Top Plaintiffs' Verdicts by Dollar: Whalen v. John Crane Inc.

About two months after being diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma - a rare, aggressive cancer of the lining of the lung often caused by exposure to asbestos - U.S. Navy veteran Robert Whalen reached out to Brayton Purcell LLP to file suit against John Crane Inc.

As a machinist's mate and nuclear inspector aboard nuclear submarines for 26 years, Whalen had worked extensively with John Crane products containing asbestos.

Jennifer L. Alesio, a Brayton Purcell senior trial associate, represented Whalen and his wife, Linda Whalen, against John Crane in claims of negligence, design defect and failure to warn, and was able to persuade a jury to award the Whalens more than $70.861 million in damages.

The award included $40 million in non-economic damages for Robert Whalen, $30 million in loss of consortium damages for Linda Whalen, and $861,113 in economic damages. Whalen v. John Crane Inc., RG14711964 (Alameda Co. Super. Ct., filed Jan. 29, 2014).

According to Daniel J. O'Connell, managing partner at one of John Crane's defense firms, O'Connell, Tivin, Miller & Burns LLC, "the valuation is just way, way too high."

"If you put all the loss of consortium verdicts together for asbestos in California, they don't total what this woman got," O'Connell said, adding that his team has filed a notice of appeal.

Alesio disagreed, saying she had science on her side. In speaking with jurors after the trial, she said "it was clear" they had felt the defense experts' scientific and medical evidence "was intentionally manipulated to be industry-friendly."

Much like the tobacco industry's efforts to "muddle up the scientific consensus on how bad tobacco was," Alesio said, "they hire fairly well-qualified scientists to find ways to publish articles in the peer reviewed literature and create artificial doubt. They try to use that as a shield against the avalanche of peer-reviewed literature that discusses the hazards associated with asbestos."

Alesio views the case as a victory on multiple levels. First, she said, "this shows that the asbestos industry does not get to buy the science that they want to have." In addition, she said Linda Whalen got "the best sense of justice that the civil system permits." And on a personal level, Alesio said it's a "great privilege" to be able to represent people like the Whalens.

"[Mr. Whalen] spent a career in service to this country and I'm glad that he has some small measure of justice, given the amount of pain he had to go through," she said.

Mr. Whalen died late last month at age 69.

- Alison Frost