Firm News
One of the firm’s proudest and most far-reaching victories came about when Mr. Young recently convinced the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn 15 years of adverse court decisions in a case brought on behalf of over 10,000 seaman, over which 1300 had died, to recover for their disabling and often terminal injuries, such as mesothelioma and other cancers caused by their exposure to asbestos when they worked for a now-bankrupt shipping company, Prudential Lines (formerly known as Grace Lines) over the course of a 41-year period.
In that case, In re Prudential Lines, Inc.: Asbestosis Claimants Represented by the Maritime Asbestosis Legal Clinic v. American Steamship Owners Mutual Protection and Indemnity Association, Inc., 533 F.3d 151 (2nd Cir.), cert. denied, U.S. (2009), Mr. Young successfully convinced the United States Court of Appeals to overrule its own prior decisions, as well as those of the United States District Court and Bankruptcy Court, which had ruled in favor of the insurance carrier. In this June 2008 decision, the Second Circuit decisively accepted all of Mr. Young’s arguments and held that the carrier must live up to its obligation and obey the 1986 Bankruptcy Plan procedure, using a Liman fund, to pay those claims. As a result of our efforts, we have paved the way for these victims and their families to recover what the Second Circuit described as “claims [that] might amount to tens of millions of dollars.”