Below are summaries of our trials from 2026
Roy Pro v. General Electric Company, et al.
Civil Jury Trial
Superior Court – State of California – City and County of San Francisco
Judge: Hon. Stephen Murphy
Trial Type: Multiple myeloma and asbestosis – retired career marine carpenter who worked from 1975 to 1996 throughout San Francisco Bay Area shipyards including Bethlehem Shipyard (Pier 70), Triple A Machine Shop Hunters Point, Port Richmond Shipyard, SF Welding & Fabrication Inc., Southwest Marine (Pier 70), Todd Shipyard (Pier 70), San Francisco Drydock (pier 70) on various war ships, oil tankers and other vessels with and around other trades using asbestos-containing products including thermal insulation, insulating cements, pipe covering, refractory, asbestos panel board, pads and other materials.
Case settled the afternoon before commencement of jury selection as to all case defendants in excess of $750,000.00.
April 2026
Patricia Sodaro, et vir vs. Westside Building Materials Corporation et al.
Civil Jury Trial
Superior Court – State of California – City and County of San Francisco
Judge: Hon. Daniel A. Flores, Judge Presiding
Trial Type: Para-occupational/take-home asbestos exposure suffered by plaintiff (Career Nurse at UC Irvine Medical Center and lifetime non-smoker) as an infant and youngster living from her birth in 1955 until 1978 in her parents family home. Her father, now deceased, worked as a career plasterer by trade at various jobsites, including with Willis Ayers Plastering, Fullerton, California and for the County of Los Angeles, working at Martin Luther King Jr Hospital, multiple household tract home developments, banks and other commercial jobs applying exterior stucco products (“scratch, brown and finish coats”) including Zonolite. Her father would wear his work clothes home driving the family car she regularly rode in herself. She helped her mother do the laundry including washing her fathers work clothes that were regularly covered with dust from the products he worked with as a plasterer. The family home was contaminated with the dust brought home from work on her fathers work clothes. She developed lung disease, diagnosed in 2022, including asbestosis and asbestos-caused diaphragmatic pleural plaques from her asbestos exposures riding in the family car and laundering her fathers work clothes.
Case settled during jury selection in excess of $500,000.00 as to all case defendants.
March/April 2026
Noreen Rechsteiner, Successor-in-Interest and Wrongful Death Hier of Victor Rechsteiner, Deceased, et al. vs. Hennessy Industries, Inc. (AMMCO), et al.
Civil Jury Trial
Superior Court – State of California, City and County of San Francisco
Judge: Hon. Alexandra Robert Gordon, Judge Presiding
Trial Type: Wrongful death (age 69) from cancer of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract of retired automobile parts store Delivery Man (1977-79) promoted to Counter Clerk/Store Manager (1980-2001) at Quality Brake Supply, Inc. of San Francisco exposed to asbestos from the arcing and grinding of Bendix and Carlisle asbestos-containing brake shoes using AMMCO arcing and grinding machines, including AMMCO Model 8000 Safe-Arc, Model 880 and Model 890. Hennessy Industries, founded in 1923 in Chicago, manufactured brake shoe grinders from 1950 to 1999. It purchased AMMCO (Automotive Maintenance Machinery Company) in 1987.
Case settled as to all case defendants during jury selection, following the Court hearing and ruling on all Motions In Limine, in excess of $1,300,000.00.
Feb 2026
Anonymous v. Caesarstone U.S.A., Inc., et al.
Civil Jury Trial
Superior Court of the State of California, Los Angeles County
Judge: Hon. Amy C. Yerkey, Judge Presiding
Trial Type: Career fabrication shop cutter of Artificial Stone slabs used for home, hotel, and other facility countertops beginning in 2006 until in 2023 being forced to stop work when diagnosed with incurable Pulmonary Massive Fibrosis (PMF) accelerated silicosis leading to bilateral lung transplantation in 2024. Case involved claims of strict products liability and negligence.
Case resolved as to all case defendants during plaintiff's case in chief in excess of $20,000,000.00.
Jan-Feb 2026