Betrayed (Rosato & DiNunzio, #2)(2)
“Really?” Judy said, but she felt caught up short. She and Mary never referred to the fact that Judy was still an associate, tacitly saving her face, as if she didn’t know her own employment status. “Great, what kind of case is it?”
“It’s not one case, it’s seventy-five.” Mary beamed. “Bennie got them in as referral business from Singer Crenheim in Manhattan. The big league!”
“Why are there so many cases?” Judy didn’t get it. “What are they about?”
“That’s the only bummer.” Mary paused. “They’re asbestos cases, defense side, representing a company called Bendaflex.”
“Oh no.” Judy groaned in dismay. “Nobody likes asbestos cases, even asbestos firms.”
“Judy, these cases will generate millions in fees.”
“But they’ll take two or three years to try.” Judy was trying to process the information, which struck her as lawyer hell.
“They won’t take that long because you don’t have to try the whole case, just the damages phase. The liability was already decided.”
“Even worse,” Judy said, aghast. Mass tort trials like asbestos were often bifurcated, which meant that the question of liability was separated from the question of damages. Evidently, their new client Bendaflex had lost on liability, so there were a slew of individual damage cases that had to be tried. Literally the cases were damage control. “How did Bennie get these, anyway?”
“The cases were consolidated in the Southern District of New York, then remanded back to the various states for damages trials. She got all of the Pennsylvania cases, and most of them came out of the Navy Yard.”
“For real?” Judy didn’t think it could get worse. “My father was a lieutenant commander in the Navy, remember? He used to tell me about how there was asbestos all over those ships, in every shipyard in the country. Anything hot was insulated with asbestos, mainly pipes. Grinders would grind the old asbestos off, and pipe fitters blew the new asbestos on.” Judy remembered her father’s anger, and guilt, when he’d told her the stories, even though nobody knew that asbestos was deadly back then. “These poor guys, they’d be standing in the hull of a ship, sweating their butts off in a snowglobe of asbestos. No masks, no ventilation, no nothing. They’re all dead now of mesothelioma. Johns Manville declared bankruptcy, and other companies, like Bendaflex, are fighting not to pay what they owe, decades later. And I’m supposed to help? Is this why I became a lawyer?”
Mary’s smile faded. “I hear you, but we’re lucky to get that much business in this economy.”
“It’s not worth it. The cases don’t even present a legal question, only how much damages each plaintiff is owed, and since we represent Bendaflex, the answer has to be, as little as possible.” Judy flashed-forward, disgusted. “I’ll have to argue down the value of a man’s life, probably in front of his widow and his children.”
Mary sighed.
“My argument will have to be that the plaintiff, who’s dead, wasn’t going to earn that much, because, after all, he wasn’t good enough to earn a promotion. And as far as pain and suffering, don’t pay him for that because he died within a year, so he didn’t suffer that long. Too bad he was only forty-three.”
Mary frowned, sympathetic. “You don’t have to try the cases yourself, just supervise them. With the money that comes in, you can hire whoever you need.”
“Still.” Judy fought a rising tension in her chest. “You wouldn’t want to do it, would you?”
“I couldn’t even if I wanted to.” Mary shook her head, her tone turning defensive. “The cases came to Bennie, and she assigned them to you. I can’t countermand her, as her partner.”
Judy felt a twinge that Mary was taking Bennie’s side, but she should have known it would happen, someday. Mary and Bennie were the sole partners of this all-woman firm, and nobody in her right mind opposed Bennie Rosato. Bennie was a world-class trial lawyer who’d grown the firm to national prominence and she hadn’t reached the top by being a creampuff. On the contrary, the woman owned a coffee mug that read I CAN SMELL FEAR.
Suddenly, there was a commotion outside Judy’s office, and they turned their attention to the door. Judy’s boyfriend, Frank Lucia, materialized in the threshold, flashing the easy, confident grin that was one of the reasons she’d fallen in love with him. He’d been out of town last night, and she still got a thrill out of seeing him, especially looking so handsome in his puffy black jacket, tie-and-work-shirt combo, and jeans.
“Frank, what a surprise!” Judy said, brightening.
“I had to stay over in Baltimore and I missed my girl, so I thought I’d take her out to breakfast!” Frank burst into the office, threw open his big arms, and bounded around the desk, gathering Judy up and hugging her. “How you doing, babe?”
“Okay.” Judy felt a warm rush of love, breathing in his familiar smells of aftershave and mortar dust. Frank was a smart, straight-up Italian hunk who owned a successful specialty masonry company, and they’d lived together for the past few years.
“Let’s go eat, I’m starved.” Frank raked big fingers through his thick, wavy hair, the same espresso-brown as his large, bright eyes.