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LawyersUSA 

JURY VERDICTS 

of 2010 

Top Ten continues to rise 

The size of the Top Ten Jury Verdicts increased again in 2010. 

The average increased less than the prior year, however, rising 

from nearly $145 million to just under $157 million. (The 

average for 2009 increased nearly $33 million from the prior 

year.) 

The top award was significantly higher in 2010 – $505.1 million 

versus $370 million. But then there was a sharp drop: the #2 award 

was $208.8 million, and the #3 award was $152 million. In contrast, 

2009 saw three awards in the $300 million range. 

The year’s top verdict went to a Las Vegas principal who developed 

Hepatitis C several weeks after undergoing a routine 

colonoscopy. During the procedure, he was given anesthesia 

from a 50 ml vial that had been reused from another patient. 

The #2 award went to a California woman who developed 

mesothelioma from exposure to her husband’s asbestos-laced laundry, 

and three of the Top Ten were against tobacco companies. 

Lawyers USA compiles the Top Ten Jury Verdicts each year, 

applying certain ground rules. First, verdicts must be to an individual 

plaintiff, defined as a single person, family or small group 

of individuals injured in a single incident who had their claims 

tried in one case before the same jury. 

Second, we do not include business-against-business suits, class 

actions or consolidated cases. Finally, cases must have been defended 

– default verdicts and suits against incarcerated individuals 

are not included. 

– Susan A. Bocamazo 

Top Ten Jury Verdicts of 2010 is produced by Lawyers USA, the national publication for small firm lawyers. Material published in Top Ten Jury Verdicts of 2010 may 

not be republished, resold, recorded or used in any manner, in whole or in part, without prior written consent. Any infringement will be subject to legal redress.


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tableofcontents 

Small firm wins $505.1 million verdict ...........................................................3 

Worker’s wife awarded $208.8 million for cancer 

due to asbestos-laced laundry ...................................................................4 

$152M for woman given free cigarettes as a child...........................................5 

Small firm lawyers win $132.5M in Ford rollover retrial...................................6 

Jury awards $124.5M in passenger van crash .................................................7 

Law firm slammed with $103 million verdict 

for working against client .........................................................................8 

Fla. jury awards $90.8M to smoker’s widow....................................................9 

$89 million awarded in airplane crash case...................................................10 

Jury delivers $82.5M gas explosion verdict ...................................................11 

Tobacco plaintiff wins $80 million verdict .....................................................12 


lawyersusaonline.com 

2

$505.1 MILLION 

By Sylvia Hsieh 

Staff writer 

Arguing that oversized vials 

of a drug were “weapons 

of mass infection” that 

led to an outbreak of 

Hepatitis C at outpatient surgical 

centers, Las Vegas plaintiffs’ attorney 

Robert Eglet convinced a jury 

that the manufacturer and its distributor 

should be punished with 

$500 million in punitive damages. 

The verdict was the opening 

salvo for over 100 pending cases 

against Teva Pharmaceuticals, 

the manufacturer of the anesthesia 

propofol, and distributor Baxter 

Healthcare. 

“This verdict sets the tone and 

hopefully sends the message that 

[the defendants] ought to think 

about sitting down and settling 

“I gave the 

jury a range 

of $250 

million to $1 

billion. They 

came back 

right in the middle.” 

– Robert Eglet 

these cases,” said Eglet, a partner 

at the 12-lawyer firm Mainor Eglet 

Cottle in Las Vegas. 

The plaintiff’s case hinged on 

the theory that the defendants 

knew that the large vials created 

a risk that doctors would reuse 

them in shorter surgeries requiring 

smaller doses, thus spreading 

infections between patients. 

The source of the lawsuit was 

an outbreak of Hepatitis C at several 

colonoscopy clinics in Las Vegas. 

Two subsequent outbreaks 

in Miami and Washington D.C. 

also occurred, according to Eglet. 

Teva Pharmaceuticals could 

not be reached for comment, and 

defense attorneys Mark Tully and 

TOP (1) TEN 

JURY VERDICTS OF 2010 

Small firm wins $505.1 million verdict 

U. Gwyn Williams of Goodwin 

Procter in Boston did not return 

calls seeking comment. 

Kellie Hotz, a spokesperson 

for Baxter Healthcare, said that 

the company will argue on appeal 

that the jury should have 

heard about unsafe practices 

among medical professionals 

who reuse syringes and vials. 

Eglet also sued the doctors and 

nurses who administered the doses, 

but they settled for a confidential 

amount before trial. 

Routine colonoscopy 

Plaintiff Henry Chanin, 62, the 

principal of The Meadows prep 

school in Las Vegas, underwent a 

routine colonoscopy in 2006 during 

which he was given propofol 

from a 50 ml vial that had been 

reused from another patient. Several 

weeks later he developed 

acute symptoms of Hepatitis C. 

Although the defendants disputed 

causation, Eglet said it was 

“pretty clear” that Chanin contracted 

the illness at the clinic because 

his bloodwork showed he 

did not have the disease two days 

before surgery and he developed 

symptoms within the gestation 

period. 

The state department of health 

later sent out letters warning 

50,000 patients of colonoscopy 

and endoscopy centers about the 

outbreak and advising them to get 

tested for various blood-borne 

illnesses. 

Because of the intense publicity, 

lawyers devoted a full week to 

jury selection; many in the jury 

pool were patients who had received 

warning letters. 

During the three weeks of trial, 

Eglet argued that the defendants 

didn’t warn health care providers 

and its own sales representatives 

that 50 ml vials of propofol are 

“way too big for a 12-15 minute 

colonoscopy.” 

“Health care providers are not 

going to take a 50 ml vial, use 10 

From left, attorney Robert Eglet and plaintiffs Henry Chanin and Lorraine Chanin. 

ml and throw the rest away. 

They’re going to use it on the next 

patient. [The defendants] know 

that; it’s been going on forever,” 

said Eglet. 

A persuasive piece of evidence 

pointing to what the company 

knew and when it knew it was a 

document from 2000 in which 

Teva requested and got FDA approval 

for producing smaller 10 

ml and 20 ml vials. The company 

stated that the smaller-dose vials 

were closer to the amount needed 

for shorter procedures and 

would reduce the risk of reusing 

the vials and spreading infection, 

Eglet said. 

Verdict: $5.1 million in 

compensatory damages and 

$500 million in punitive damages 

State: Nevada 



Type of case: Product liability 

Status: On appeal 

Case name: Chanin v. Teva 

Pharmaceuticals 

AT-A-GLANCE 

The document forced its author, 

a pharmacist with Teva, to 

admit on the stand that the risk of 

infection was foreseeable. 

Eglet also argued that the company 

had constructive knowledge 

of 148 reported cases of infections 

associated with propofol at endoscopy 

centers and that under 

the “Kessler rule” of statistics, 

every reported case represents 

100 unreported cases. 

The parties battled back and 

forth over the sufficiency of a 

warning label that said the drug 

was for a “single use.” 

Although Eglet argued that the 

Continued on page 14 

Date: April 5, 2010 

Plaintiff’s attorney: Robert Eglet of 

Mainor Eglet Cottle in Las Vegas. 

Defense attorneys: Mark Tully and 

U. Gwyn Williams of Goodwin 

Procter in Boston. 

3



Staff writer 

Like many women of her generation, 

68-year-old Rhoda 

Evans took care of the 

home, did the cooking 

and cleaning, and tended to the 

family laundry, including washing 

her husband’s work clothes during 

his twenty years at a pipe-cutting 

job. 

Years later, she learned those 

clothes – the ones she insisted he 

remove and shake out every night 

upon entering their home – contained 

microscopic asbestos 

fibers that will kill her. 

In April, Evans won a jury verdict 

for the mesothelioma caused 

“We got a lot of ammunition 

from other law firms 

sending us stuff.” 

– William A. Levin 

by asbestos contamination that 

her husband Bobby brought home 

from his job. 

William Levin, the winning attorney, 

said the most inflammatory 

piece of evidence was a file kept 

TOP (2) TEN 


Worker’s wife awarded $208.8 million 

for cancer due to asbestos-laced laundry 




State: California 

Type of case: Product liability 

Status: On appeal. 

Case name: Evans v. AW Chesterton 

AT-A-GLANCE 

by the director of safety that 

showed CertainTeed had known 

since the mid-1960s, before Bobby 

Evans worked with their pipes, 

that they contained asbestos, that 

asbestos caused mesothelioma 

even in small amounts and that 

wives had developed cancer from 

exposure to “take-home asbestos” 

on their husbands’ clothes. 

But Levin said he did not take 

liability for granted, spending 

much of the month-long trial 

pounding away at causation, 

which CertainTeed disputed. He 

contacted plaintiffs’ attorneys in 

similar cases and obtained a report 

from a previous trial that he 

used to impeach a defense expert 

who argued that the cause of 

Evans’ illness was unknown. 

“We got a lot of ammunition 

from other law firms sending us 

stuff,” said Levin, a partner at 

Levin Simes Kaiser & Gornick in 

San Francisco. 

In the punitive damages phase, 

the judge did not allow Levin to 

ask the jury for a specific amount; 

ironically, he had planned to tell 

the jury not to exceed nine times 

the compensatory award. 

William Sayers, who represented 

CertainTeed, did not return 

a call seeking comment. He 


Plaintiff’s attorneys: William A. 

Levin and Laurel L. Simes of Levin, 

Simes Kaiser & Gornick in 

San Francisco. 

Defense attorneys: William J. 

Sayers and Mark Geraghty of 

McKenna Long & Aldridge in 

Los Angeles. 



Plaintiff Rhoda Evans testifies at the trial where she won $208.8 million after contracting 

mesothelioma from asbestos dust her husband brought home from work on his clothes. 

referred questions to corporate 

spokesperson Karen Cawkwell, 

who e-mailed a statement calling 

the verdict “excessive” and maintaining 

that because the company 

“acted in good faith and did 

not conceal information regarding 

the safety of its products … 

there is no basis for any award of 

punitive damages.” 

Crocidolite fibers 

Bobby Evans worked for the 

Los Angeles water department 

from 1974 until 1992, cutting water 

pipe made of asbestos and cement 

with a power saw. 

A power saw generates 300 million 

asbestos fibers per cubic meter 

of air, which exceeds OSHA limits 

by three to 10 times, Levin said. 

At trial, he explained that 

mesothelioma is a signature disease 

caused by asbestos, in this 

case by a fiber known as crocidolite, 

the deadliest of the four 

types of asbestos fiber. 

Even though the phenomenon 

of asbestos spreading through a 

household on clothing is well-accepted, 

CertainTeed disputed liability 

by putting on a number of experts 

who claimed a certain percentage 

of mesothelioma occurs 

Plaintiff’s attorneys William A. Levin 

and Laurel L. Simes. 

without any known occupational 

exposure to asbestos – approximately 

one per million in the regular 

non-exposed population. 

“They were arguing she was 

one in a million,” Levin said. 

It didn’t help CertainTeed that 

its co-defendant, the city, sat at the 

same table conceding causation. 

CertainTeed’s second defense 

was to blame the water department 

for not warning its workers 

about asbestos. 

But Levin asked the jury how a 

corporation that never told its 

customers about risks could turn 

around and blame its customer in 


4

$152 MILLION 

By Correy E. Stephenson 

Staff writer 

In a landmark victory, a Massachusetts 

jury has awarded 

$152 million 

to the son 

of a deceased 

woman who received 

free cigarettes 

as a child 

from representatives 

of tobacco 

company Lorillard. 

The verdict, 

which includes 

$81 million in 

punitive damages, was the largest 

verdict in the state in 2010, and 

the first ever victory for an individual 

plaintiff over Lorillard, the 

third-largest cigarette manufacturer 

in the United States. 

“The facts of this case are 

shocking,” asserted plaintiff’s attorney 

Michael D. Weisman. Weisman 

represented Willie Evans, the 

son of Marie Evans, who died of 

lung cancer in 2002. 

“Mrs. Evans received cigarettes 

as give-aways in and around the Orchard 

Park playground when she 

was just a child,” he said. Although 

Mrs. Evans initially traded the cig- 

TOP (3) TEN 


$152M for woman given free cigarettes 

as a child 

arettes to her big sisters for candy, 

she began smoking them at about 

age 13 and continued to smoke for 

the next 40 years of her life. 

Mark Gottlieb, director of the 

Tobacco Products Liability Project 

at Northeastern University 

School of Law, said this verdict 

is currently the largest in an individual 

smoking and health 

case, because larger verdicts in 

California and Florida were later 

reduced. 

The jury’s message to Lorillard 

Verdict: $71 million in compensatory 

damages and $81 million in 

punitive damages 

State: Massachusetts 

Type of case: Wrongful death 

Status: No change. 

Case name: Evans v. Lorillard 

Date: Dec. 14, 2010 (compensatory 

award) and Dec. 16, 2010 

(punitive award). 

AT-A-GLANCE 

was clear, he said: “What was 

done to Ms. Evans was totally unacceptable.” 

Gottlieb suggested that that 

more cases involving children 

and free samples will almost certainly 

be filed as a result. 

In a statement, the company 

said it plans to appeal. 

“Lorillard respectfully disagrees 

with the jury’s verdict and 

denies the plaintiff’s claim that 

the company sampled to children 

or adults at Orchard Park in the 

Plaintiff’s attorneys: Michael D. 

Weisman, Thomas Frisardi, Joshua 

S. Grossman and Kendra Kinscherf 

of Davis, Malm & D’Agostine in 

Boston. 

Defense attorneys: Walter L. Cofer 

and Gay L. Tedder of Shook Hardy 

Bacon in Kansas City, Mo.; Andrew 

J. McElaney, Jr. of Nutter 

McClennen & Fish in Boston; 

Walter B. Prince of Prince Lobel 

Glovsky & Tye in Boston. 

Marie Evans (pictured starting from left) 

began smoking at age 13 and continued to 

smoke for 40 years of her life. Her son, 

Willie Evans (pictured with her above), 

won a $152 million wrongful death 

verdict against tobacco company Lorillard. 

early 1960’s,” said Gregg Perry, a 

spokesman for Lorillard. “The 

plaintiff’s 50-year-old memories 

were persuasively contradicted 

by testimony from several witnesses. 

The company will appeal 

and is confident it will prevail 

once the Massachusetts Court of 

Appeals reviews this case.” 

Cigarettes for candy 

Marie Evans was just 9 years 

old when she first began receiving 

free Newport cigarettes from 


Plaintiff’s attorney Michael D. Weisman Plaintiff’s attorney Thomas Frisardi 



5



Staff writer 

The third time was a 

charm for small-firm 

lawyers who won $132.5 

million against Ford for a 

rollover accident that killed 22year-old 

New York Mets prospect 

Brian Cole. 

In the nine years since the accident, 

the case has been tried 

three times, with the first two trials 

ending in mistrials due to juror 

misconduct and a hung jury. 

Tab Turner, lead counsel for 

the plaintiffs, said that the first trial 

– which he did not try – was 

“I’ve been trying these cases 

for 25 years. This was a fairly 

routine maneuver the 

Explorer just can’t handle.” 

– C. Tab Turner 

based on a legal theory claiming 

a defective suspension part. 

When he was brought in to retry 

the case in 2004,he switched the 

theory of the case to allege that 

the 2001 Explorer driven by Cole 


compensatory damages 

State: Mississippi 

Type of case: Design defect 

Status: Settled for an undisclosed 

amount before the punitive phase. 

Case name: Estate of Cole v. Ford 

Motor Co. 

Date: Sept. 2, 2010 

AT-A-GLANCE 

TOP (4) TEN 


Small firm lawyers win $132.5 million in 

Ford rollover retrial 

was defective because it rolled 

over too easily when he swerved 

to avoid another car. 

“I’ve been trying these cases for 

25 years. This was a fairly routine 

maneuver the Explorer just can’t 

handle,” said Turner, owner of the 

two-lawyer firm Turner & Associates 

in North Little Rock, Ark. 

Ford’s claim that Cole was 

speeding was contradicted by the 

company’s own accident reconstruction 

expert; similarly, the 

company’s claim that Cole wasn’t 

wearing a seatbelt was belied by 

the fact that the seatbelt remained 

buckled after Cole was 

ejected from the SUV. 

Still, a challenge for the plaintiffs’ 

team was proving that a defective 

vehicle caused Cole’s 

death, while Cole’s cousin, a passenger 

in the vehicle, remained 

belted and walked away from the 

accident with only head injuries. 

Establishing damages was perhaps 

an easier task, given the testimony 

of former Mets general 

manager Jim Duquette. 

He testified that management 

planned to build the team around 

Cole and that he expected Cole to 

be an all-star like Albert Pujoles, 

Torii Hunter and Jose Reyes, with 

Plaintiff’s attorneys: C. Tab Turner 

of Turner & Associates in North 

Little Rock, Ark.; Ted Leopold of 

Leopold Kuvin in Palm Beach 

Gardens, Fla. 

Defense attorneys: Walker W. Jones 

of Baker Donelson Bearman 

Caldwell & Berkowitz in Jackson, 

Miss.; R. Gordon Sproule of Huie 

Fernambucq & Stewart in 

Birmingham, Ala. 



an earning capacity of $120 million, 

said Ted Leopold, who also 

represented the plaintiffs. 

Leaving spring training 

Cole, an outfielder on the Mets’ 

40-man roster, was leaving spring 

training in March 2001 before 

heading to New York to start his 

first season with the Mets organization. 

On Highway 8 west of Pensacola, 

Fla., Cole swerved to avoid another 

vehicle that pulled into his 

lane, causing him to go onto the 

median then back onto the roadway, 

according to Leopold, a partner 

at the eight-lawyer firm 

Leopold Kuvin in Palm Beach Gardens, 

Fla. 

The SUV rolled over three and 

©iStockphoto.com/Roman Krochuk 

a half times, ejecting the 22-yearold 

outfielder, who died minutes 

later, leaving behind his parents, 

two brothers and a sister. 

His family sued for wrongful 

death. 

The two main arguments at trial 

were that the 2001 Explorer was 

built too tall and too narrow, creating 

a propensity to roll over, and 

that Ford installed seatbelts that it 

knew weren’t safe during rollovers. 

Using a steering machine that 

Turner purchased a decade ago – 

which has more than covered its 

$1 million price tag in rollover trials 

– the plaintiffs demonstrated 

that if the vehicle had been designed 

three inches wider and 1.5 

inches shorter it would not have 


6



Staff writer 

ATexas jury has found a bus 

company and its driver liable 

for $124.5 million, 

all in actual damages, 

to seven passengers injured or 

killed while riding in a van in a 

state where it was not licensed to 

operate. 

A collection of small firm attorneys 

from various firms representing 

individual passengers 

and their families tried the case 

together. 

Much of the four-day trial focused 

on whether the driver, who 

the passengers testified was eating 

and speeding on snowy roads, 

was an employee or agent of the 

bus company. 

According to the plaintiffs’ attorneys, 

the high mental anguish 

damages – which for some plaintiffs 

far exceeded what their 

lawyers requested – were awarded 

because the passengers 

sensed something bad was about 

to happen to them. 

“Most people who are in an accident, 

it just happens, and they 

don’t have much appreciation 

there’s going to be an accident. 

These people were so upset because 

they realized the driver 

was driving too fast for the conditions, 

and they were clamoring 

to find their seatbelts at the moment 

of the accident,” said Dennis 

L. Richard, a San Antonio, 

Texas attorney who represented 

the family of 63-year-old Ascencion 

Ramirez Caraveo. Caraveo 

was half-ejected from the van. 

But defense attorney Mannie 

Kalman of the Law Offices of Mannie 

Kalman in El Paso, Texas said 

the verdict resulted from a jury 

“run amok,” and he will appeal. 

“In effect, what you had was an 

angry jury. At the end of the day, 

this case will be reversed and remanded 

for a new trial. Texas has 

a very conservative supreme 

TOP (5) TEN 


Jury awards $124.5M in passenger van crash 

Los Paisanos bus company and its driver were found liable for $124.5 million after seven passengers were injured or killed while riding in one 

of the company’s vans in a state where it wasn’t licensed to operate. 

court and they don’t like runaway 

juries,” Kalman said. 

Mexico-U.S. trip 

The passengers were all Mexican 

citizens, some visiting family 

in the U.S., others returning to 

their jobs or families after vacationing 

south of the border. They 

were headed to Nebraska. 

All were in the U.S. legally, Corpus 

Christi, Texas attorney Craig 

Sico, who represented the family 

of Teresa Acevedo, told the jury. 

(Acevedo died in the crash.) 

The passengers boarded a bus 

operated by Los Paisanos (”The 

Compatriots”) in El Paso, Texas 

which took them to Denver, Colo. 


compensatory damages. 

State: Texas 

Type of case: Negligence 

Status: Motion for new trial planned. 

Case name: Pacheco v. Chavira 

Date: Dec. 3, 2010 

Plaintiffs’ attorneys: Craig Sico of 

AT-A-GLANCE 



In Denver, they boarded an unmarked 

white van that seated 15 

people. 

No more than 15 minutes into 

the trip, the van rolled over on Interstate 

Highway 76, ejecting 

some passengers. Two were 

killed, while others were injured. 

Two threshold legal battles 

were establishing whether the 

van was a motor carrier under 

federal regulations and whether 

the driver was an employee or 

agent of the bus company. 

“Once we established the owner 

was acting as a motor carrier, 

he was subject to a higher standard 

of care – a ‘high degree of 

care’ in transporting passengers 

Sico, White, Hoelscher & Braugh in 

Corpus Christi, Texas; Dennis 

Richard of Wigington Rumley Dunn 

in San Antonio; Steven Pastrana of 

Pastrana Law Firm in Austin; 

Joseph Isaac of Scherr & Legate 

in El Paso, Texas. 

Defense attorneys: Mannie Kalman 

of The Law Office of Mannie 

Kalman in El Paso, Texas. 

– as opposed to an ordinary prudent 

person standard,” said 

Steven Pastrana, an Austin solo 

practitioner. 

Los Paisanos was not licensed 

to operate in Nebraska, and according 

to the plaintiffs the defense 

presented a complicated story 

of how the van came to be transporting 

passengers into that state. 

Los Paisanos owner Uriel 

Chavira claimed that because of 

the storm the passengers missed 

their connecting bus in Denver, 

so a friend who rode as a passenger 

from El Paso to Denver 

volunteered to drive the others 

from Denver to Greeley, Colo., 

where the passengers were supposed 

to get off and board a non- 

Los Paisanos bus that would take 

them to Nebraska. 

The only problem with that story, 

the plaintiffs’ attorneys argued, 

was the bus wasn’t headed 

toward Greeley, but was en route 

to Nebraska. 

At trial, the plaintiffs’ attorneys 

enlarged a map showing the van 

was headed north toward Nebraska 

on Highway 76 and had already 

overshot the exit for Highway 

85 toward Greeley by several 

miles. 

Another inconsistency with the 


7

$103 MILLION 


Staff writer 

In October, a Mississippi jury 

hit the world’s largest law 

firm with a $103 million verdict 

in a suit alleging legal 

malpractice, breach of fiduciary 

duties, conspiracy and interfering 

with business relationships. 

A Texas businessman won a 

suit against Baker & McKenzie 

and senior counsel in its Dallas office, 

claiming that while representing 

him in several oil drilling 

deals from 2000 to 2006, they actually 

worked with his business 

partner behind his back, treating 

his company like a personal “piggy 

bank,” forcing litigation aimed 

at “bringing him to his knees” and 

ultimately driving his business 

into the ground. 

“The activities of Baker & 

McKenzie led to the destruction of 

my client’s businesses,” said Mark 

A. Nelson, a partner at Bryan Nelson 

P.A. in Hattiesburg, Miss., and 

lead attorney for the plaintiff. 

Baker & McKenzie argued at trial 

that the firm only represented 

the plaintiff on a limited matter, 

TOP (6) TEN 


Law firm slammed with $103 million 

verdict for working against client 

Verdict: $103 million in 

compensatory damages 

State: Mississippi 

Type of case: Legal malpractice 

Status: Judgment stayed pending 

appeal; attorney fees awarded to 

plaintiff and co-plaintiff. 

Case name: Evans v. Baker & 

McKenzie 

Date: Oct. 22, 2010 

AT-A-GLANCE 

Texas businessman S. Lavon Evans’ case against Baker & McKenzie involved the creation of 

a company to operate the above oil rig. 

Plaintiff’s attorneys: 

Mark A. Nelson of Bryan Nelson in 

Hattiesburg, Miss. and Eric 

Tiebauer of Waynesboro, Miss. 

for plaintiff Evans; Laurence E. 

Best of Best Koeppel in New 

Orleans and Michael J. Shemper 

in Hattiesburg, Miss. for crossplaintiff 

Laredo Energy Holdings 

and its subsidiaries. 

Defense attorney: James Brown of 

Liskow & Lewis in New Orleans. 

Plaintiff’s attorney Mark A. Nelson 



but according to Laurence E. Best, 

who represented cross-plaintiffs 

in the suit, the evidence of a longterm 

relationship was “overwhelming.” 

“There was correspondence, 

documents, e-mails and even a 

few telephone messages from 

2000 up until 2006. … The cumulative 

effect of the years and the 

documents was very strong evidence,” 

said Best, a partner at 

Best Koeppel in New Orleans. 

Defense attorney James 

Brown of Liskow & Lewis in New 

Orleans declined to comment. 

In a statement, Baker & McKenzie 

said, “We strongly disagree 

with the verdict,” and “we are 

confident we acted in a manner 

that was entirely consistent with 

our professional obligations.” 

Attorney-client relationship 

The two-week trial centered on 

whether an attorney-client relationship 

formed between 49-year-old oil 

drilling businessman S. Lavon Evans 

and Baker & McKenzie. 

At trial, Baker & McKenzie denied 

that the firm represented either 

Evans or the cross-plaintiff 

Laredo Energy Holdings, said Best. 

But from the jury box, “all the 

documentation was crystal clear 

that [Baker & McKenzie] represented 

the plaintiffs,” said Eric 

Tiebauer, an attorney in Waynesboro, 

Miss., who also represented 

Evans. 

The strongest piece of evidence 

was a check from Evans and his 

companies made out to Baker & 

McKenzie for legal services for 

over $7,000, Tiebauer said. 

Evans was approached by a 

businessman named Reed Cagle 

to create a company to operate 

an oil rig, called Rig 12. It was Cagle 

who introduced Evans to Bak- 


8

$90.8 MILLION 

By Nora Lockwood Tooher 

Contributing writer 

In April, a Florida jury awarded 

$90.8 million to the wife of 

a longtime smoker who died 

of lung cancer. 

A jury of five women and one 

man in Gainesville, Fla. deliberated 

seven hours before unanimously 

finding R.J. Reynolds Tobacco 

Co. liable for negligence, 

manufacturing an unreasonably 

dangerous and defective product, 

fraud and conspiracy to commit 

fraud. 

The plaintiff’s husband, Frank 

Townsend, started smoking at 

about age 13 and continued until 

he died in 1995. 

In the 1950s, the tobacco industry 

launched an aggressive advertising 

campaign that promot- 

“It’s the same defense 

they’ve been spieling out for 

15 years now – that it was his 

choice to smoke, even at the 

age of 13 or 14.” 

– Gregory Prysock 

ed filtered cigarettes as a safer alternative. 

Townsend switched to 

filtered cigarettes, but remained 

hooked. 

“The defendants have engaged 

in youth marketing for the last 50 

years, and they know two-thirds 

of smokers start before the age of 

18,” charged co-plaintiff’s trial 

counsel Gregory Prysock, of Jacksonville, 

Fla. 

In later years, when Townsend 

realized the health hazards of 

smoking, he unsuccessfully tried 

three times to quit. 

Jurors awarded his widow a total 

of $10.8 million in compensatory 


punitives. 

The jury determined that the tobacco-maker 

was 51 percent at 

TOP (7) TEN 


Fla. jury awards $90.8M to smoker’s widow 

Plaintiff’s attorneys Gregory Prysock and 

Keith Mitnik represented the smoker’s widow. 

fault, and Townsend was 49 percent 

liable. Florida does not require 

punitive damages to be reduced 

by comparative negligence, 

but Prysock said his client agreed 

to apportion damages based on 

the assignment of fault. 

That means that the total 

award for Lyantie Townsend, 71, 

of Ocala, Fla., was $46.3 million. 

Co-plaintiff’s counsel Keith 

Mitnik added, “It is my client’s 

hope and my law firm’s hope that 

by bringing these cases the cumulative 

effect will force this industry 

to rethink the way it does 

business.” 

R.J. Reynolds has appealed the 

verdict to the Florida Court of Appeal, 

and the case is currently in 

the briefing stage. Prysock said he 

is encouraged by that court’s recent 

ruling upholding a $30 million 

verdict in favor of a widow of 

a chronic cigarette smoker. (R.J. 

Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. Martin, 




State: Florida 


Status: An appeal by R.J. Reynolds 

is pending before the Florida Court 

of Appeal. 

Case name: Townsend v. R.J. 

Reynolds Tobacco Co. 

AT-A-GLANCE 

No. 1D09-4934 (Fla.App. 1 Dist. 

2010).) 

In that case, Prysock said, R.J. 

Reynolds raised many of the same 

arguments as in the Townsend case. 

“It was a clean sweep in favor 

of the plaintiff on all the appellate 

issues that will affect this case,” 

Prysock said. 

After the verdict, David Howard, 




Plaintiff’s attorneys: Gregory 

Prysock, Keith Mitnik and 

John Dill of Morgan & Morgan 

in Jacksonville, Fla. 

Defense attorneys: James Johnson 

and Jason Keehfus of Jones Day in 

Atlanta; Charles Trippe of Mosely, 

Prichard, Parrish, Knight & Jones in 

Jacksonville, Fla. 

©iStockphoto.com/deepreal 

a spokesman for R.J. Reynolds, 

said: “We believe the trial plan 

adopted by the Florida state court 

is fatally flawed and will be overturned 

by the appellate courts.” 

Proving addiction is key 

In the Engle cases, individual 

trials are held to determine if the 

plaintiff was addicted to cigarettes 

and whether that addiction 

caused his or her injury. If a jury 

answers affirmatively, they are 

presented with the Engle findings: 

that cigarettes are defective, unreasonably 

dangerous and addictive, 

and that the tobacco companies 

conspired to conceal 

health and addiction information 

with the intention of consumer reliance 

on the misinformation. 

Even though the tobacco 

company did not dispute that 

Townsend’s cancer was caused 

by smoking, the plaintiff’s lawyers 

“still had to prove the [defendant’s] 

negligence was something 

that affected Mr. Townsend, and 

that he relied on the fraud and 


9

$89 MILLION 

By Kimberly Atkins 

Staff writer 

In April of last year, a Pennsylvania 

jury handed down an 

$89 million verdict against the 

manufacturer of an airplane 

carburetor after a crash killed 

four people and severely injured 

a fifth. 

The verdict in favor of the 

plaintiffs – which includes the survivor 

and the estates of three of 

the deceased victims – includes a 

$64 million punitive award after 

the jury found the defendant’s 

“Normally in an airplane 

crash case you don’t have 

a live witness.” 

– Arthur A. Wolk 

conduct was malicious, wanton, 

willful or oppressive. The estate 

of the fourth victim who died did 

not bring a claim. 

The plaintiffs alleged that a 

subsidiary of the defendant Avco 

Corp., Lycoming Engines, manufactured 

a defective carburetor 

by using inexpensive metal parts 

that caused the carburetor to 

flood. They further alleged that 

the defendant knew about the 

problems with its carburetors, 

but failed to disclose them to the 

Federal Aviation Administration. 

The defense claimed that the 

crash was caused by pilot error, 

said James Robinson, a partner in 

the Philadelphia office of Cozen 

O’Connor who represented Avco. 

Although the trial featured a 

host of documentary evidence 

and expert witness testimony, 

Arthur A. Wolk, who represented 

the plaintiffs, said that the most 

persuasive evidence in the case 

was the testimony of the survivor, 

who was 15 at the time of the 

crash 11 years ago. 

“Normally in an airplane crash 

TOP (8) TEN 


$89 million awarded in airplane crash case 

case you don’t have a live witness,” 

Wolk said. “In this situation 

you have a young man who was a 

kid at the time of the crash. He 

provided what I would call spellbinding 

testimony of the events 

as they unfolded.” 

The victim’s testimony about 

the behavior of the plane before 

the crash was consistent with 

Verdict: $25 million in 

compensatory damages and $64 

million in punitive damages 

State: Pennsylvania 

Type of case: Design defect, 

negligence 

Status: Post-trial motions have 

been filed. 

AT-A-GLANCE 

that of mechanical failure rather 

than pilot error, Wolk said. 

“It helped the jury to understand 

what didn’t happen as well 

as what did happen,” he said. 

Although the case was decided 

under the General Aviation Revitalization 

Act of 1994, which imposes 

a statute of repose of 18 

years after a product is first sold, 

Case name: Pridgen v. Avco Corp. 




Plaintiff’s attorney: 

Arthur A. Wolk of The Wolk Law 

Firm in Philadelphia. 

Defense attorney: James Robinson 

of Cozen O’Connor in Philadelphia. 

©iStockphoto.com/Rob Fox 

the jury found the case fell within 

an exception requiring a plaintiff 

to prove that the manufacturer 

knowingly misrepresented essential 

information to the FAA 

about the product’s safety. 

Robinson said that his client 

plans to appeal, depending on 

the outcome of pending post-trial 

motions. 

“Lycoming is disappointed 

with the verdict, particularly given 

that the National Transportation 

Safety Board, in its investigation 

of the accident, found that 

the accident and the regrettable 

loss of life had nothing to do with 

the Lycoming engine,” Robinson 

said. “Lycoming will take the necessary 

legal steps for reversal in 

the trial court and to pursue an 

appeal to overturn the unwarranted 

verdict.” 

Questions or comments can be directed to the 

writer at: kimberly.atkins@lawyersusaonline.com 

10

$82.5 MILLION 

By Kimberly Atkins 

Staff writer 

ATexas jury has handed 

down a verdict of more 

than $82 million against 

two natural gas plant 

companies after a worker in a rebuilt 

and refurbished plant was 

killed in an explosion. 

“Juries are punishing energy 

companies in a way the federal 

government can’t,” said Robert E. 

Ammons, who represented the 

family of the worker who died in 

the blast. 

Joshua Wade Petrie was a plant 

operator at a natural gas processing 

plant in Cleburne, Texas. On 

“Our clients wanted 

to get some answers.” 

– Robert E. Ammons 

May 25, 2007, Petrie attempted to 

start a hot oil heater on a plant 

processor. After several attempts 

by Petrie, the heater exploded. 

Petrie suffered trauma to his head 

and chest, and died of his injuries 

in a hospital the next day. 

His widow, children and father 

brought a negligence action 

against Quicksilver Resources, 

the owner of the gas plant, and 

Hanover Compression, which 

sold the gas processing plant to 

TOP (9) TEN 


Jury delivers $82.5M gas explosion verdict 




State: Texas 

Type of case: Negligence 

Status: Settled after trial. Terms of 

settlement are confidential. 

Case name: Petrie v. Hanover 

Compression 

AT-A-GLANCE 

A jury in Texas awarded $82.5 million in June 2010 to the family of a worker who was killed in a gas explosion at the above plant. 

Quicksilver. (Hanover Compressions 

is now known as Exterran 

Energy Solutions.) 

The complaint asserted that 

Hanover, which owned the plant 

when it was located in Oklahoma, 

had the responsibility of relocat- 

Date: June 8, 2010 

Plaintiff’s attorneys: 

Robert E. Ammons and Bennett A. 

Midlo of the Ammons Law Firm in 

Houston. 

Defense attorney: Winstol D. Carter, 

Jr. of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in 

Houston. 

ing the plant to Texas, refurbishing 

and restoring the plant and its 

equipment, then reconstructing 

the plant and reinstalling the 

equipment at the Texas site in accordance 

with specific safety standards 

and plan specifications. 

According to Ammons, the de- 

Plaintiff’s attorney Robert E. Ammons 



fendants argued that Petrie’s own 

negligence caused the heater to 

explode. 

A message left with defense attorney 

Winstol D. Carter, Jr. of 

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Houston 

was not returned. 

Safety standards and 

cost cutting 

The plaintiffs contended that 

Hanover failed to install purge 

systems and safety valves in the 

oil heater that would have prevented 

gas from building up inside 

and causing the explosion 

that killed Petrie. 

That failure violated the National 

Fire Protection Association 

standard. 

According to the plaintiffs, both 

Hanover and Quicksilver were on 

notice about the absence of purge 

systems and safety valves back in 


11

$80 MILLION 

By Correy E. Stephenson 

Staff writer 

After eight straight defense 

verdicts in the individual 

tobacco litigation in 

Florida, the daughter 

of a smoker who died of lung cancer 

won a resounding $80 million 

verdict in November, including 


Dianne Webb brought suit 

against R.J. Reynolds as one of the 

Engle progeny cases, which involve 

individual trials to deter- 

mine if a plaintiff was addicted to 

cigarettes and whether that addiction 

caused his or her injury. 

If a jury sides with the plaintiff, 

they are presented with findings 

that the defendants were negligent, 

that cigarettes are defective, 

unreasonably dangerous and addictive, 

and that the tobacco companies 

conspired to conceal 

health and addiction information 

TOP (10) TEN 


Tobacco plaintiff wins $80 million verdict 

“To sit and 

judge one of 

these cases, 

you have to 

take yourself 

back in time.” 

– James W. Gustafson 

Verdict: $8 million in compensatory 


punitive damages 

State: Florida 


Status: Defendants appealing 

amount of compensatory and 

punitive damages, as well as numerous 

legal issues from trial. 

AT-A-GLANCE 

James Horner, far right, is pictured with his wife and a friend at a Chicago club. Horner smoked for 60 years before he died of lung cancer in 1996. 

with the intention of consumer reliance 

on the misinformation. 

Webb’s attorneys, James W. 

Gustafson and David Sales of 

Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart 

& Shipley in Tallahassee, Fla., 

tried the case after the defense 

racked up eight consecutive defense 

verdicts out of the 32 cases 

tried. 

But Gustafson said the defense 

streak actually “took the pressure 

off.” 

Case name: Webb v. R.J. Reynolds 

Date: Nov. 15, 2010 

Plaintiff’s attorneys: James W. 

Gustafson and David J. Sales of 

Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & 

Shipley in Tallahassee, Fla. 

Defense attorneys: Harold Gordon 

and Daniel Russo of Jones Day in 

New York. 



“I would have been a little 

more nervous if we were facing 

17 plaintiffs’ verdicts in a row and 

I didn’t want to be the first to 

lose,” he said. 

Not only did his client win, she 

won resoundingly. Jurors apportioned 

90 percent of the fault in 

the case to R.J. Reynolds – the 

highest apportionment of fault 

yet in an Engle case – and just 10 

percent to James Horner, Webb’s 

father. 

And the jury deliberated less 

than two hours before awarding 

$8 million in compensatory damages 

and no more than 30 minutes 

before awarding an additional $72 

million in punitive damages, 

Gustafson said. 

“There were lots of reasons why 

this case was won, from the decedent’s 

smoking history and when 

he started to how long he smoked 

before warnings went on cigarette 

packs to the deceit of the cigarette 

industry and to his wonderful family 

– put it all together and you get 

a verdict like this,” he said. 

David Howard, a spokesperson 

for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Com- 

pany, said the company was “disappointed 

with the jury’s decision 

and we will appeal.” 

60 years of smoking 

James Cayce Horner began 

smoking in 1934 as a teenager, 

Gustafson said, and continued to 

smoke for more than 60 years, 

until his death from lung cancer 

in 1996. 

Horner smoked Lucky Strikes, 

Pall Malls, Kools, Camels and Winstons, 

all R.J. Reynolds brands, averaging 

roughly 40 cigarettes per 

day, Gustafson said. 

Horner’s wife died of lung cancer 

in 1993, and while he tried to 

decrease his smoking after she 

was diagnosed, “testimony from 

family and a friend showed that 

he had a very difficult time,” 


Gustafson told jurors that 

Horner was “hopelessly” addicted 

to nicotine, as evidenced by his inability 

to quit even after his wife’s 

diagnosis and death from lung cancer, 

as well as his own diagnosis. 

Horner’s early start at smoking 


12

Worker’s wife awarded $208.8M for mesothelioma 

Continued from page 4 

court. 

“Not only were they ‘radio silent’ 

with the absence of a warning, but 

they kept saying the product was 

safe” in product literature distributed 

to customers, Levin said. 

When the company belatedly 

tested the product in 1977, 

Levin argued, its response was 

inadequate. 

Tests showed that cutting the 

pipe with a power saw exceeded 

OSHA limits for asbestos release, 

but instead of issuing a cancer 

warning, the company told customers 

not to cut pipes with a 

power saw. 

And “they buried it on page 19 

of the work practice manual, because 

everybody cuts with a power 

saw,” said Levin, who had a supervisor 

to testify that cutting 

pipe with a hand saw was out of 

the question. 

Levin alleged that the only reason 

the company didn’t want to tell 

its customers about the asbestos 

risk was that it knew no water department 

would purchase the pipe 

when they could buy safer alterna- 

tives, like PVC, instead. 

Two documents that were excluded 

from evidence on First 

Amendment grounds showed that 

during OSHA hearings, Certain- 

Teed stated that a cancer warning 

would put a “no sale sign” on its 

product. 

Levin noted those fears came 

true: when the company ultimately 

warned about the cancer 

risk in its pipes, the water department 

immediately stopped 

buying the product. 

‘Worst plaintiff’s testimony’ 

A second-hand asbestos case 

is often stronger than a first-hand 

case because you have a more 

sympathetic “pure victim,” said 

Levin, whose firm has tried a few 

hundred mesothelioma cases 

over the years. 

But his case could have been 

derailed by deposition testimony 

from Bobby Evans which at best 

looked mixed-up and at worst, as 

described by one of Levin’s own 

experts, was “the worst plaintiff’s 

testimony he had ever seen.” 

For example, when asked how 

many uniforms he owned, he stated 

that he owned 12, not clarifying 

that he meant during a 25-year 

period; and in one deposition he 

said he would go “months” without 

seeing asbestos-cement pipe, 

explaining in another answer that 

there were different projects involving 

various pipes. 

Laurel Simes, Levin’s law partner 

(and spouse), spent a lot of 

time preparing Bobby for trial 

encouraging him not to be intimidated 

and to explain his answers 

more fully. 

At trial, he surprised his own 

lawyers, improvising answers and 

winning over the jury. 

When asked if he always took 

off his uniform as soon as he got 

home – a rule laid down by his 

meticulous wife – he looked nervously 

at his wife, then back at the 

jury, and said, “Well, if no one was 

home, sometimes I would leave it 

on. Sometimes I took a nap on the 

couch first.” 

A relieved Levin said, “We were 

just hoping to avoid landmines; 

we didn’t expect him to be charming 

and funny.” 

Jury delivers $82.5M gas explosion verdict 


2005. 

“[Purge systems] would have 

gotten the gas out of the furnace,” 

Ammons asserted. 

The plaintiffs also claimed that 

the heater was not properly installed. 

“[Petrie] went through the 

proper steps to start the furnace, 

and each time gas was introduced 

inside,” Ammons said. “But since 

it wasn’t installed properly, it 

wouldn’t light.” 

Ammons said his team focused 

on OSHA records and witness testimony 

to explain the proper safety 

standards and build the case 

for negligence. But a key piece of 

evidence came from an admission 

by the defendants. 

“We were trying to prove that 

they made money” on the project 

to relocate the plant, Ammons 

said. “[But] their witness came in 

and said they lost money on the 

project.” 

That statement led the plaintiffs’ 

attorneys to investigate 

whether cost-cutting efforts were 

behind the company’s alleged failure 

to adhere to safety standards. 

The plant relocation “was a 

turnkey project,” meaning that 

Hanover had to reconstruct and 

transfer the plant to Quicksilver in 

a ready-to-use condition, Ammons 

said, “and delays in the job cost the 

companies money.” 

Ammons made the case that 

the companies sidestepped safety 

standards in order to cut costs, 

despite the fact that the two companies 

agreed to adhere to NFPA 

standards in their agreement to 

sell and relocate the plant. 

“I thought that was pretty crucial,” 

he said. 



Before trial, the defendants 

made settlement offers during a 

confidential mediation. Although 

he can’t disclose the amounts of 

the offers, Ammons said it was important 

to his clients to go to trial. 

“Our clients wanted to get 

some answers,” he said. “The 

company was blaming the man 

who died. It was as much about 

clearing his name and reputation 

as it was about compensating his 

widow and children.” 

The jury found Hanover 80 percent 

at fault and Quicksilver 20 

percent at fault for the incident. 

Jurors concluded that Petrie was 

not negligent. 

The verdict consisted of $57.5 

million in compensatory damages 

for the plaintiffs’ past and future 

pecuniary loss, loss of companionship 

and mental anguish, as 

well as $25 million in punitive 

While the jury got a chuckle 

out of Bobby’s testimony, Rhoda’s 

testimony drew tears from 

four or five jurors. 

A mother of two who took her 

family responsibilities seriously, 

Rhoda not only raised two nieces 

after her sister passed away; she 

also took in two granddaughters 

when her own daughter died of diabetes 

four years ago. 

Her youngest granddaughter, 

now 7, knows her grandmother is 

sick. 

“But I don’t have the heart to 

tell her that she’s going to lose 

me, after losing her mother,” Rhoda 

testified. 

The jury, which included 10 

women, did not adopt Levin’s 

numbers on compensatory damages. 

Levin, who said CertainTeed 

made one offer of $850,000 on the 

eve of trial, requested $15 million 

for Rhoda and $12 million for Bobby; 

the jury instead awarded approximately 

$6 million to Rhoda 

and $2 million to Bobby. 


writer at: sylvia.hsieh@lawyersusaonline.com 

damages. 

Ammons said the verdict shows 

other gas processing companies 

that they will be held accountable 

if they fail to keep their workers 

safe. 

“In Texas, we have a lot of hydrocarbon 

processing plants and 

chemical plants, and there have 

been a number of explosions 

over the years,” he said. “The 

only way juries have to hold people 

accountable is to return a 

verdict.” 

Three additional defendants 

who were involved in various 

ways with the refurbishing, relocating 

or installing of the heater 

were dismissed from the lawsuit 

as a result of a confidential settlement 

reached with each. 


writer at: kimberly.atkins@lawyersusaonline.com 

13

Tobacco plaintiff wins $80 million verdict 


contributed to the jury’s high apportionment 

of fault to the defendant, 

Gustafson said. Unlike 

some of the other Engle cases 

with younger plaintiffs who started 

smoking later, in the 1950s, 

Gustafson said Horner began 

smoking when tobacco companies 

still openly marketed to children 

and no one yet questioned 

the dangers of smoking. 

“To sit and judge one of these 

cases, you have to take yourself 

back in time,” he said. “People 

who smoked in 1934 did not know 

the truth.” 

The 11-day trial included five 

days of presentation by the plaintiff, 

with testimony from a pulmonologist 

and an expert on addiction, 

as well as family members, 

including Horner’s daughter, Dianne 

Webb. 

Webb testified about how her father 

helped care for her daughter, 

who was born with a severe brain 

injury necessitating 24-hour-care. 

“One of the compelling parts of 

this story is that Mr. Horner used 

to hold this baby, and feed her and 


term “single use” was subject to 

different meanings, the jury found 

no liability with respect to the label, 

Hotz said. 

“It was a clearly labeled product. 

They were suggesting we 

should have made it more clear,” 

she said. 

The jury awarded $3.3 million in 

compensatory damages to Chanin, 

who underwent chemotherapy for 

six months, and $1.8 million to 

his wife, Lorraine, for loss of consortium. 

While Chanin is one of the 

lucky minority whose hepatitis 

can be treated, there is still a five 

bathe her – and he would smoke 

while he did so,” Gustafson said. 

“If [Mr. Horner] had thought that 

smoking around the baby was bad 

for her, he never would have done 

that around his very frail, fragile 

grandchild.” 

Gustafson said the defense relied 

heavily on the “personal 

choice” argument that no one 

forced Horner to smoke and that 

he could have quit if he wanted to. 

The defense case lasted two trial 

days and included a historian and 

an addiction expert, he said. 

The addiction expert testified 

that Horner chose to smoke, while 

the historian showed jurors articles 

from local newspapers in the 

1950s and 1960s talking about the 

dangers of cigarettes. 

The defense also tried to imply 

that Horner lived a full life because 

he died at the age of 78, Gustafson 

said, something he had been concerned 

about going into trial. 

“He didn’t die at a young age, 

and lots of folks lose their parents 

in their 70s and would think that 

78 is a good long life.” 

But one of the jurors was 88- 

Small firm wins $505.1 million verdict 

percent chance that it could come 

back and he could infect his wife. 

He testified that for that reason, 

he and his wife have not had sexual 

relations since he was diagnosed 

in 2006. 

‘Weapons of mass infection’ 

Playing on his theme that the 

vials were “weapons of mass infection,” 

Eglet told the jury that 

the defendants should be punished 

for posing a danger to the 

community that could touch 

anyone. 

Worse, he argued, they were 

motivated by profits. 

“After they started producing 

years-old. 

“I didn’t pander to him, but in 

general closing, I mentioned that 

R.J. Reynolds thinks that 78-yearsold 

is good enough, and that a 

whole bunch of us think that isn’t 

true,” Gustafson said. “That got a 

bunch of smiles from [the jury].” 

‘They meant business’ 

Jurors deliberated less than 

two hours before returning with 

a verdict on compensatory damages, 


“I thought we had tried a great 

case and won until they came back 

that quickly,” he said. “It was an 

eight question verdict form that includes 

a portion determining fault, 

coming up with the damages 

amount, and a bunch of questions 

about negligence, addiction, concealment. 

I didn’t see how they had 

gotten through eight questions 

that quickly.” 

The $8 million figure – twice 

what the plaintiff had suggested – 

equates to roughly $1 million per 

year for Horner’s life expectancy 

when he died, Gustafson said. 

The federal government’s mor- 

the smaller 10 ml vials, they realized 

their production costs were 

higher because it costs more to 

produce five 10 ml vials than one 

50 ml vial. So they reduced production 

of the 10 ml bottles and 

increased production on the 50 

ml bottles,” Eglet said. 

Hotz, the Baxter spokesperson, 

said the company sold both sizes 

and “the clinic had the option to 

buy either size, but they opted to 

buy the larger size.” 

Even though the $500 million 

punitive damages award set a 

new state record for a single case 

and for punitive damages, Eglet 

seemed unfazed. 



tality tables for a white male born 

in 1917 list a life expectancy of 

roughly eight years in 1996, he explained. 

The jury had returned so 

quickly that both sides had to 

scramble to prepare for the punitive 

portion of the case. 

“We didn’t even have notes 

written down,” Gustafson said. 

But David Sales, his co-counsel, 

got up and asked jurors for nine 

times the compensatory damages 

they had just awarded. Without getting 

into the specifics and ramifications 

of State Farm v. Campbell – the 

U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling 

that punitive awards exceeding a 

single-digit ratio between punitive 

and compensatory damages are 

generally unconstitutional – “he told 

them not to award more than that, 

and that is exactly what they did.” 

Less than 30 minutes later, the 

jury re-appeared with a $72 million 

punitive verdict. 

“They meant business,” Gustafson 

said. 

Questions or comments can be directed to the writer at: 


“I gave the jury a range of 

$250 million to $1 billion. They 

came back right in the middle, 

so it didn’t surprise me,” he said. 

As an analogy, he told the jury 

that an individual who was punished 

would expect to give up a 

few weeks of his or her paycheck. 

“I gave them a range from one 

week to four weeks. These companies 

had income of $14 billion 

last year between the two of 

them. The jury’s $500 million 

award was essentially two weeks 

of earnings,” said Eglet. 



14

Small firm lawyers win $132.5 M in Ford retrial 


rolled over. 

A memo from the seatbelt maker 

TRW telling Ford that the seatbelts 

would not work in the event 

of a rollover – also unearthed 

more than four years ago but still 

paying dividends for plaintiffs’ 

lawyers – solidified the plaintiffs’ 

second claim that Ford installed 

seatbelts it knew weren’t 

adequate. 

Despite a police report that 

Cole’s seatbelt was buckled after 

he was ejected, Turner said that 

Ford claimed Cole wasn’t wearing 

his seatbelt but was sitting on top 

of the fastened belt. 

But this version didn’t fly with 

the jury after the plaintiffs’ expert 

testified that a mark on 

Cole’s left shoulder indicated he 

was strapped in, said Turner, 

who also showed the jury a 

video explaining the mechanics 

of a seatbelt that prevent it from 

locking due to inertia during a 

rollover. 

While Cole was ejected, his 17year-old 

cousin Ryan remained 

belted and suffered relatively mi- 

nor injuries, supporting Ford’s 

defense. 

But Leopold said that the plaintiffs 

countered with accident experts 

who testified that the dynamics 

of the rollover – such as 

the passenger-side leading the 

rollover, yawing and counterclockwise 

rotation – caused only 

the driver’s side seatbelt to spool. 

According to Turner, Ford lost 

credibility with the jury when it 

failed to call its own expert to 

support its claim that Cole was 

speeding. 

Instead, the defense put on a 

state trooper who opined that Cole 

was going 89 mph. But on cross-examination, 

Turner showed that 

Ford’s own accident reconstruction 

expert found Cole was going 

65 to 75 mph and that the state 

trooper used a formula that has 

been discredited by the Society of 

Automotive Engineers. 

“Why rely on a police officer 

whose calculation is false when 

in the back room you have an expert 

you’ve hired and paid thousands 

and thousands of dollars?” 

said Turner. 

Third strike 

After two mistrials, Turner said 

he expected Ford to settle. 

Turner said he tried to settle 

the case after the second mistrial, 

which he said ended with the 

jury leaning 8-4 toward awarding 

the plaintiffs $104 million. 

“We told Ford, ‘Don’t bet the 

company on this case. Next time 

we could get a different mix of jurors 

and it could get even uglier.’ 

And it did,” said Turner. 

Walker W. Jones, who defended 

Ford in all three trials, said that the 

“makeup” and “demographics” of 

the jury were to blame for the ninedigit 

verdict, describing Jasper 

County, Miss. as “small-town America” 

and “rural.” 

Turner was more explicit. 

“The racial divide is something 

you always have to take into consideration 

when trying cases to a 

Southern jury,” said Turner, referring 

to the fact that Cole was 

African American. 

At the end of the second trial, 

eight jurors in favor of awarding 

$104 million were African-Ameri- 

Fla. jury awards $90.8M to smoker’s widow 


concealment,” Prysock explained. 

During the two-week trial, the 

plaintiff’s lawyers showed jurors 

about 80 company documents, 

as well as print, TV ads and news 

interviews to show how the tobacco 

industry tried to minimize 

and conceal the health risks of 

cigarettes. 

In addition, medical experts 

testified about the addictive na- 

ture of cigarettes. 

Prysock said the defense argued 

that Townsend was not addicted. 

“It’s the same defense they’ve 

been spieling out for 15 years now 

– that it was his choice to smoke, 

even at the age of 13 or 14,” he said. 

In arguing for hefty punitive 

damages, Prysock said he had 

to combat a “natural reaction” 

among jurors that the tobacco 

industry has “already paid” for 

its misdeeds. 

The plaintiff’s lawyers told jurors 

about the industry’s ongoing 

advertising efforts and its lucrative 

revenues. 

“Once [jurors] see the depths 

of it, they realize [the tobacco industry] 

hasn’t paid anything, and 

how much money they are still 

making today,” Prysock said. 

In his closing argument, Mitnik 

told jurors that “they [had] a rare 

To read more top verdict coverage, 

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can; of the four holdouts, three 

were white, he said. 

A consensus of nine jurors is required 

in Mississippi. 

Turner noted that the four dissenters 

may have disagreed only 

on the amount of damages, not on 

liability. 

At the beginning of the third trial, 

after seating an all African-American 

jury, Turner knew any division 

would not be along racial lines. 

“We didn’t know what the result 

would be, but we didn’t think 

it would result in a hung jury,” 

said Turner. 

The result was 11-1 in favor of 

the plaintiffs, with an award of $56 

million for lost future wages, $25 

million for loss of companionship, 

$50 million for Cole’s conscious 

pain and suffering and $1.5 million 

to passenger Ryan Cole for his 

head injuries. 

After the jury announced its verdict, 

Ford quickly settled the case 

before the jury could do further 

damage in the punitives phase. 



opportunity to really make a difference.” 

“There is a public health epidemic 

with 440,000 people a year 

dying of smoking-related diseases,” 

he said. 

Additional reporting by Kimberly 

Atkins. 

Questions or comments can be directed to the news 

editor at: reni.gertner@lawyersusaonline.com 

15

$152M for woman given free cigarettes as a child 


a representative of Lorillard Tobacco 

Co. in the early 1960’s. 

She recalled that representatives 

would approach children 

near the playground of the Orchard 

Park housing project in 

Roxbury where she lived. 

Prior to Mrs. Evans’ death from 

lung cancer in 2002, Weisman petitioned 

the court to preserve her 

testimony. He took her deposition, 

and the defense was allowed 

to cross-examine her as well. 

At trial, both sides presented 

segments from the video deposition, 

which Weisman said was essential 

to the case. 

“We made very sure that the 

jury appreciated who she was 

and we talked about her as much 

as possible,” he said, with live testimony 

from her son and one sister 

and videotaped testimony 

from another sister. 

The defense presented several 

arguments to the jury, Weisman 

said, including flat-out claiming 

that the give-aways didn’t happen. 

Lorillard also argued that 

“smoking is a choice, and Marie 


er & McKenzie’s senior counsel 

in Dallas, Joel Held, according to 

the complaint. 

The firm prepared documents 

forming Laredo Energy Holdings, 

giving Evans 51 percent and Cagle 

49 percent ownership in the new 

company. 

“Mr. Evans was supposed to contribute 

Rig 12 and Cagle was supposed 

to contribute [$5.6 million 

in] cash. But Cagle didn’t contribute 

cash; he actually mortgaged 

Rig 12 without the knowledge or 

consent of the majority interest 

holder, Mr. Evans,” said Best, who 

represented Laredo as a cross 

plaintiff and won $22.4 million of the 

verdict against Baker & McKenzie. 

Within two weeks of creating 

the operating agreement – which 

could have simply stopped smoking 

if she wanted to,” he said. 

To counter the defense, Weisman 

presented expert testimony 

about the power of addiction and 

argued that it was “not a character 

flaw.” 

His expert testified that nicotine 

addiction is more powerful than 

an addiction to alcohol or heroin, 

Weisman said. 

Both family members and other 

witnesses testified about the 

give-aways, Weisman said, although 

the defense produced half 

a dozen witnesses who didn’t recall 

the program. He also relied 

upon internal Lorillard memos 

that referenced a give-away program 

to encourage people to take 

up smoking. 

Referring to the tobacco companies’ 

“campaign of confusion,” 

Weisman said he presented a document 

called the “Frank Statement,” 

in which the companies 

purported to promise the American 

public that they would cooperate 

with public health officials 

and let people know whether 

smoking was in fact dangerous. 

said that Evans wouldn’t mortgage 

the rig under any circumstances 

– Baker & McKenzie was 

working with Cagle to saddle the 

company with $7 million in debt, 

the plaintiffs argued. This put a 

cloud over the title of Rig 12 and 

another rig owned by Evans, Rig 

11, they claimed. 

Evans argued that Baker & 

McKenzie also helped the insolvent 

Cagle create subsidiary companies 

of Laredo without Evans’ 

knowledge, siphoning off more 

than $8 million for Cagle’s own 

benefit. 

Eventually, Rigs 11 and 12 were 

both seized by the sheriff and 

sold at auction to satisfy debts, 

said Best. 

A loan document mortgaging 

Rig 12 allegedly without Evans’ 

The document was drafted in the 

1950’s when the industry faced 

growing evidence that smoking 

was bad for a person’s health, 

Weisman said. 

But instead of living up to the 

statement, the industry created 

confusion, Weisman told the jury, 

because it responded to subsequent 

studies over the decades 

by asserting that cigarettes were 

not proven to be unhealthy. 

The irony is that the defense 

also argued that it was common 

knowledge that smoking was unhealthy, 

Weisman said. 

“So putting their arguments together, 

the public, including my 

client, should have known that 

smoking was bad for their health 

– even though they said it wasn’t.” 

Two awards, more to come? 

After 14 days of trial, the 14-person 

jury deliberated for six days 

over the compensatory damages 

award. Jurors reported that they 

were stuck on one question, causation 

on the plaintiff’s claim of 

battery, which the plaintiff then 

dropped. 

knowledge or consent was introduced 

at trial, and the most telling 

trial moment was when Baker & 

McKenzie attorney/defendant Joel 

Held was cross-examined about 

the document, said Tiebauer. 

Held testified that he didn’t 

think the document referred to 

Rig 12, even though it mentioned 

Rig 12 by name. 

“I can’t tell you how many 

times that document contained 

‘Rig 12’ – four to six times. His testimony 

was that in his opinion it 

referred to Rig 11. I don’t think the 

jury found that to be credible,” 

said Tiebauer. 

Two styles 

The jury may have been struck 

by a few contrasting styles in the 

courtroom. 

The jury awarded $71 million 

on the remaining claims, finding 

that Lorillard was negligent in 

marketing Newport cigarettes to 

children and failing to warn Mrs. 

Evans of the health risks, committed 

breach of warranty by distributing 

a dangerous product 

and acted in a malicious, willful 

and wanton manner. 

Jurors awarded $50 million to 

Mrs. Evans’ estate and $21 million 

to Willie Evans for loss of companionship, 

and apportioned 30 

percent of fault to Marie Evans 

and 70 percent to Lorillard. 

After a one-day hearing on 

punitive damages, the jury briefly 

deliberated before awarding $81 

million. 

And the size of the verdict could 

grow – Weisman included a statutory 

claim under Massachusetts 

law that Lorillard breached the 

state’s consumer protection law. 

Both sides have submitted their arguments 

to Judge Elizabeth M. Fahey, 

who will determine whether 

to award additional damages. 

Questions or comments can be directed to the writer at: 





On one end, the defense table 

for the world’s largest law firm, 

with gross revenues topping $2.1 

billion in 2009, was populated 

with lawyers, paralegals and tech 

assistants. 

“They had a very large presence 

in the courtroom,” said Best. 

On the other side, the plaintiffs’ 

attorneys used a benchbook of 

exhibits and the court-provided 

overhead projector to display exhibits, 

he said. 

There was also a stark difference 

between Evans and the two 

key defense witnesses. 

Evans came across as a modern 

day cowboy, in contrast to Held, a 

71-year-old East Coast lawyer with 

a heavy Boston accent, said Best. 

Cagle, who testified by video, ap- 


16

Jury awards $124.5M in passenger van crash 


defense story was that the passengers’ 

tickets indicated they 

were bound for Nebraska and 

they testified that no one said 

anything about changing buses 

again in Greeley. 

Chavira denied that the driver 

was his employee, but a trooper 

at the scene testified that the driver 

told him he was an employee 

of Los Paisanos and an investigator 

for the coroner’s office testified 

that the Los Paisanos terminal 

operator in Denver told her 

the driver was an employee. 

The trial judge directed a verdict 

in favor of the plaintiffs on the 

issues of Los Paisanos’ status as a 

motor carrier and whether the 

owner was engaged in interstate 

commerce. 

Speed & seatbelts 

At trial, one of the passengers 

testified that after a quick pitstop, 

the driver began the trip eating 

a hamburger with one hand, 

gripping the steering wheel with 

the other and cutting in and out 

of traffic at a high speed in snowy 

road conditions. 

Magdaleno Borrego-Lares, a 

passenger seated in the middle of 

the bench immediately behind 

the driver, recalled leaning forward 

and seeing the speedometer 

hit 70 to 75 mph. 

According to his testimony, he 


peared to be a well-manicured, selfdescribed 

“money man” – whose 

job it was to raise money, not drill 

– and “not at all a cowboy-type,” 

said Best. 

The defense argued that Evans, 

as an astute businessman in the 

rough and tumble oil industry, 

knew what he was doing, and succeeded 

in convincing the jury to 

said to the driver, “Don’t you think 

you’re driving too fast?” but the 

driver dismissed his concerns, 

saying, “I’ve been doing this for 20 

years, I know what I’m doing.” 

Borrego-Lares also testified 

that when he complained about 

the seatbelts not working, the 

driver told him to pull the belt 

across his chest so the police 

would not stop them. 

Passengers testified that they 

reached for their seatbelts when 

they realized how fast the driver 

was going, but some could not locate 

the latch end, while others 

found the seatbelts didn’t work. 

The driver, Heriberto Flores- 

Garcia, who was belted, walked 

away from the accident. After he 

was arrested on criminal vehicular 

charges, a Los Paisanos manager 

posted bail, and Flores-Garcia 

has since “disappeared into 

Mexico,” according to Pastrana. 

The directed verdict on the applicability 

of the motor carrier 

regulations allowed the plaintiffs 

to argue that the van was not up 

to snuff on federal safety standards. 

“This van had bald tires, inoperable 

or inaccessible seatbelts 

and was not properly maintained,” 

said Richard. 

Damages 

Ironically, the plaintiffs’ team’s 

biggest worry was that the jury 

allocate 10 percent of comparative 

fault to him. 

The jury, which included an oil 

rig crew worker and an accounting 

clerk, waded through 300 exhibits 

such as complex business 

transactions such as mineral 

leases, joint venture formation, 

security agreements and the financing 

of drilling equipment, as 

well as testimony from several 

would hold back on damages. 

“If you [have plaintiffs] from another 

country, would the jury perceive 

the value of their life or injury 

to be less?” Sico wondered. 

“One of our biggest challenges 

was getting the jury to embrace 

bigger numbers,” said Richard. 

As it turned out, they had nothing 

to worry about. 

Richard asked the jury to consider 

the value of life in a society 

where an actress or athlete is paid 

$20 million for a single movie or 

season of sports. 

His clients, including five surviving 

children, were awarded 

over $29 million. 

Pastrana’s client, Roberto 

Pacheco, received the largest 

award. While his wife testified 

about how he used to be the pillar 

of the family but now needs help 

shaving and bathing, Pacheco 

looked around the room, oblivious 

to what was going on, falling asleep 

at one point and letting out a loud 

belch at another point. 

Pastrana asked jurors for $12 

million, but the jury tripled it, 

awarding $36 million. 

Sico argued to the mostly Latino 

jury that companies like Los 

Paisanos prey on a segment of society 

that can’t afford to travel by 

plane by providing sub-par conditions. 

Both sides agree the jury was angry; 

they just disagree on whether 

experts about the duties of a law 

firm. 

But Best suggested that the 

jury – which awarded the amount 

of damages that both the plaintiff 

and cross-plaintiff asked for – 

could also have reached its conclusion 

with a dose of common 

sense. 

“If a lawyer with Baker & McKenzie 

sat preparing documents for 

that was rational. 

“They wanted to send a message 

but they didn’t do it predicated 

on the facts. It’s like two 

plus two equals 50,” said Kalman, 

who noted that one of the plaintiffs, 

Manuel Parra, had only 

$6,600 in medical bills but was 

awarded $2 million. 

Plaintiffs’ attorneys pointed 

out that the jury went further on 

damages in some instances, but 

held back in others. 

For example, the one passenger 

whose seatbelt functioned, 

Ariosto Manriquez, testified that 

when he saw the driver speeding 

he reached down to check if his 

seatbelt was working by unbuckling 

it at the very moment the van 

crashed. 

The jury seemed to penalize 

him for this lapse, awarding him 

$700,000, the least of the plaintiffs, 

even though he was thrown from 

the vehicle and suffered cervical 

fractures, with medical bills of 

$127,000. 

In post-trial comments, the jury 

told Pastrana, who represented 

Manriquez, that they felt the correct 

way to check if a seatbelt is 

working is to jerk on it, not unbuckle 

it. 

“There was a method to the 

jury’s madness,” said Sico. 






[Evans], talking to him, advising 

him on contracts and other matters, 

[and] then denies it, that’s 

not a credible defense that you 

can sell to lay people. … To a nonlawyer, 

if it looks like a duck and 

sounds like a duck, it must be a 

duck,” said Best. 



17

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