One of the largest verdicts ever awarded in Missouri, a jury held a former Lee’s Summit, MO police officer, his brother and their religious cult followers responsible for the death of the officer’s wife and their stillborn child. After a botched home-birth, the defendants_ citing religious beliefs_ kept the woman from receiving medical attention. The woman, whose parents filed the suit, died 31 days later. During the trial, our lawyers introduced evidence that proved the cult leaders brainwashed the woman, Misty Mansfield, and convinced her to have an at home birth with no pre-natal care or doctor visits during the pregnancy.
Our firm_ one of the country’s most renowned toxic tort litigants_ represented the state of Pennsylvania in this lengthy and complex case. After a 15-month-long trial, Monsanto was found liable for the toxic PCBs that were found in the duct work of the Pennsylvania Transportation and Safety building in Harrisburg after a fire which heavily damaged the building. The PCBs left the building irreparably contaminated and the state had to tear it down and rebuild.
Our firm represented a husband and wife entrepreneur team who sold their software business to HMS in 2010 but were never given the 2011 and 2012 “earn-out” payments which were contingent on profits related to the sale. Testimony during the trial showed that HMS never produced any auditable record of its profits during that two-year period.
Lawsuit brought against companies that made popcorn butter flavoring chemicals. Our personal injury lawyers proved that the manufacturers concealed and failed to warn of the dangers of exposure to diacetyl, causing a worker to sustain injuries.
Personal Injury case brought on behalf of the family members of a woman who was killed in after she was rear-ended by a truck.
The plaintiff in this case contracted a debilitating lung disease at his workplace in Lebanon, MO. He was responsible for cleaning and maintaining scrolling equipment at an air conditioner compressor manufacturing company and was exposed to molds, microbes and bacteria used in the fluids used to cool cutting tools and surfaces.
This wrongful death action was brought after 73-year-old female died of heart and lung disease after smoking cigarettes manufactured by the defendant for over a period of 50 years.
Attorneys at Humphrey Farrington & McClain PC in Independence won a $20.6 million verdict Tuesday for their client Jodelle Kirk, after a jury determined Joplin-based FAG Bearings was liable for exposing her to a toxic chemical.
A worker at a popcorn manufacturing plant in Missouri and his wife sued the manufacturers after he was diagnosed with popcorn lung. He was assigned to the plant’s mixing room where his exposure to diacetyl caused the illness. Our lawyers proved that the manufacturer knew the product was dangerous and failed to provide adequate safety instruction.
Our attorneys won this case for the owners of a Minneapolis office, hotel and retail complex. The center was built in the 1960s, a time when fireproofing materials used in the construction routinely contained asbestos. The owners sued the company that provided the fireproofing material.
Our lawyers represented a family who lost four female loved ones in an accident caused by a tractor trailer rig that crashed into them on Interstate 70 near Columbia, MO. A federal jury found the trucking company liable for negligence. After the jury awarded $15 million in actual damages, it began considering how much to award in punitive damages. Two days later, the trucking company agreed to pay $18 million to the family members.
One of the first plaintiffs verdict in a smokers liability case, our lawyers represented a Kansas City, KS man who developed peripheral vascular disease after 43 years of smoking cigarettes and had to have both his legs amputated. After hearing evidence that showed the tobacco companies had known about the dangers of smoking years before publicly acknowledging it, the jury awarded the plaintiff $200,000. A few months later, the judge ordered R.J. Reynolds to pay $15 million in punitive damages.
It took only 15 minutes for a jury to side with the microwave popcorn factory worker represented by our lawyers. The factory worker sued IFF, the world’s largest flavoring manufacturer, after he developed bronchiolitis obliterans (also known as popcorn lung) from his exposure to diacetyl.
Around the same time as the Brand case, our lawyers represented another worker at the same microwave popcorn factory in Jasper, MO. The 35-year-old employee, who had worked at the factory for 12 years, sued the flavor manufacturer after he developed bronchiolitis obliterans. His case also ended in a favorable jury verdict.
Our firm was a key part of the team that successfully represented Kansas City in one of the largest judgments involving property damage caused by asbestos. Keene Corporation supplied asbestos products for the construction of Kansas City International Airport between 1969 and 1972 even though they knew the products were hazardous. The jury awarded $8 million to the city in actual damages for the asbestos removal and $6.25 million in punitive damages.
In this bench trial, a judge ordered compensatory and punitive damages to a journeyman mechanic at the coal-fired Montrose Station power plant in Clinton, MO. The mechanic, represented by attorneys for Humphrey, Farrington & McClain, was exposed to sulfur and sulfur compounds which caused him to develop occupational asthma. Evidence presented to the judge showed that KCP&L did not provide the plaintiff with respiratory protection to wear while performing repairs on the sulfur injection system.
Ronald Kuiper, a butter-flavoring mixer at an American Popcorn Company plant, developed bronchiolitis obliterans and sued the flavoring manufacturer for selling the butter flavor containing diacetyl. The jury, after six days of deliberation, found that Givaudan was fully responsible. At trial, attorneys for Humphrey, Farrington & McClain showed the jury that Givaudan Flavors had eight cases of bronchiolitis obliterans at its plant in Cincinnati where the flavor was made before Mr. Kuiper went to work at American Popcorn in Sioux City, IA.
The first consumer of microwave popcorn diagnosed with Popcorn Lung (Bronchiolitis Obliterans) received a $7,267,000 lawsuit verdict in Federal Court in Denver against Gilster-Mary Lee Corporation, Kroger Co and Dillon Companies.
A jury determined that the plant worker’s exposure to diacetyl caused his lung disease and found Polarome strictly liable for failure to warn and manufacturing defective and unreasonably dangerous products. During the trial, our lawyers revealed evidence that Polarome knew that diacetyl was capable of causing Jung disease by the early 1980s but never told the companies that it sold its flavoring products to.
A former mechanic at a St. Joseph, MO food manufacturing plant was exposed to butter-flavoring agents, including diacetyl, while he worked there. He suffered progressive lung damage and sued the manufacturers. Our attorneys reached a settlement with the last defendant while a jury was being selected.
Case brought after a man contracted mesothelioma from ceiling tiles that contained asbestos. The companies that manufactured the tiles knew or should have known of the hazardous nature of asbestos long before the client was exposed to their products.
In an action involving General Conference’s former headquarters building in suburban Washington D.C., our lawyers secured a verdict that supported General Conference’s strict liability and negligence claims. W.R. Grace installed asbestos-laden fireproofing during the construction of the building in 1971.
The firm represented 264 people who were enticed into enrolling at Wright Career College’s five campuses in Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska. They were victims of a common scheme devised by the school’s administrators in which they were promised a quality education and well-paying job upon graduating in exchange for taking out thousands of dollars in student loans. These students, many of whom learned after graduating that employers would not hire students from that school because of its horrible reputation, were saddled with debts they could not repay.
Personal injury lawsuit brought after a 36-year-old worker suffered progressive lung damage during his employment with a nonparty popcorn company that flavored its popcorn with a butter flavoring manufactured and supplied by the defendants.
This wrongful death lawsuit was brought after a 57-year-old male died when the boat in which he was a passenger was struck by the defendants’ boat, operated by the male codefendant, on a public lake.
After four weeks of testimony, this jury became the first Missouri jury to decide in favor of the plaintiff in a tobacco case. The 53-year-old plaintiff, from Blue Springs, MO, was stricken with throat cancer caused by smoking Marlboro and GPC brand cigarettes. He sued for negligence and strict product liability.
The firm obtained this settlement for the family of a Pomona, CA man who was killed after the vehicle he was driving on Interstate I 0 in Arizona was rear-ended by a Peterbilt truck owned by the defendant. The truck driver was seen disposing of the log books that tracked his hours on the road.
This verdict was the first trial victory in the country for a school district against an asbestos products manufacturer. Our attorneys convinced the jury that U.S. Gypsum had known about the dangers of asbestos since 1930 but kept them secret from their buyers.