In the 2000 California case of Chavers v. Owens-Illinois, Inc., in which a retired Navy seaman received a substantial damages award, it's worth noting that the jury also found the defendant, a manufacturer of asbestos products, not only guilty of negligence but of fraud as well. Based on the evidence, the jury concluded that Owens-Illinois had been involved in a conspiracy with other asbestos manufacturers to conceal facts regarding the danger of the material and had willfully "misrepresented the true nature of the hazards the products posed to unsuspecting workers
." The jury also determined that Owens-Illinois had "committed malice and oppression in its conduct."In another case, a Los Angeles court awarded damages to an 82-year-old man who had contracted mesothelioma as a result of asbestos exposure resulting from his work as a machinist during the 1940s. In addition, the jury found that the defendant corporation was "guilty of malice, fraud, and oppression."
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When a corporation willfully and purposefully injures someone, the victim's only recourse may be litigation.
The two court cases outlined above are examples of mesothelioma litigation; court actions in which the victim seeks compensation for his or her expenses, loss of income and pain and suffering. In addition some states, juries can add punitive damages. These are payments above and beyond the victim's award for economic and non-economic losses, designed to punish corporate malfeasance; in essence, such damages are intended to send a message to the corporate world that such actions will not be tolerated.
A Short History of Mesothelioma Litigation
Texas lawyer was the first to litigate an asbestos product lawsuit. This action, filed in December of 1966 in Beaumont Texas.-The plaintiff w, a former asbestos worker from Lake Charles, Louisiana. There were eleven named defendants, which included Johns-Manville and Owens-Corning, among others.
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