Mesothelioma Death Leads to $107 Million Jury Award

After a two-phase trial, a twelve-person California jury awarded the family of a 46-year-old janitor who died of malignant pleural mesothelioma a remarkable $107 million in compensatory and punitive damages. The defendants in the case were Union Carbide Corporation, E.F. Brady Co., Inc., and Elementis Chemicals.

On-the-Job Asbestos Exposure Blamed for Janitor’s Malignant Mesothelioma

The victim in the case, Joel Hernandezcueva, died of malignant mesothelioma in April 2014. Mr. Hernandezcueva was only 46 at the time of his death, but decades had passed since the time he’d worked at a Fluor facility in Irvine, California between 1992 and 1995. In his role as a maintenance employee at the location known as Park Place, he’d suffered constant exposure to asbestos when the property underwent demolition. Asbestos-contaminated walls were removed as part of the structure’s tenement improvement project, and he was further exposed while doing daily cleanup and routine maintenance work.

Though there were several different sources of asbestos exposure over the years, Mr. Hernandezcueva’s family focused their mesothelioma lawsuit on the dual-purpose joint compound that was used on every wall at Park Place. That compound was manufactured by E.F. Brady Company, Inc., and supplied by Union Carbide Corporation.

Significant Damages in Mesothelioma Suit Tied to Defendant’s Knowledge of Risk Posed by Asbestos

The $107 million jury verdict was a direct response to evidence that Union Carbide was aware of asbestos’ danger that was presented on behalf of the mesothelioma victim. Various expert witnesses testified to the fact that Mr. Hernandezcueva had never been warned of asbestos’ danger, and that, as his attorneys asserted, “For decades, Union Carbide told its customers its asbestos was ‘different,’ ‘innocuous,’ and ‘not harmful,’ while its internal corporate documents revealed the truth: thousands – people such as Joel – would die.”

The jury assigned the three companies to pay the mesothelioma victim’s family $32 million in compensatory damages and $75 million in punitive damages, with both figures subject to interest fees. Union Carbide was assigned 46.4% of the blame as a result of what the jury viewed as malice.