Danysh, et al. v. Anova Holding AG, et al.
Jun 26, 2014OUTCOME: $90.5 million in verdicts for 11 plaintiffs
Wrongful death verdicts totaling $90.5 Million in 11 mesothelioma lawsuits, including a mother and daughter, were rendered by the Superior Court of Middlesex County after years of litigation and a week ... of hearings before the Honorable Ana C. Viscomi. The plaintiff families from Manville, NJ, represented by Leah Kagan of Levy Konigsberg, LLP filed lawsuits against Anova Holding, AG, and Becon, AG, for the asbestos that they sold to Johns-Manville in 1950s – 1980s and which proximately caused their mesotheliomas, a lethal cancer caused by asbestos exposure. The families' lawyers utilized the procedures of international treaties to serve Anova and Becon with the complaints, as both companies are foreign entities. Neither defendant appeared or answered the complaints. Undeterred, the plaintiffs successfully obtained Default Judgments against these companies, and again served them with notice of the scheduled Proof Hearings through The Hague Convention procedures. Starting on June 20, 2014, court hearings were held to award damages to these families. Testimony of the mesothelioma victims, their families, and expert witnesses concluded on June 26, 2014. After deliberating upon the evidence, the Court awarded damages to each family for the pain and suffering of the mesothelioma victims and loss of consortium to their spouses. Anova Holding, AG, and Becon, AG, are successors to Eternit, an international asbestos conglomerate, which mined the mineral in South Africa, primarily, and sold it worldwide, including to the Johns-Manville Company. In 2012, two executives from Eternit, family heir Stephan Schmidheiny and Belgian billionaire Baron Louis de Cartier de Marchienne, were convicted in a highly publicized criminal trial in Turin, Italy, for their mining and sale of asbestos. They were held responsible for the deaths of almost 3,000 people.
