Legal News

CA Supremes won't hear asbestos case

By Richard Binder

The California Supreme Court has denied a petition to review an asbestos liability case in which a Los Angeles judge blasted the plaintiff's firm, Waters & Kraus, for engaging in a "type of judicially sanctioned extortion."

The case involves a Los Angeles man who died of mesothelioma in December 2007. Six months before his death, the man was deposed in Texas, where the case was first filed. Lawyers for one of the defendants, Crane Co., an industrial product manufacturer, sought to exclude the man's deposition because it was insufficient to meet the stricter burden for obtaining summary judgment in California, where the case had been re-filed.

On April 7, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Aurelio Munoz refused to grant summary judgment but concluded that Waters & Kraus had re-filed the case in California to force a settlement. A state intermediate court of appeal denied a petition to review the case, which led Crane to petition the Supreme Court.  And on July 8, the justices refused to grant a hearing for Crane's petition.

Full story at NLJ.com.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on July 14, 2009 (boomark / email).