Manville, NJ Families Receive $90.5 M Verdict Against Foreign Asbestos Giant
NEW BRUNSWICK, New Jersey (PRWEB) July 03, 2014 -- Verdicts totaling $90.5 Million in 11 mesothelioma death cases (1) – including a mother and daughter – were rendered by the Superior Court of Middlesex County after years of litigation and a week of hearings before the Honorable Ana C. Viscomi.
According to court documents, the plaintiff families – represented by the law firms of Levy Konigsberg and Szaferman Lakind – sued Anova Holding, AG and Becon, AG for the asbestos that they sold to Johns-Manville and which proximately caused their mesotheliomas – a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.
The lawyers for the families utilized the procedures of international treaties to serve Anova and Becon (both foreign entities) with the complaints. Neither defendant appeared or answered the complaints. Undeterred, the plaintiffs successfully obtained Default Judgments against these companies, and again served them with notice of the scheduled Proof Hearings through The Hague Convention procedures.
Starting on June 20, 2014, court hearings were held to award damages to these families. The families were represented at the hearings by Leah Kagan and Moshe Maimon of Levy Konigsberg, and testimony of the mesothelioma victims, their families, and expert witnesses concluded on June 26, 2014. After deliberating upon the evidence, the Court awarded damages to each family for the pain and suffering of the mesothelioma victims and loss of consortium to their spouses. According to Kagan, “These families have suffered horribly at the hands of companies like Anova and Becon, and we are proud to represent them in their brave and unrelenting quest for justice.”
According to the lawsuit papers, Anova Holding, AG and Becon, AG are successors to the Eternit group of companies, which mined asbestos in South Africa, primarily, and sold it throughout the world, including to the Johns-Manville Company. In 2012, two executives from Eternit, family heir Stephan Schmidheiny and Belgian billionaire Baron Louis de Cartier de Marchienne, were convicted in a highly publicized criminal trial in Turin, Italy for their mining and sale of asbestos. They were held responsible for the deaths of almost 3,000 people (2).
Levy Konigsberg LLP is a nationally recognized trial law firm specializing in the representation of mesothelioma and other asbestos cancer victims. For more details about the hearing and judgment, contact Leah Kagan or Moshe Maimon.
(1) Tuturice v. Anova Holdings AG, et al., No. MID-L-2030-10AS (N.J. Super., Middlesex County); DiTolvo v. Anova Holdings AG, et al., No. MID-L-0464-10AS (N.J. Super., Middlesex County); Durlester v. Anova Holdings AG, et al., No. MID-L-9677-08AS (N.J. Super., Middlesex County); Greene v. Anova Holdings AG, et al., No. MID-L-8113-09AS (N.J. Super., Middlesex County); Ketchem v. Anova Holdings AG, et al., No. MID-L-10217-08AS (N.J. Super., Middlesex County); Koshinsky v. Anova Holdings AG, et al., No. MID-L-4059-08AS (N.J. Super., Middlesex County); Lindsay v. Anova Holdings AG, et al., No. MID-L-6858-09AS (N.J. Super., Middlesex County); Slepokura v. Anova Holdings AG, et al., No. MID-L-7717-09AS (N.J. Super., Middlesex County); Tafil v. Anova Holdings AG, et al., No. MID-L-215-09AS (N.J. Super., Middlesex County); Troth v. Anova Holdings AG, et al., No. MID-L-9794-09AS (N.J. Super., Middlesex County); Upshaw v. Anova Holdings AG, et al., No. MID-L-7638-11AS (N.J. Super., Middlesex County).
(2) The Telegraph, 02/13/2012: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9079381/Pair-sentenced-to-16-years-in-Italy-asbestos-trial.html
Leah Kagan, Levy Konigsberg LLP, http://www.levylaw.com/mesothelioma-attorneys.php, +1 212-605-6200, [email protected]
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