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Posts by: Steven Kazan

Appellate Court Orders Quick Trial Date for Dying Asbestos Plaintiff

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asbestos plaintiffWe are pleased to report that Division Three of the First District of the California Court of Appeal has issued a unanimous opinion ordering the trial court to grant preferential trial status to asbestos plaintiff Gerald Boyd.

Asbestos Plaintiff Exposed Over Four Decades

Mr. Boyd, 71 years old, is rapidly dying of mesothelioma caused by exposure to asbestos in the 1940s through the 1980s from the U.S. Steel facility in Pittsburg, CA. Exposure from 1947 to at least 1963 was take home exposure through Mr. Boyd’s father, who worked at U.S. Steel. Exposure from 1967 to at least 1984 was from Mr. Boyd’s exposure as a result of his own work at U.S. Steel.

Mr. Boyd (and his wife Judith) moved for a statutory preference in their trial date, presenting a detailed declaration from his treating oncologist at the University of California, San Francisco that his ability to participate in a trial is diminishing and that there is doubt he will live beyond another six months. This required trial preference under governing California law.

Three giant defendants (U.S. Steel, MW Custom Papers (MeadWestvaco), and Owens-Illinois, worth a combined $16+ billion and anxious to avoid paying Mr. Boyd for the pain they had caused him) opposed preference, presenting no evidence but questioning the treating doctor’s medical opinions.

Kazan Law asked the First District for help, petitioning for an emergency order compelling the trial court to give us a trial date. That court quickly saw the Boyds’ entitlement to relief and, in a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Stuart R. Pollak, granted urgent relief, holding that the Boyds’ “entitlement to relief is obvious” and ordering the trial court to grant preference and set trial to begin no later than February 28, 2015.

We are hopeful that this early trial date will allow Mr. Boyd to see his case to completion so that he can see justice while he yet lives, and can be assured that his family’s financial future is secured.

Battle Against Forced Mesothelioma Genetic Testing Waged by Kazan Law

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mesothelioma genetic testingIn a global first for mesothelioma litigation, Kazan Law has taken the lead to legally stop forced mesothelioma genetic testing. At issue is a recently discovered genetic mutation called BAP1 that reportedly signals higher risk for developing mesothelioma.

Kazan Law Files First Declaration Opposing Forced Testing for BAP1 Gene

Kazan Law Associate Andrea Huston filed a declaration here in Alameda County to oppose the forced mesothelioma genetic testing of a client, who is a mesothelioma patient, by the corporation alleged to have exposed her to asbestos causing her mesothelioma.

“I have represented asbestos plaintiffs for 15 years. Until about June 2014, I had never had a case in which any defendant raised any issue regarding BAP1 gene…Nor to my knowledge had anyone in my office had such a case before June 2014,”Andrea states in her declaration.

She mentions another one of our current cases in which the company accused of causing a client’s mesothelioma has requested a “blood sample” from our client so they can test it for the BAP1 gene.

There are several other cases in other parts of the U.S. where forced mesothelioma genetic testing is also currently a controversial issue.

Kazan Law Fight Against Forced Mesothelioma Genetic Testing Featured in Global Law Journal

Forced mesothelioma genetic testing is so new that our cases caught the attention of a prominent defendant-sponsored online blog site, GlobalTort.

The article highlights the declaration we filed and also how the issue of forced mesothelioma genetic testing marks a new phase for mesothelioma litigation.

“Thus, 2014 becomes the year mesothelioma litigation undeniably entered the age of precision scientific analysis aimed at a particular person’s genomics, and related molecular characteristics,” the article states.

BAP1 Gene Discovered in 2011

In 2011, researchers from the University of Hawaii Cancer Center reported that mutations in the BAP1 gene might predispose people with this mutation to develop mesothelioma when they are exposed to asbestos. The researchers are still studying whether BAP1 could help identify individuals at high risk of mesothelioma, and just how to use these findings in treating mesothelioma patients.

“More experiments are urgently needed to see whether BAP1 expression could be used in diagnostic, prognostic, or therapeutic settings,” the researchers noted in an abstract of the findings published in the Journal of Cancer Research and presented at the 2014 American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting.

In an analysis of 10,566 U.S. mesothelioma patients from 1973 to 2010 listed in the US Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program, the researchers reported that only 23 of them carried the BAP1 gene.

Corporate Misuse of Science

It sure didn’t take long for corporate lawyers to try to take the new discovery about BAP1 and turn it into something that to use against innocent people who are dying because of corporate greed and neglect. Knowingly exposing people to lethal asbestos is wrong regardless of anyone’s genetic make-up. Starting with the historic Johns-Manville case in the 1970s, our firm has had a history of successfully pioneering asbestos litigation so we are ready to fight this new 21st century battle for our clients and asbestos victims everywhere.

Shocking Reversal in Major Italian Asbestos Litigation Case

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Asbestos Litigation Swiss Billionaire Escapes Responsibility For Now For Over 3,000 Deaths

In a shocking reversal for international asbestos litigation, Swiss billionaire Stephan Schmidheiny was absolved for now of 3,000 deaths of Italian workers exposed to asbestos in factories formerly part of his company, Eternit. Italy’s Supreme Court overturned a ruling which had sentenced the Swiss industrialist to 18 years in prison.

The Italian court ruled that the statute of limitations for asbestos litigation based on environmental contamination had expired in the case against Schmidheiny. A statute of limitations is a set period of time during which a lawsuit may be filed.

An appeals court in 2013 had upheld Schmidheiny’s conviction and increased to 18 years from 16 the prison term handed down by a lower court in 2012. We reported to you on the upheld conviction here in the Kazan Law blog at that time.

Italy’s premier Matteo Renzi reaction echoed the outrage across Italy on Thursday, according to the Associated Press (AP), after the asbestos litigation high court ruling.

Renzi is quoted by the Associated Press (AP) as saying that the case shows that Italy’s justice system needs to be reformed to speed up trials.

Eternit – Over a Hundred Years of Asbestos Contamination

Founded in 1903, Eternit produced asbestos-containing cement until 1997. Headed by the Schmidheiny family since 1933, Eternit also had factories in the Netherlands, France and Brazil as well as Italy. They also owned a distribution subsidiary in the U.S. that dissolved years ago. But they did not get away with murder here. In fact, Kazan Law won a verdict of $11, 500,000 in 2001 against Eternit right here in Alameda County for a construction project estimator and his wife.

Amid a growing scandal about asbestos, Eternit’s four Italian factories closed in 1986 and the company was sold to an Austrian bank in 2003.

In 2009, following five years of investigation, billionaire former CEO Stephan Schmidheiny and major shareholder Louis de Cartier Marchienne were accused of criminal neglect . Both men were found guilty in February 2013 and sentenced to 16 years in prison.  You can read about this important asbestos litigation in a free ebook  co-edited by my sister Laurie-Kazan Allen and her husband David Allen, who monitor asbestos developments in Europe.

Marchienne died at age 91 on May 21, 2013 during the appeal of his sentence. Charges against him were dropped in June. But Schmidheiny’s sentence was increased to 18 years. He then successfully appealed the case to Italy’s highest court.

Possibility of Future Asbestos Litigation For Eternit Case

According to a Swiss news media website, a Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung has blamed Italy’s federal prosecutor for its “strategy to deal with asbestos damages through criminal proceedings against individuals” – essentially by pinning all the blame on Schmidheiny.

The newspaper maintains that this may not be the end of the Eternit asbestos litigation, noting that “because the acquittal was mainly for formal reasons, it’s unclear whether … the whole palette of allegations is ‘settled’”.

“The Turin public prosecutor’s office is known to be conducting further criminal investigations,” noted the statement from Schmidheiny’s team. “The defense expects the Italian state to now protect [him] from further unjustified criminal proceedings and to cease all current proceedings.”

We can only hope that this expectation proves unwarranted, and that the Italian prosecutor will move ahead with a murder case, for which there is no statute of limitations.

Mesothelioma Lawyers Help Fund Public Justice Attorney

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Mesothelioma Lawyers

Jennifer Bennett
Photo credit: Public Justice

Because of what we have learned in our practice as mesothelioma lawyers, we give back in the area of safeguarding public justice. It is one of our guiding principles at Kazan Law. We fund mesothelioma research to help find new treatments for this terrible disease.  But we also help fund nonprofit groups who are trying to help keep the scales of justice balanced.

One of the organizations that we support is aptly named Public Justice.  Based in Washington D.C. and Oakland, it is widely considered to be America’s leading public interest law firm. According to its mission statement, it:

  • protects people and the environment
  • holds the powerful accountable
  • challenges government, corporate, and individual wrongdoing
  • increases access to justice
  • combats threats to our justice system
  • inspires lawyers and others to serve the public interest

Kazan Law helps fund Public Justice by co-underwriting together with another firm a full-time position for one of their attorneys.

Jennifer Bennett is the Kazan Budd attorney for Public Justice.  She works in the organization’s Oakland, California office.

Jennifer graduated in 2010 from Yale, one of the top law schools in the country. While there, she was a senior editor of the Yale Law Journal, managing editor of the Yale Law & Policy Review and received honors from the Dean. She could have become a big corporate lawyer. But instead Jennifer chose the path of public justice and to defend the defenseless. While still at Yale, she was a member of the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic, which represents immigrants and low-wage workers in labor, immigration and civil rights cases.

Currently she is working on a public safety case involving Chrysler, the maker of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles. She is providing legal support for the Center for Auto Safety and drivers in several states in a class action suit alleging not only that certain Chrysler models are defective, but that the company has known about – and concealed – the defect for years.

“The public has a right to know whether (or not) there’s evidence that the cars they are driving might kill them,” Jennifer states in a recent post she wrote for the Public Justice blog.  With public safety at risk and lives possibly endangered because alleged corporate neglect, this sounds like our kind of fight. All of us mesothelioma lawyers and our support staff at Kazan Law are proud to sponsor this public-minded attorney in her important work.

As mesothelioma lawyers who seek justice for innocent people exposed to asbestos, we have seen many, many times the tragic results when corporations are unimpeded in their drive to place profits over people and basic decency. We as a people cannot trust these business entities with public safety any more than you can expect the proverbial fox to guard the chickens.

Asbestos Bankruptcy Trusts Explained

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Asbestos bankruptcy trusts are a complex but important aspect of asbestos litigation. This is video of the presentation I was asked to give on how asbestos bankruptcy trusts work at the 2014 International Mesothelioma Interest Group conference in Cape Town, South Africa last month. Here are some highlights.

How Asbestos Bankruptcy Trusts Started

The asbestos bankruptcy industry – and I call it that- started in 1982 with the first asbestos bankruptcies. There are now about 50 asbestos bankruptcy trusts. They came about because of asbestos litigation –and corporate decisions to evade full responsibility for the death and disease they caused– we sued enough companies often enough and beat them badly enough that many of them decided they had enough and needed to find a legal way to pay up and move on.

I have been involved with almost all of these bankruptcies and resulting trusts since the beginning, often as a chair or co-chair of what is known as the victims’ creditors or advisory committees.  That means I am one of the watchdogs who help make sure that the victims’ interests are being served.  In fact, the Wall Street Journal reported that our firm is involved with more trusts and handle more trust funds than any other American law firm.

Asbestos Bankruptcy Trust Assets and Payouts

The US bankruptcy trusts to date have already paid out over $21 billion dollars.

We’ve put together a list of their assets which is a daunting task because it requires us to dig through a lot of records filed with the courts.

This year’s figures aren’t public but as of the end of last year, the asbestos bankruptcy trusts together have close to $32 billion dollars in assets. This is money that is set aside to be paid out over the next 30 to 40 years to asbestos victims.  The funds earn about 5 percent annually on their investments so they will ultimately pay out well above their current asset total.

The bulk of the funds go to mesothelioma cases. The amount paid on each case is based on the number of present cases and how many cases are projected for the future divided into the amount in each trust. Under this formula, a typical shipyard worker or construction worker with mesothelioma would receive about $260,000.

Are You Eligible To Receive Funds From an Asbestos Bankruptcy Trust?

To be eligible to receive funds from a bankruptcy trust, you do not need to prove that the company’s products contained asbestos. The companies involved have admitted that their products contained asbestos and were handled by workers at sites around the country and aboard many ships. We’ve got lists of them. There are 115,000 identified sites in the U.S. plus 19,000 ships. You just need to prove that you worked at one of them and that you are now ill.

All the trusts provide information on how to file a claim on their websites. We’ve made the procedures the same for each trust.

For a claim to be approved you must show:

  • Exposure to a product of the company for which that trust is responsible, when and where you worked and your trade or job, and what asbestos disease you have.
  • Claimant’s occupation when claimant worked with the product
  • Time period claimant worked with the product
  • Asbestos-related disease
  • Who claimant’s dependents are
  • Claimant’s medical expenses and/or economic loss (optional]

If you have any questions about asbestos bankruptcy trusts after you watch the video, please email me and I will answer them for you.

Who is Most Likely to Be a Victim of Asbestos Exposure?

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asbestos exposureAsbestos exposure can happen to anyone. Contrary to common perceptions, asbestos exposure cuts across all socio-economic lines and occupations. A retired judge in New Jersey recently claimed that asbestos exposure in the courthouse where he presided caused him to develop cancer.

Amos Saunders, 80, said he was a victim of asbestos exposure throughout his 23 years as a judge in a Passaic County courthouse and that exposure led to his developing adenocarcinoma, according to The New Jersey Law Journal.

Saunders is suing Passaic County and two companies who performed asbestos removal work at the courthouse in the 1980s.

Why is Asbestos Exposure Dangerous?

People may be exposed to asbestos in their workplace, their communities, or their homes, according to the National Cancer Institute. When older homes or commercial buildings or products containing asbestos are dismantled or renovated, tiny asbestos fibers can get released into the air. When asbestos fibers are breathed in, they may get trapped in the lungs and remain there. They cause scarring and inflammation, which eventually interferes with breathing and can trigger lethal cancers such as mesothelioma.

Asbestos has been classified as a known human carcinogen (a substance that causes cancer) by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the EPA, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer Studies.

Who is Most Likely to Be a Victim of Asbestos Exposure?

People who have worked in certain occupations, such as construction workers, electricians, firefighters, car part production and car mechanics and those who served in the military, are at risk for the effects of asbestos exposure. So are members of their families who were exposed to the asbestos dust these workers unknowingly brought into the home on their clothes and tools.

But asbestos knows no occupation status or tax bracket. Even England’s Prince William and his family had to quickly move out of Kensington Palace during the removal asbestos discovered during repairs to their renowned ancestral home.

Palaces, courthouses and office buildings can be sources of asbestos exposure as much as shipyards and automobile plants. Unfortunately, because of many businesses prizing profits above people’s safety, we are all at risk for asbestos exposure. It is everyone’s problem.

Your Mesothelioma Settlement and Safe Investing

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This is a guest post by Patrick Collins of Schultz Collins Lawson Chambers, Inc., the firm we hired to advise us on how to handle Kazan Law’s pension funds, our charitable foundation’s funds, and that some of our partners hired to advise them on personal money management.

You cannot take fifteen pounds out of a ten pound sack. If a “safe” investment like a CD is unlikely to provide the funds for your critical lifestyle objectives, then that investment is not safe. 

mesothelioma settlementOK—you have made a budget for your mesothelioma settlement and you figure out that you need $x per month to pay for your target standard of living. Let’s say that you are age 60 and you want a $1 million nest egg to fund family-related expenses of $5,000 per month for 30 years. You realize two things: (1) that the cost of goods and services tend to go up in the future so you will have to adjust the $5,000 per month upwards to keep pace with inflation; and, (2) that investing means putting some or all of your money at risk. Ideally, you would like to preserve your target lifestyle by putting your nest-egg in safe one-year CDs at the bank.

You now have arrived at step two in the process of deciding how much risk, if any, you need to take with your mesothelioma settlement. So the big question is: how much money can you spend without taking any investment risk? In this example, if you can generate a 30-year income stream with a CD that does not put your mesothelioma settlement nest-egg at risk, you don’t need to own any risky investments.   You may want to own some growth-oriented investments; but you don’t need to own them.

Here is the central point: You cannot take fifteen pounds out of a ten pound sack. If a “safe” investment like a CD is unlikely to provide the funds for your critical lifestyle objectives, then that investment is not safe. It is unsuitable for you. This may be surprising because most consumer protection laws protect people from speculative or fraudulent investment schemes. However, in some situations, it is just as damaging to avoid risk as it is to take too much risk.

The posts provided by Schultz Collins Lawson Chambers, Inc. [SCLC] convey information on basic investment concepts.  They are intended to facilitate prudent investment decision making.   They should not, however, be the sole factor in making investment decisions; and, they are not intended to act as advice or recommendations for any specific investor.  SCLC acts as Independent Investment Counsel and is a Registered Investment Advisor.  It does not provide legal, accounting or tax advice; and the opinions expressed in the posts are solely those of SCLC.  You can find additional information about SCLC, their personnel, and client services at www.schultzcollins.com.

Veterans Face Higher Risk for Mesothelioma

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Veterans DayAs we observe Veterans Day on November 11, it is important to remember that veterans face higher risks for developing mesothelioma. Yes, sadly not only did our brave men and women in the armed forces confront gunfire and bombs from enemy forces and endure harsh battle conditions in far-off foreign lands, our veterans also face death from exposure to asbestos in the very ships and aircraft in which they served our country.

Symptoms of asbestos-related diseases, such as shortness of breath, coughing, and chest pain, often do not appear until 20 to 50 years after the exposure. These symptoms often indicate the presence of mesothelioma, a cancer that affects the lining of the lungs, and sometimes also the heart and abdomen.

While veterans represent 8% of our nation’s population, veterans comprise 30% of all known mesothelioma deaths that have occurred in this country.

How Veterans may have been exposed to asbestos

According to information from the Veterans Administration, veterans who served in any of the following occupations may have been exposed to asbestos: mining, milling, shipyard work, insulation work, demolition of old buildings, carpentry and construction, manufacturing and installation of products such as flooring and roofing.

Veterans who served in Iraq and other countries in that region could have been exposed to asbestos when older buildings were damaged and the contaminant released into the air.

Why Veterans Were Exposed to Asbestos

Asbestos was used in nearly every branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. The most common risks for asbestos exposure resulted from insulation used in ships, vehicles, and aircraft from the early 1900s until the 1970s.

A fire at sea aboard a warship would have caused a huge loss of lives and loss of a major Navy asset. The same could be said about the potential for exploding fighter planes. Asbestos seemed at the time a way to prevent these catastrophes. Because of its insulating properties, the extensive asbestos was a key aspect in the construction of ships, planes and other warcraft for many years.

Thousands of veterans have since suffered related illnesses due to exposure during their service.

Compensation benefits for health problems

Veterans may file a claim for disability compensation for health problems related to exposure to asbestos during military service. You can File a claim online with the VA. Every veteran has ‎the right to sue and that’s why they need a good attorney to help them.

The Ammunition to Win Your Mesothelioma Lawsuit

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mesothelioma lawsuitWhether or not you win your mesothelioma lawsuit hinges on many factors. Because some are not in your control, it is crucial that you determine what is in your control and do your utmost to provide very best most thorough information you can in those areas. Your asbestos attorney should guide you in this. That is why it is so important to choose an experienced top quality law firm to handle your mesothelioma lawsuit and not just someone promoting themselves on a late night commercial.

Pennsylvania Mesothelioma Lawsuit Dismissed For Lack of Evidence

A Pennsylvania higher court recently threw out a widow’s mesothelioma lawsuit against several large companies because of speculative evidence. The widow was relying solely on one of her husband’s coworker’s memory of asbestos in the products at various sites where they worked as bricklayers. The courts ruled this was not enough.

I read about this case in Legal Newsline, a law newsletter. The article stated that the key witness was allowed to rely just on his own “knowledge and belief” that certain products contained asbestos. An appellate judge upheld a lower court decision that this was “speculative” and dismissed the case.

This decision is good news for the defendants General Electric Company, Georgia Pacific LLC, CBS Corporation-Westinghouse, Goulds Pumps, Inc., Zurn Industries and Trane US Inc. because now they do not have pay for the harm they allegedly caused Henry Krauss. Mr. Krauss died from mesothelioma, a cancer caused only by asbestos exposure. His widow Colleen Krauss brought the mesothelioma lawsuit.

The Evidence Needed to Win a Mesothelioma Lawsuit

In our firm’s 40 years of filing over 2,000 cases, winning multi-million dollar verdicts for our clients and pioneering precedent-setting asbestos litigation, we have developed expertise in mesothelioma lawsuits. We know the intricacies of asbestos litigation and what it takes to successfully take a case through the court system. Our team of experienced lawyers, paralegals and investigators track down company memos, reports and in a recent case, a 50 year-old product catalog to provide the evidence the courts require to successfully move a mesothelioma lawsuit forward. Learn more here about what information you need to prove asbestos exposure in a mesothelioma lawsuit.

Specific evidence is vital. It exists and can be found. Our case histories are proof. Lawyers with fancy ads but without adequate experience, staff and financial resources to invest in a case are less likely to do the work needed to find the evidence it takes to win. You only have one case – if you pick the best lawyer you have the best‎ chance to win.

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