKER UNION CARBIDE CORPORATION LARGELY RESPONSIBLE
On November 18, 2008, a Los Angeles, California jury of 7 men and 5 women awarded $9,200,000 including $6,000,000 in punitive damages in favor of a married couple after a five week trial. Simona Farrise, LL.M, Farrise Law Firm of Santa Barbara, San Francisco & Los Angeles, lead the trial effort of the case which was litigated pre-trial by Carolin Shining, Esq., Paul and Hanley LLP, Berkeley, CA.
Plaintiff, a hardworking 59 year old career plumber, husband, father and grandfather was exposed to defendant Union Carbide Corporation’s asbestos when he worked on various construction projects in the Los Angeles California area during the 1970s. Plaintiff and his wife were devastated in December 2007 when they learned that he suffered from mesothelioma, a horrible fatal cancer only caused by asbestos exposure, and doctors told him he had but a very short time to live.
Defendant Union Carbide Corporation of New York, maker and seller of dangerous chemicals & agents and a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow Chemical, was found to be at least 85% responsible for plaintiff's cancer. From 1963 through at least 1985, Union Carbide Corporation mined deadly asbestos from a California ore deposit, processed it into raw asbestos fibers at its King City, California milling operation, and ultimately sold millions of pounds of that raw chrysotile asbestos under the brand name Calidria asbestos. The jury found Union Carbide liable for compensatory & punitive damages after evidence showed that defendant corporation gave no adequate warnings of the extreme dangers posed by exposure to its product; and internal corporate documents confirmed Union Carbide’s management was well aware of the deadly nature of the asbestos it sold, but chose to actively hide and conceal the hazard information from the public including customers and users. Although Union Carbide Corporation has been held liable in other asbestos cases, the award of punitive damages here is believed to be the very first time the chemical maker has been assessed an amount of punitive damages for an asbestos claim.
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.