James Ferraro Sr
James Ferraro Jr

The Ferraro Law Firm has secured a $17 million verdict on behalf of a former construction worker who was diagnosed with mesothelioma. Jurors found the plaintiff’s terminal cancer was caused in large part by exposure to asbestos found in the defendant’s joint compound product.

The complex case of Taylor v. Georgia Pacific, before the Florida Southern District Court in Miami, was handled by the experienced, dedicated legal team of James Ferraro and James Ferraro Jr.

Defendant Georgia Pacific was found to be 55 percent liable for the plaintiff’s illness, and thus it will pay approximately $9.5 million to him and his wife.

While most mesothelioma lawsuits involve asbestos exposure that occurred decades ago, this case was noteworthy and especially challenging for the fact that the exposure not only happened in the late 1970s, but that it took place overseas, in Saudi Arabia. This presented a series of unique hurdles in terms of discovery, which is the fact-finding phase that happens pretrial.

In spite of this, Ferraro and Ferraro Jr. were able to produce a substantial amount of evidence of exposure to the defendant’s harmful products.

The plaintiff was in charge of supervising painting crews while working on a military housing project in Saudi Arabia where on site workers used a joint compound known as “Ready-Mix” which was manufactured by the defendant. The product was used for drywall finishing. The painting crews did not use the product directly, but before painting, they had to do a significant amount of sanding. That sanding created a lot of dust which contained asbestos.

Asbestos is a toxic mineral used in building products. It can be very lethal when dust particles are breathed into the lungs. The full effects of this exposure typically are not apparent until many years later, as was the case here.

The 74-year-old plaintiff was diagnosed early in 2014 and his medical treatments have been in the hundreds of thousands.

The plaintiffs claimed negligence against the defendant for failure to properly test the compound or warn users of its known harmful effects. The defendant company is well known by those who handle asbestos litigation. So far, it has faced more than 350,000 product liability lawsuits for its use of asbestos in a wide array of products.

The legal team had to sift through many years’ worth of evidence – investigating the plaintiff’s entire life history in order to eliminate other potential sources of asbestos exposure. This was critical in order to prove causation.

Examining the plaintiff’s work history in Saudi Arabia involved uncovering invoices of the products sold in that country. Although the invoices didn’t reveal a substantial number of purchases for the joint compound, the legal team had to explain to jurors that the compound was sold as a system with the defendant’s wallboard. Invoices revealed numerous purchases of the wallboard and show very few customers bought the wallboard without the joint compound.

Ultimately, the jury found Georgia-Pacific was negligent and its product harmed Taylor, assigning 55 percent of the liability for Taylor’s damages to the company.

Taylor was found 15 percent liable, and his employer, a subsidiary of Raytheon, was found 30 percent liable.

Read more: http://www.dailybusinessreview.com/id=1202735723985/FatherSon-Lawyers-Win-95-Million-for-Mesothelioma-Patient#ixzz3n498aACv
Help for mesothelioma victims can be found at The Ferraro Law Firm by calling (888) 554-2030​. Offices in Miami and Washington, D.C.

Additional Resources:
Father-Son Lawyers Win $9.5 Million for Mesothelioma Patient, Aug. 26, 2015, Celia Ampel, Daily Business Review

More Blog Entries:
Jury Awards $1.42 Million to Widow in Mesothelioma Lawsuit, Aug. 4, 2015, Florida Asbestos Lawyer Blog

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