Hernandezcueva v. E. F. Brady Company Inc. et al.

DOLLAR AMOUNT: $107.3 million

CASE NAME: Hernandezcueva v. E. F. Brady Company Inc. et al.

TYPE OF CASE: Product liability, asbestos exposure

COURT: Los Angeles County Superior Court

JUDGE(S): Judge Cary Nishimoto

PLAINTIFF LAWYERS: Dean, Omar, Branham & Shirley LLP, Benjamin H. Adams, Rachel Gross, Jonathan George:

DEFENSE LAWYERS: Hawkins, Parnell & Young LLP, Jerry C. Popovich; DeHay & Elliston LLP, Heather L. Weakley, William H. Armstrong; Polsinelli LLP, Mary T. McKelvey, Stephen M. Nichols, David K. Schultz, Andrew D. Silverman, Amari L. Hammonds

Litigation on behalf of the family of an immigrant janitor who died of mesothelioma in 2014 has been "a very tricky case," according to Benjamin Adams, the lead attorney who has been with the case and the family since before the lawsuit was filed in 2011.

Along the way, he and his team won two appeals to keep the case alive, leading finally to a $107 million jury verdict on July 11 last year.

RACHEL GROSS

But then "the judge refused to enter a judgment on the verdict," Adams said. It took an order from the Court of Appeal before the judge finally entered judgment on Oct. 25, more than 100 days past the statutory 24-hour deadline, he said.

And 48 days after that, on Dec. 12, the judge granted judgments notwithstanding the verdict for all three remaining defendants. Hernandezcueva v. E.F. Brady Co. Inc., BC475956 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Dec. 27, 2011).

"The judgment entered did not result in any recovery for plaintiffs," Jerry C. Popovich, who represents E.F. Brady Co., wrote in an email. "This is a defense win."

The judge's decision cited juror misconduct and insufficient evidence among the grounds for his JNOV ruling -- which Adams said he expects to reverse on appeal.

In the 1990s, Joel Hernandezcueva was hired to clean up the debris left behind from the remodeling and reconfiguring of the Park Place complex in Irvine, which had been Fluor Corp.'s headquarters. About a quarter of the walls were knocked down, all of which had been built in the 1970s with a joint compound containing asbestos, Adams said.

The litigation, launched while Hernandezcueva was sick, has had "a long, long tortured history," the attorney said. The plaintiffs lost the first trial in 2013 but won an appellate reversal. The case was thrown out right before a scheduled trial in 2018, which also was reversed.

The most recent trial began in May. Adams said his team was able to prove that all the asbestos was produced by Union Carbide, the primary defendant. "We won because we got our evidence in, and the evidence against Union Carbide is just utterly damning," he said.

After repeated and protracted battles, the plaintiffs were able to introduce "a significant number of their terrible, terrible documents into evidence," he said. "But we were only able to do it like a day or two before we rested."

JONATHAN GEORGE

Among them, he said, was a book that Union Carbide medical directors circulated in 1963 that said asbestos "causes cardiac arrest, respiratory embarrassment and death." But they added, "don't show it to the workers," Adams said.

The documents were a major reason for the jury's verdict, Adams said. But so too was Hernandezcueva himself and his wife and four children. The man was "the absolute greatest father." He still chokes up talking about the children.

"The very first thing he said when he was diagnosed at 43 wasn't 'I'm scared,' even though he was. It wasn't 'why me,' even though I'm sure he thought it. The very first thing he said was, 'I got young kids.' It's written down in his medical records."

"The jury just valued his life," Adams said.

-- Don DeBenedictis