2006 Boomer Verdicts

A supplement to today's Recorder (subscription required) provides information about the top 15 jury verdicts in California in 2006.  Seven out of the fifteen are either business vs. business or business vs. public entity, rather than individual or group tort claims.  Four are IP cases, two are breach of contract cases (including a $22 million verdict in favor of the defendant in Hub v. City of Compton, which I blogged about here).  One is a large environmental / product liability case by the City of Modesto involving dry cleaning chemicals.  Rounding out the balance are three employment cases, four personal injury or wrongful death cases and an insurance fraud case against a life insurer selling a long-term annuity to an elderly man with Alzheimer's disease.

Trial courts reduced seven of the verdicts and took one of them away outright.  It looks as though the trial courts upheld three verdicts, and the others either settled or we can't tell what happened.  A chart summarizing all of the fifteen cases appears below, and also here.