Law firm involved in Farmers’ Market litigation
By Daily Press staff
WILSHIRE BLVD. — A Santa Monica lawyer representing victims from last summer’s Farmers’ Market tragedy on Tuesday won a $58 million verdict for his client in an unrelated case.
Trial attorney Brian Panish, who works at 100 Wilshire Blvd., was successful in convincing a Los Angeles jury to find West-Pac Industries and Tools Exchange negligent in an accident that severely burned his client, Joseph Bryant Griggs.
The jury awarded Griggs $58,137,361.008 after three and a half days of deliberation. A heavy equipment operator, Griggs was burned as the result of a defective O-ring which had been imported from Taiwan by Tools Exchange of Chatsworth, Calif. and distributed by West-Pac Industries of Huntington Beach.
On Sept. 10, 1998, Griggs was operating a Caterpillar J-621 paddle wheel scraper, and was grading land for a self storage facility in Valley Springs, Calif. when the machine’s O-ring failed.
The scraper’s cab filled with fire and Griggs’ body was fully engulfed in flames, forcing him to leap to the ground.
At the University of California Davis Burn Center, it was determined that he had suffered third-degree burns to more than 75 percent of his body. He was later transferred to the Grossman Burn Center and was treated by Dr. Richard Grossman. Griggs has undergone more than 25 surgeries and has incurred more than $3.5 million in medical expenses. He will require several more years of burn reconstruction surgery.
“We applaud the jury’s decision,” Panish said. “(It) sends a strong message to parts manufacturers and distributors that they will be held accountable for the poorly made and defective products that they import and distribute in the United States. Defective O-rings were at the heart of the Griggs and Challenger tragedies, and it is our hope that this case will act as a catalyst to prevent this type of accident from happening again."
The trial began Feb. 2 and Superior Court Judge Victor Person presided over the case. Griggs was represented by Panish and Christine D. Spagnoli of the Santa Monica-based law firm of Greene, Broillet, Panish & Wheeler, LLP.
The law firm announced in January that it filed 10 claims against City Hall in relation to the Farmers’ Market crash, in which Santa Monica resident Russell Weller, 87, drove his car down a crowded Arizona Avenue, killing 10 and injuring 63 people. Lawyers said the city is responsible because it should have erected a protective barrier at both ends of the market.
Greene, Broillet, Panish & Wheeler won the largest product liability suit of all time — $4.9 billion in 1999 against General Motors for a defective engine — and has won numerous cases worth millions of dollars. West L.A.-based attorney Michael Piuze also is representing a handful of victims. Piuze won the largest settlement of all time, $28 billion against Phillip Morris for a cancer victim in 2002.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 24, 2004. Read the original PDF.