Business Torts

Types of business torts, and Casey Gerry’s
business tort litigation experience

Casey Gerry has worked in maritime law and business torts for many years. Partner Richard F. Gerry was in Alaska immediately after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, when we were approached by individuals whose fishing business involved limited seasons in the waters near the Exxon oil spill. The spill closed down these waters for fishing, causing many of our clients significant economic loss. Their losses were not confined to the season after the spill, but persisted for many years following the spill. By themselves these fishermen and small businesses were unable to take on a business tort litigation against Exxon, one of the most powerful corporate entities on earth.

Casey Gerry's business tort lawyers knew when they entered the battle that Exxon would fight long and hard. Our objective was to seek justice for our clients as aggressively as we could. Exxon responded as we expected, fighting the business tort claim every inch of the way. The cases were filed in 1989, and finally went to trial in 1994. Richard F. Gerry and Suzanne Etpison were part of the trial team that tried the Exxon Valdez case.

This extremely large business tort case was tried in three phases. The first phase determined whether Exxon’s conduct in creating the oil spill had been reckless. The jury determined Exxon had indeed been reckless. In the second phase, technical testimony led the jury to determine economic losses by fishery areas and fishing season, and assign economic damages. In the third phase, the jury considered the reprehensibility of the conduct of Exxon and determined that Exxon should be held responsible for $5 billion. That judgment was the largest punitive damage judgment in the history of the United States at the time.

Exxon has continued to fight this business tort case aggressively on appeal. The case has lasted more than 17 years, and Exxon has spent tens of millions of dollars in attorneys’ fees. The individual business people who sought Casey Gerry plaintiffs lawyers to represent them could never have funded such an extended business tort battle. The contingency fee arrangement enabled them to shift their risk of paying attorneys fees and the cost of prosecuting the case to our firm.

Casey Gerry recovers $90 million for Honda dealers in a business tort case
A group of Los Angeles area Honda dealers approached Casey Gerry's business tort lawyers to represent them in a very large business tort case. When the Honda Accord was introduced, it was immensely popular, and quickly became the best-selling car in the United States. Demand was enormous, and customers were willing to pay over sticker price. Many of the dealers we represented in this business tort case had had difficulty getting Accords from Honda, while other dealerships were getting large allotments. Those dealers were benefiting from not only the sale of the Accords but also from the opportunity to service them. Our clients were some of the first dealers to sell Honda cars in the United States, and had long and loyal relationships with the company.

Dealers were bribing certain Honda executives to allocate cars to them. The honest dealers asked Casey Gerry to bring a business tort action on their behalf against Honda. The case developed a number of complex challenges, one of which was that most of our clients continued as Honda dealers during this litigation. We had to make sure that pursuing this business tort litigation would not adversely affect their relationship with American Honda. We were able to manage our representation so that our clients experienced no adverse impact in the course of this business tort case.

The business tort litigation produced one of the largest recoveries in a fraud action in the history of the United States, a recovery for our clients of over $90 million. We were honored to represent these highly ethical dealers, and through business tort litigation, achieve a fair recovery for the harm that had been done to them.

Casey Gerry's San Diego asbestos lawyers win one of the largest business tort verdicts in California
Casey Gerry represented the Hahn Corporation, now Trizec, for an extremely expensive asbestos rip-out in its Cerritos shopping center. The asbestos was a potential hazard to customers and the rip-out required to make the building safe would cost Hahn millions of dollars. As with Exxon, we knew that the defendant, W.R. Grace Corporation, would be would mount an aggressive defense in this business tort claim. We anticipated we would have to take the case not only to trial, but through to appeal.

The case required extensive discovery, involving several hundred thousand documents, to ascertain W.R. Grace’s culpability, and to demonstrate the economic consequences for the Hahn Corporation. Hahn benefited from shifting the substantial cost of attorneys fees to Casey Gerry during the pendency of this business tort, enabling it to maintain its capital for its own business needs. We aggressively prosecuted the case, took it to trial, and achieved judgment on behalf of the Hahn Corporation. The judgement of $14 million was one of the largest verdicts in California business tort history.

As we expected, this business tort case did not end there. We continued to litigate this case through the Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court of California. W.R. Grace hired some of the most competent appellate counsel in the United States, to oppose us. Casey Gerry’s San Diego business tort lawyers were able to prevail in the Court of Appeals and again in the California Supreme Court, where the verdict was upheld.