John, a retired plumber, worked on several large commercial buildings throughout the San Francisco area for over 40 years. From 1961 until 2008 John worked as a plumber for FDCC California Inc. where the nature of his occupation caused him to frequently be exposed to Kaiser Gypsum Co.’s asbestos containing joint compound and wall-boards. He was also exposed to many other company’s asbestos containing products. John was diagnosed in January 2010 with mesothelioma, a fatal cancer that is exclusively caused by exposure to asbestos. He and his wife of 40 years, Patricia, are now burdened with the inevitable result of John’s mesothelioma cancer.

While working for FDCC John was frequently exposed to asbestos dust. He argued and provided evidence showing that the hazards of exposure to asbestos have been known since the 1920s. Additionally, asbestos exposure’s correlation to mesothelioma cancer may have being widely known by as early as the 1950s, nearly a decade before John’s asbestos exposure to Kaiser’s asbestos containing products began.

John’s case was heard in two separate trials. His favorable verdicts were announced roughly 7 weeks apart. In March, following a 14 week trial and over 2 weeks of deliberations, the San Francisco jury decided that both Kaiser, and FDCC California Inc., formerly Dinwiddie Construction Co., had acted with negligence. It was illustrated through credible and coherent evidence that both companies acted with oppression and malice. Kaiser’s asbestos containing pipe joint compounds and wallboards had defective designs. In addition, Kaiser failed to warn consumers and users of these defective products of their dangerous asbestos defect. FDCC acted with negligence due to their thoughtless sweeping up of debris containing asbestos from Kaiser’s products that resulted in the formation of clouds of asbestos dust.

The verdict awarded John and Patricia $20.2 million and included $1.2 million in economic damages, $5 million in loss of consortium damages, and an additional $15 million in non-economic damages. However, the jury’s apportionment of fault will lower the amount of compensatory damages John and Patricia will receive. FDCC was given 7 percent of the fault, while Kaiser was given 3.5 percent. Of the $20.2 million in compensatory damages, John will receive $2.8 million from FDCC and $1.8 million for Kaiser. The remaining 89.5 percent of fault was apportioned between 10 other companies that settled prior to the verdict. These companies settled in various amounts totaling $7.8 million.

Following the compensatory award came a later award of $20 million for punitive damages in May. This verdict came after a three week trial and one half day of deliberations. The jury’s decision was unanimous.