Personal Injury Law

Judge Asks Appeals Court to Uphold $7 Mil. Asbestos Verdict Against No-Show Defendant

By asbestoshub

Quoted from http://thelegalintelligencer.typepad.com/tli/2010/11/judge-asks-appeals-court-to-uphold-7-mil-asbestos-verdict-against-no-show-defendant.html

 

Judge Asks Appeals Court to Uphold $7 Mil. Asbestos Verdict Against No-Show Defendant

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

Thursday, November 04, 2010

A Philadelphia judge has asked the state Superior Court to uphold a $7 million damage award for a plaintiff against a defendant that failed to appear at trial.

Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Senior Judge Sheldon C. Jelin, writing in a Sept. 30 opinion explaining his reasoning to the appellate court, said that Melrath Supply and Gasket Co. and Melrath Gasket Inc., of Philadelphia, did not defend themselves in a bench trial in Russell v. A.W. Chesterton Co.

The Legal reported Sept. 28 that Jelin upheld a $10 million award in another case, Schroeder v. Anchor Darling Valve Co., in which the Melrath defendants did not defend themselves.

Russell went to trial Feb. 9 on the heels of an order by Judge Sandra Mazer Moss, the coordinating judge of Philadelphia’s mass torts Complex Litigation Center, that all defenses available to the Melrath defendants were stricken when they defied the discovery process. The Melrath defendants also did not appear to present a defense at trial.

[Article continues at original source]

Full post as published by Asbestos HUB on November 05, 2010 (boomark / email).