The Trial: Miller v. A.W. Chesterton

The Attorney: J. Bruce Jackson, for the plaintiff. 

Causation can be a particularly difficult element to prove in toxic tort cases. Time is often a plaintiff's attorney's biggest enemy in such suits. The decades that pass between the exposure to a defendant's chemical and plaintiff's illness can fuel skeptical jurors' doubt in your argument. In Miller v. A.W. Chesterton, J. Bruce Jackson uses his opening statement to lead jurors step by step from Ralph Miller's asbestos exposure to his mesothelioma years later. 

The jury in Phase 2 of the Bankhead v. Allied Packing asbestos trial in Oakland on Thursday awarded $13.5M in punitive damages against two defendants, ArvinMeritor and Pneumo Abex, in addition to the jury's previous compensatory damage award of approximately $4M in Phase 1 of the trial.

The Bankhead v. Allied Supply asbestos mesothelioma trial returned to session Wednesday to consider awarding punitive damage against Pneumo Abex and ArvinMeritor.

An Oakland jury on Wednesday awarded $4M in compensatory damages to a parts worker who unpacked truck brakes and contracted mesothelioma as a result of exposure to asbestos. The jury also found that the four defendants acted with malice. A punitive damages phase is scheduled to begin January 5, 2011.

"This case has been about corporations that refuse to accept responsibility for a preventable injury that will result in death," said Joe Satterley of Sales & Satterley, in his closing argument in the Gordon Bankhead v. Allied Packing asbestos trial. "These companies -- Abex, Carlisle, Fruehauf and Rockwell -- have contributed most of the exposure of the asbestos to Gordon Bankhead, and they could have prevented it. And this exposure was a substantial factor in contributing to the risk...of the mesothelioma."