This isn’t exactly breaking news.  HarrisMartin (subscription required) reported this story on December 18, but we’ve been a little backlogged around here so we’re just getting around to blogging about it.

A jury in Los Angeles has awarded $5 million in compensatory damages and $3.6 million in punitive damages against Crown, Cork & Seal Company Inc., a manufacturer of asbestos-containing pipe insulation.  This represents a significantly better result for the plaintiffs than the first trial in this case, which ended in a defense verdict. That first judgment was reversed in a published opinion, however, because the Court of Appeal determined that the trial court had wrongly excluded the “consumer expectations” theory of product defect from the case.   
   
Disclaimer: Horvitz & Levy LLP is involved in this litigation, representing a different defendant in a related appeal arising out of the first trial.