Malek v. Blackmer Pumps
Feb 17, 2016OUTCOME: $5.2 million dollar verdict (40% fault for Fluor entities) with finding of malice - with a settlement substantially higher
Malek v. Blackmer Pumps. I represented an 82 year old man suffering from mesothelioma (a terminal asbestos cancer) and his wife. He was born in Iran and was a longtime Orange County resident. He worked ... for years at the Abadan Oil Refinery in Iran, beginning in the early 1950s and continuing until 1979. Fluor Corporation (and two of its subsidiaries) built two major refinery units, a Catalytic Reformer (aka Unifiner-Platformer) in the early 1960s and a Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) in the late 1970s at the refinery. The Fluor defendants used asbestos-containing products, including insulation, without taking any precautions to protect the refinery workers. Moreover, they specified and installed asbestos insulation in Iran when it was banned for use in the United States for well known health hazards. We proved at trial that Fluor had leftover asbestos insulation from a prior project that the company sold / supplied for use in the CDU project to maximize profit without regard for the health and safety of the refinery workers. The jury returned a verdict of $5.2 million with a 40% fault allocation to the 3 Fluor entities and found two of them acted with malice. Fluor Corporation was worth several billion dollars and it settled the case for substantially more than the verdict while the jury deliberated on the malice claim.
