John O'Quinn Dies in Car Wreck
John O'Quinn who did as much or more than anyone to change the nature of mass torts died today in an automobile accident in Houston. I first saw Mr. O'Quinn try a lawsuit some twenty years ago when a client for whom we were preparing to defend three benzene leukemia cases sent me to watch the entire Skeen v. Monsanto trial. O'Quinn already had a fearsome reputation and so, being a brand new lawyer and not knowing much about how lawsuits were really tried, I expected to see quite a spectacle. Instead, I learned a lot about how to try a lawsuit.
I suppose I expected all-star wrestling but instead it was much more like a chess match. By the time O'Quinn was done with voir dire the defendant was left with a panel ranging from bad to awful. His command of the facts and ability to recall them in the minutest detail was amazing. And every good cross-examination of one of his witnesses turned out, on re-direct, to have been a well-laid trap so that the witness was not only rehabilitated but the cross was made to appear disingenuous, at best.
Nevertheless, probably because I understood the defendant's case and the science behind it, I thought that the defendant would win. So each week when I would call my Dad, who's been trying lawsuits for decades, and excitedly recount the week's events. I was always surprised when he would reply that it sounded to him as though the plaintiff was thoroughly thrashing the defendant. He said that O'Quinn had spun a simple and emotive narrative into which all the pieces of the case easily fit whereas the defendant's story lacked a compelling theme and was overly complex.
After closing arguments I made a wager with my Dad that the defendant would win. My Dad predicted a verdict of $10 million dollars. The jury awarded $100 million dollars in punitive damages alone.
A few years ago I was trying a mesothelioma case in Beaumont. Down the hall O'Quinn was trying a Fen-phen case. Suddenly there was a commotion in the hall and our judge sent the bailiff out to see what was happening. She returned and handed the judge a note whereupon he asked the jurors to leave the courtroom. After the jurors left Judge Sanderson said "they're not sure exactly how much it comes to but O'Quinn just got a verdict of more than $1 billion dollars for one wrongful death."
John O'Quinn's legendary trial skills need no further elaboration. However, the impact on the law of his brand of mega-verdicts which posed existential threats to corporations has dramatically changed the practice and much remains to be said about it. More thoughts on that in a future post.
