Hellam

Hellam v. Crane Co.

Good Law
191 Cal. Rptr. 3d 742·2015 Cal. App. LEXIS 720·239 Cal. App. 4th 851·2015 WL 4967730
Court of Appeal of CaliforniaAugust 20, 2015A140326California8,223 words

Opinion

Opinion

Reardon, J.

Defendant Crane Co. appeals from an amended judgment entered after a jury found it liable for personal injuries to James Hellam resulting from his exposure to asbestos products. In a prior- unpublished opinion (Hellam v. Crane Co. (Apr. 16, 2014, A138013)), we affirmed the original judgment, and the only claims Crane raises in this appeal relate to the application of credits, or setoffs, to reduce its liability for damages based on Hellam’s settlements with several other defendants. In particular, Crane argues the trial court improperly (1) accepted the settling parties’ 50/50 allocation of the settlement proceeds between the personal injury claims in this suit and future wrongful death claims; (2) calculated the setoff for preverdict settlements; (3) denied Crane’s request to review unredacted versions of the settlement agreements; (4) treated a settlement with Rheem Manufacturing Company (Rheem) as a preverdict instead of postverdict settlement; and (5) refused to apply a setoff for possible recoveries from asbestos bankruptcy trusts. We agree that the settlement with Rheem was a postverdict settlement and remand for recalculation of its setoff, but we otherwise…

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