Confidential
Settlement – $4,270,000Court
L.A. Superior Compton
Attorneys
Plaintiff
Defendant
Experts
Plaintiff
Nathan Lehr
(medical)
Derrick Walker
(technical)
Paul Jordan
(technical)
Abel Salazar
(technical)
Martin Stallings
(technical)
Madison Richardson
(medical)
Raymond Block
(technical)
Arthur Dostrow
(medical)
Constance Klein
(technical)
Bruce S. Gillis
(medical)
Stuart Lonky
(medical)
David L. Friedman
(medical)
Marianne Inouye MBA
(technical)
Elizabeth Holakiewicz RN
(medical)
Facts
On April 14, 1994, the plaintiff husband, a 35-year-old cement finisher's helper, was working for an independent contractor doing work at a local refinery. The defendant refinery's workers and the defendant maintenance company's workers inadvertently released toxic chemicals from a tank that was being taken out of service. Unaware of the release, the plaintiff husband walked through the chemical cloud without respitory protection. The plaintiff husband claimed he sustained severe and permanent injuries. The plaintiffs, husband and wife, brought this action against the refinery and the maintenance company based on negligence, failure to warn and loss of consortium theories of recovery.
Specials in Evidence
$212,500 (per the plaintiff) $1 million to $3 million.
Injuries
The plaintiff husband alleged he sustained severe pulmonary obstruction and stenosis, reactive airway disease and chemically induced asthma. He claimed that his injuries required four hospitalizations and that he suffered a "code blue" during one of those hospitalizations. The plaintiff husband also alleged that his breathing was so restricted that he was required to have a tracheotomy in place for approximately one year, and that he remained totally and permanently disabled and was and is steroid dependent. The plaintiff husband alleged he was rendered impotent as a result of his injuries and treatment. The plaintiff wife claimed loss of consortium.
Other Information
The settlement was reached approximately two years and five months after the case was filed. A mediation was held before Judge Jack T. Ryburn, retired, of JAMS/Endispute resulting in the gross settlement of $4.27 million. The plaintiff-in-intervention received $150,000 plus a credit in the workers' compensation action and a dismissal of the Labor Code º132(a) petition.
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