ACandS, Inc. v. Abate

• Decision Date: 01 September 1996
• Docket Number: No. 1857,1857
• Citation: 121 Md.App. 590,710 A.2d 944
• Parties: , Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 15,142 ACANDS, INC., et al. v. ABATE, et al. ,
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

Page 590

121 Md.App. 590

710 A.2d 944, Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 15,142

ACANDS, INC., et al. v. ABATE, et al.

No. 1857, Sept. Term, 1996.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

Jan. 7, 1998.

Reconsideration Denied May 21, 1998.

Page 601

Deborah L. Robinson (Peter A. Woolson, Karen J. Detling and Kenny, Vettori & Robinson, P.A., on the brief), Baltimore, for appellant, John Crane Inc

M. King Hill, III (Cynthia M. Hahn, Venable, Baetjer and Howard, L.L.P., Towson, and Howard Bonfield, Rubin, Baum, Levin, Constant and Friedman, New York City, on the brief), for appellant, Rapid-American Corp.

Page 602

John J. Nagle, III (R. Scott Krause and Bodie, Nagle, Dolina, Smith & Hobbs, P.A., on the brief), Towson, for appellant, E.L. Stebbing & Co.

Patrick J. Attridge (King & Attridge, on the brief), Rockville, for appellant U.S. Mineral.

Robert J. Lynott, Peter W. Taliaferro and Thomas & Libowitz, P.A., on the brief, Baltimore, for appellant Hampshire Industries.

Michael T. Ward and Edward J. Lilly (Theodore M. Flerlage, Jr., Steven W. Smith, Thomas P. Kelly and the Law Offices of Peter G. Angelos, on the brief), Baltimore, for appellees.

Argued before WENNER and THIEME, JJ., and ROBERT F. FISCHER, Judge (retired), Specially Assigned.

ROBERT F. FISCHER, Judge (retired), Specially Assigned.

The appeal before us is from the second major consolidated trial in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City arising from exposure to asbestos-containing products.

The first consolidation, known as Abate I, was tried before the Honorable Marshall A. Levin from February 18, 1992 to August 10, 1992. In that proceeding, the cases of six illustrative plaintiffs were tried to full and final judgments, and certain common issues raised by 8,549 other plaintiffs, who filed suit prior to October 1, 1990, were also tried. Those common issues were, in essence, whether the defendants manufactured, sold, distributed, or installed defective products, whether the defendants had and violated any duty to warn of dangers inherent in the products, and whether the defendants could be found liable for punitive damages. Whether the common issue plaintiffs were actually exposed to and damaged by the products was to be determined at subsequent "mini-trials."

Although more than 100 defendants were named in Abate I by combinations of the illustrative plaintiffs and common issue

Page 603

                plaintiffs, the claims against all but 15 of the defendants were dismissed prior to trial.  A variety of cross-claims and third-party claims were filed among the various trial defendants and settling defendants.  Judge Levin severed all but two of those claims from the case, to be tried in a subsequent, related proceeding. 1  During trial, nine of the defendants settled, leaving the number of defendants against whom verdicts were actually sought at six
                

Ultimately, in Abate I, the jury found in favor of three of the illustrative plaintiffs and against the other three. On the common issues, the jury found six defendants and one cross-claim defendant negligent and strictly liable. It found four defendants liable for punitive damages, but one of those defendants settled and another was dismissed from the case after filing for bankruptcy. On appeal, the Court of Appeals reversed the punitive damages findings and affirmed in part and reversed in part the awards of compensatory damages to the trial plaintiffs. See Godwin, 340 Md. 334, 667 A.2d 116.

The case now before us, known as Abate II, was tried before the Honorable Richard T. Rombro. In accordance with a plan initiated by Judge Levin and modified by Judge Rombro and, apparently, The Honorable Joseph H.H. Kaplan, Administrative Judge, Abate II tried the cases of five trial plaintiffs ² to full and final judgments. ³ It also tried: common issues, identical to those common issues tried in Abate I, as to

Page 604

approximately 1,300 ⁴ cases filed between October 1, 1990 and October 1, 1993; the cross-claims and third-party claims severed from the Abate I proceeding; and cross-claims and third-party claims from Abate II. As in Abate I, the cases of the common issue plaintiffs are to be finally adjudicated at mini-trials.

The five trial plaintiffs in Abate II (hereinafter referred to collectively, at times, as the "appellees"), all of whom were represented by counsel from the same law firm, were John Joseph Goodman, Leonard Ciotta, Frederick Glensky, Carroll Morrow, and Terry Theis. ⁵ They, and the estimated 1,300 common issue plaintiffs, filed claims for negligence and strict liability against numerous defendants. While the parties do not specify precisely how many defendants were originally named in the suits and how many were dismissed or settled before or during trial, and we cannot glean that information from the record extract, we determine that verdicts were ultimately sought against 11 defendants, including the five appellants in the appeal now before us: Rapid-American Corporation (hereinafter "Rapid"), a successor in interest to Philip Carey Manufacturing Company; John Crane, Inc. (hereinafter "Crane"), a manufacturer of pipe-sealing products; U.S. Mineral Products Company (hereinafter "U.S. Mineral"), a manufacturer of fire-proofing spray; E.L. Stebbing & Co., Inc. (hereinafter "Stebbing"), a contracting company; and Hampshire, Industries, Inc. (hereinafter "Hampshire"), also a contracting company. ⁶ Verdicts were also sought against 14

Page 605

cross-defendants or third-party defendants.

Judge Rombro divided Abate II into three phases. Phase I began on June 22, 1994, with closing argument ending on December 1, 1994. In Phase I, all of the issues with respect to the five trial plaintiffs were tried. In addition, the common issues regarding any other defendants named by any of the approximately 1,300 common issue plaintiffs were tried, as were the cross-claims and third-party claims against all Phase I defendants. Any defendant that settled with plaintiffs prior to or during Phase I was removed from Phase I to Phase II if that defendant was the subject of a cross-claim.

On December 2, 1994, at the conclusion of Phase I, all of the issues tried in that phase were submitted to the jury. In addition to its common issue findings, the jury found in favor of all five of the trial plaintiffs. It awarded damages to the trial plaintiffs as follows:

- Goodman - total compensatory award of $9,000,000.00, consisting of $3,000,000.00 for personal injuries, $1,000,000.00 for injury to the marital relationship, and $5,000,000.00 to Irene Goodman as surviving spouse.

- Ciotta - total compensatory award of $500,000.00 for personal injuries. ⁷

- Glensky - total compensatory award of $1,100,000.00, consisting of $1,000,00.00 for personal injuries and $100,000.00 for injury to the marital relationship.

- Morrow - total compensatory award of $7,000,000.00, consisting of $6,000,000.00 for personal injuries and $1,000,000.00 for injury to the marital relationship.

- Theis - total compensatory award of $2,500,000.00 consisting of $2,000,000.00 for personal injuries and $500,000.00 for injury to the marital relationship.

Page 606

The amounts of the judgments entered against the defendants were affected by the terms of settlements made prior to and during trial. In light of the settlements, Judge Rombro determined a specific number of joint tortfeasor shares as to each plaintiff, with shares attributable to each judgment defendant and each settling defendant. Each judgment defendant was jointly and severally liable to a particular plaintiff only for the number of shares to be paid to that plaintiff by the total number of judgment defendants. Judgment defendants were not jointly and severally liable for those shares of the settling defendants, as those shares were satisfied by the amounts of consideration paid for the settlements. ⁸

All five of the appellants were found liable to some combination of trial plaintiffs. Rapid was found liable to Goodman and Ciotta. Crane was found liable to Glensky, Morrow, and Theis. U.S. Mineral and Hampshire were found liable to Goodman, Glensky, Morrow, and Theis. Stebbing was found liable to Glensky and Theis.

Phase II of Abate II commenced on January 4, 1995 before the same jury, and the presentation of evidence took 11 days. In Phase II, cross-claims and third-party claims from both Abate I and Abate II were tried. Such claims included, inter alia, indemnity claims against defendants who were dismissed from Abate I or who settled with plaintiffs in either Abate I or Abate II ⁹.

Page 607

Before submitting the Phase II issues to the jury, Judge Rombro proceeded on to Phase III. In that final phase, evidence was presented from which the jury could determine, as to those defendants who were found potentially liable in Phase I for punitive damages, the amount of punitive damages to be awarded for each dollar of compensatory damages. The presentation of evidence in Phase III lasted only one day. The Phase II and Phase III issues were then submitted to the jury and, on February 17, 1995, the jury returned its verdicts.

A flurry of post-trial motions followed, most of which were denied. Notably, however, Judge Rombro eliminated most punitive damages awards by: granting appellant Rapid's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict as to punitive damages for the actions of its corporate predecessor prior to 1963; granting Phase I defendant Westinghouse Electric Corporation's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict as to punitive damages; and granting the motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict of Phase I defendant Harbison-Walker as to all punitive damages and as to compensatory damages in favor of Goodman and Ciotta. ¹⁰Page 608

Many of the Phase I and Phase II defendants then noted appeals to this Court. Several pre-hearing conferences were held and, ultimately, a three-judge panel of this Court issued a written order by which it defined the parameters of this appeal. See ...