Small-town law firm, big-time cases

The Cochran Firm, with 21 locations nationwide

Thursday, Oct 25, 2007 - 06:05 AM 

By Matt Elofson
A small-town law firm repeatedly making big news nationally set a record for its Dothan office with a recent jury verdict of more than $251 million as part of an environmental class action lawsuit against DuPont.

The Dothan office of The Cochran Firm, Cochran, Cherry, Givens, Smith, Lane and Taylor, were one of five national law firms handling the lawsuit for the six-week trial in Clarksburg, W.Va.

Farrest Taylor, co-lead counsel for the plaintiff, called the case the largest jury verdict ever for the Dothan office of The Cochran Firm.

A jury found DuPont, the nation’s third largest chemical company, negligent when they created a 112-acre waste site, putting residents at risk of disease, including cancer, heart disease and lead poisoning. Taylor said the plant processed coal to make zinc, which then emitted toxins into the air.

“It was about the contamination around the community,” Taylor said. “We found elevated levels of cadmium,arsenic and lead.”

The lawsuit included three verdicts including $196,200,000 in punitive damages to residents in and around the town of Spelter, W.Va., where the plant was located. Jurors also ordered DuPont to pay $55.5 million in damages to fund a clean up of 2,900 properties within communities around the former DuPont site.

The lawsuit also has the potential to nearly top $400 million when a judge sets an amount for the jury’s third verdict in the case, which ordered DuPont to provide medical monitoring for around 8,000 residents. Those residents would receive free diagnostic testing every two years for the next 40 years. The plaintiffs submitted a $120 million medical observation plan to the court.

DuPont has since cleaned up the plant site, but failed to clean up the community around the plant Taylor said.

DuPont was held responsible for pollution that extended into the communities around the plant. As the plant processed zinc a waste pile amassed over 60 acres and in some areas 60 feet high.

“People would come from different states and ride their ATV’s on the pile,” said Angela Mason, a Cochran lawyer out of the Dothan office.

The lawsuit was filed in June 2004 after 74-year-old Lenora Perrine, the main plaintiff, held meetings in her home about the plant, located almost in her backyard. Joe Lane, one the Dothan lawyers who assisted in the case, said cadmium, arsenic and lead were “pure toxins.”

“It was airborne. They’re so small it’s almost like gas, they got into the homes,” Taylor said. “The homes became reservoirs for contamination. People always recognized that dust came out of there, but they did not know it had the three carcinogens.”

Lead counsel for the plaintiffs included Taylor and Mike Papantonio, of Pensacola, Fla. Other lawyers assisting included Robert Kennedy Jr., of New York City, along with Keith Givens from The Cochran Firm of Dothan.

Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., who died in 2005, founded The Cochran Firm, which has represented such high profile clients as O.J. Simpson, Michael Jackson, and Latrell Sprewell. The Cochran firm has 23 offices stretching across 15 states, including five in Alabama.

Taylor said the verdict will give residents near the plant site an opportunity to get checked medically for diseases.

“You’ll have a doctor now looking for those diseases and that has to provide some piece of mind,” Mason said.

Top significant cases of the Dothan office of The Cochran Firm:

Environmental Class Action

• A northern district of Alabama case in December 2005, which resulted in a $700 million judgement and settlement on behalf of people who received property damage and personal injuries from exposure to the chemical PCB.
• This was the largest judgment in an environmental case in U.S. history; twice the size of the case featured in the movie Erin Brockovich.

Wrongful Death

• The Dale County Circuit Court case of the estate of Brian Dowling and July Dowling v Anthony Harp, Froggie, Inc. in November 2002, which resulted in a $25 million jury verdict. It was a wrongful death case against a drunk driver and a bar, stemming from Brian Dowling’s death.
• It was the highest verdict for a wrongful death in the state of Alabama for a single wrongful death.

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