Asbestos Lawsuits
Mr. Klamann has worked in the asbestos arena for more than 30 years, representing the victims of asbestos disease and their families, the owners of asbestos-contaminated properties, and the Claimants Committee in Bankruptcy proceedings involving a former manufacturer of asbestos-containing products.
In 1981, Mr. Klamann was one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys in Elmore v. Owens-Illinois, Inc., an asbestos bodily injury case (asbestosis) which not only resulted in a plaintiff’s verdict but also led to a Missouri Supreme Court en banc decision rejecting the so-called “state-of-the-art” defense in product liability design defect cases. Since the Elmore case, Mr. Klamann has been litigation and trial counsel in numerous asbestos-related cases for personal injury, property damage, and wrongful death across the United States.
Klamann & Schermerhorn represent the victims of asbestos-related Lung Cancer, Mesothelioma, asbestosis, and other diseases in their fights against the asbestos industry for compensation. The firm’s lawyers have played key roles in settlements of asbestos injury and death cases totaling well over $200 million. They have also been Counsel to the Asbestos Bodily Injury Claimants Committee in the Standard Insulations Bankruptcy Proceedings, representing 23,000 victims of asbestos disease.
Klamann & Schermerhorn have been litigation and trial counsel in property damage litigation involving asbestos contamination of hospitals, schools, shopping malls, high rise office buildings, and other structures. They have worked alongside their partner firms on several cases throughout the United States, including Independence, Mo. School District v. United States Gypsum, the first case to result in a favorable verdict for a school district involving asbestos contamination of school buildings. They have also partnered with others to serve as trial counsel for the Shawnee Mission, Ks. and Kansas City, Ks, school districts in their asbestos litigation, for the Johnson County Community College in its asbestos litigation, in the Michigan Schools Class Action Asbestos litigation, and in numerous other asbestos contamination cases tried or settled in the States of Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas, California, South Dakota, and Colorado. In Northstar Development Co. v. W.R. Grace, Mr. Klamann was co-trial counsel in one of the largest verdicts in the asbestos property damage litigation to date, achieving a verdict of $19.75 million.
The firm’s lawyers have also authored several articles and handbook materials on asbestos and Mr. Klamann has been a frequent speaker at EPA-sponsored programs for education on asbestos control. He has also been an invited speaker at national conferences of asbestos litigation attorneys. Mr. Klamann was an invited author of the Am Jur Trials article on asbestos litigation techniques: J. Klamann and K. McClain, “Cost Recovery Litigation: Abatement of Asbestos Contamination,” 40 Am Jur Trials 317 (1990)
Klamann & Schermerhorn are part of a nationwide network of plaintiffs’ asbestos litigation attorneys and represents only plaintiffs in the asbestos litigation arena.