Douglas B. King

We and co-counsel represented our client, a subsidiary of an automobile company, in the wrongful death case brought by a mechanic’s family. The mechanic had worked in one of our client’s dealerships for one to two years in 1965-1966 and worked on our client’s brakes and clutches. The family claimed the mechanic was exposed to asbestos from these products, which caused his pleural malignant mesothelioma, and our client should have warned him that could happen. We argued and provided supporting evidence that our client didn’t know at the time that any health hazards were associated with the mechanic’s work with such friction materials, and that any asbestos emitted from those materials did not cause the mechanic’s mesothelioma. The jury returned a defense verdict that our client was not liable.