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“When I saw how much money Weitz & Luxenberg got for us, I almost fainted. It was a lot, believe me. But I didn’t need to see the money to know we were in good hands. From start to finish, Weitz & Luxenberg treated us right.”
Patricia and William Hynes Story
I`ve found it rare when people go the extra mile all the time. That`s why my Weitz & Luxenberg attorneys did for me – went the extra mile continuously. It was obvious that they were working with me – not for themselves. That made me very happy. It was important to me that I could pick up the phone and call, and someone from my Weitz & Luxenberg team would be there to answer my questions or concerns. If they weren`t able to talk at that moment, I knew that I would hear back from them right away.
VIDEO
Mary’s husband died from asbestos exposure. She describes her feelings about how Weitz & Luxenberg treated them during their lawsuit.
VIDEO
Married to a teacher who died from exposure to asbestos, Mrs. Yelin tells how our lawyers came through and got her financial compensation.
CATEGORY: Drugs & DevicesClient Testimonials
Thank you once more Ellen Relkin for everything you did on MY behalf. Should anyone need an attorney, I would definitely recommend W&L.
Upon returning to [New York City] from our mobile home [in upstate New York], having gotten our J&J vaccination, I was most surprised to find the [DePuy ASR Hip Implant] settlement check.
I wish to thank you wholeheartedly for all the work you and your staff did on behalf of all of us who were involved in this ordeal. I can’t imagine how many phone calls, how many missives, how many late nights. HOWEVER, I THANK YOU! I also thank retired Judge Corodemus for her input and assistance.
As I told your assistant, Mr. Argotsinger, I wasn’t looking for a “get rich scheme”; I didn’t want to undergo another hip replacement either; but it is welcoming to be able to treat my husband to a fantastic dinner (when we feel safe to eat inside) for having stood by my side and picked up the countless things that I dropped while recuperating. In fact, he’s still standing by my side and still picking up things that I drop.
Speaking of Mr. Argotsinger… he is a gem and I’m sure you know that. He was always courteous and helpful. What I know of legalese is next to nothing.
Thank you once more Ellen Relkin for everything you did on MY behalf. Should anyone need an attorney, I would definitely recommend W&L.
Best to you, your family, your staff, your friends. Stay safe. Stay optimistic.
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CATEGORY: MesotheliomaClient Testimonials
I was in the U.S. Navy for 12 years; during that time, I was part of the flight deck crew on four aircraft carriers: USS Coral Sea, USS Hancock, USS Enterprise, and the USS Ranger. When we were in port, I helped rehab areas within the ships at…
I am a client of Alex Eiden, and I think the world of him. It became apparent early on the type of person Alex is.
I, justifiably, credit my late husband with the uncanny ability to read people. The first time he met Alex, he was impressed. His high opinion of Alex increased at each subsequent meeting.
We both felt that Alex was humble enough to be caring, yet aggressive enough to be effective. We were not disappointed.
When I first saw Alex standing at our gate I thought it was one of my son’s football friends. At our disposition, Alex stood head and shoulders above the opposition. Yes, physically, but more so mentally. His eye for detail was apparent, his commitment to work for our benefit evident.
I could go on. However, in an effort to keep this short, choosing representation is an important decision, make yours count. If you are looking for someone who is dependable, aggressive, honest with you, and has your best interest in mind, Alex Eiden is your choice.
Take it from someone who has been there.
For over 20 years, my husband worked for the Local 60 Plumbers and Steamfitters Union out of New Orleans, Louisiana. He was a pipefitter and regularly exposed to asbestos dust.
He also worked on cars since he was 15 years old – he even won a sponsorship to go to a Ford Motor School. Working with brakes, clutches and engine gaskets also exposed him to asbestos.
This asbestos exposure caused him to develop mesothelioma. Alex represented us and it was his knowledge of asbestos that won our case.
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CATEGORY: MesotheliomaClient Testimonials
I will never be able to fully express the profound difference you have made to my native family. Today, another small settlement came in from Weitz & Luxenberg…the 14th over a span of as many years. It always arrives without notice. No one expects it but usually someone…
I will never be able to fully express the profound difference you have made to my native family.
Today, another small settlement came in from Weitz & Luxenberg…the 14th over a span of as many years. It always arrives without notice. No one expects it but usually someone in the family is in need of the resources it provides but is too proud/too embarrassed/too ashamed to ask for help. Again, my brother (who has mental health issues) was moments away from foreclosure on his home and this small gift enabled him to get another chance.
Again, I can’t thank you enough for the many small miracles it has provided to my siblings. My 2 nephews and 3 nieces went to college from Weitz & Luxenberg. My niece is going to graduate school with a specialty in developmentally disabled children as a result of Weitz & Luxenberg. I have never taken a dime of the money for myself but have used the money to “play it forward” in many gratifying ways.
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CATEGORY: MesotheliomaClient Testimonials
When John Murray came home to his family at the end of his shift as a steamfitter in New York, he handed his wife a bag of his work clothes. With their three young sons playing underfoot, Mary dumped the asbestos-coated jeans and shirts into the washing machine.…
When John Murray came home to his family at the end of his shift as a steamfitter in New York, he handed his wife a bag of his work clothes. With their three young sons playing underfoot, Mary dumped the asbestos-coated jeans and shirts into the washing machine.
Every day.
The dark blue clothes were white from the asbestos that lined the vents he’d been crawling through as he worked in the buildings of New York — the World Trade Center and St. Patrick’s Cathedral among them.
There was so much of the stuff, Mary remembers, John later recalled how he and coworkers patted it into asbestos “snowballs” and threw them at each other.
John and Mary and their three sons had a happy life. Mary says John worked hard, but he never wanted her to worry about that, so he didn’t talk about his job. His shifts started early, so he was home early enough to spend time with their sons. He coached track and swimming. Although he hated camping, he even became a Boy Scout leader. He was active in the Knights of Columbus and the Elks. He loved the Yankees and the Green Bay Packers. His heroes were Vince Lombardi, Mayor Bill Daley of Chicago and labor union leader George Meany.
Mary, who most people call Maureen, was a housewife and she loved every minute of it.
They knew each other in grammar school, but John was two years older, and so they had different groups of friends back then.
When Mary was 19, she was at an ice cream parlor with a friend, and John walked in with his best friend, Patrick. Mary was dating someone else at the time, but she agreed when John asked her and her friend to join them for ice cream sodas. And when he invited her to a picnic, she agreed.
She broke up with the other guy, and she and John started dating. John’s mother taught Mary how to cook. They were married in October 1961. Ten months later, she had their oldest son, Paul. Sixteen months after that, John David was born. They bought a house in Queens and their youngest son, Kevin, was born when Mary was 28.
John wanted to go to college to be an engineer, but his father told him he had to be a steamfitter. His uncle was the head of the plumber’s union and his father worked as a steamfitter. Mary isn’t sure why John’s father insisted that he work as a steamfitter, but thinks it could have been the money situation at the time.
John was active in the steamfitters union and retired when he was in his early 60s. Mary said the union was a family, a brotherhood of hard-working men.
Around 1985, there was news coverage of problems with asbestos. The steamfitters were told to get checked by doctors. John was diagnosed with asbestosis. “It concerned him deeply,” Mary says. “As time went on, he was losing his friends to lung cancer. That was very sad for him.”
John was healthy. He walked every day and didn’t smoke or drink.
John and Mary moved to Florida and John took up golfing. They loved their lives in the Sunshine State.
But then one day, John wasn’t feeling well. He went to the doctors and he was told he had pneumonia. They gave him antibiotics and sent him home. Later, they called and said he needed a heavier dose and he should see a pulmonologist.
The next day, he went to the specialist, who drained fluid from John’s left lung. It was red. The doctor told John he had cancer.
John never gave up, Mary says. He still went for walks every day, and would talk to people along the way, especially people with dogs. He loved dogs. Mary thinks he knew every dog owner in Florida.
At one point, a surgeon took a biopsy of John’s lung and sent it to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. The results came back as lung cancer, with a suspicion of mesothelioma. “That gave him a little light and hope,” Mary says. “You can deal with lung cancer. You can’t deal with mesothelioma.”
Four days later, the report was back. Mary remembers the surgeon came into the consult room and told John he had mesothelioma. The surgeon told John to get a good lawyer. And then he walked out of the room.
“We got home and he sat me down and said, ‘I could die in a week, or I could die in 10 years. We will live our life every day.’ “
John started taking heavy doses of a powerful chemotherapy drug. Mary would take him home from treatment and although he’d be a little weak, he would never get sick. He never lost his hair. He loved to eat fish, so she gave him fish.
He went to church six days a week, but never on Sundays. He told Mary he liked the quiet of the other Roman Catholic services. He always sat in the same seat.
John worked with attorney Patti L. Burshtyn at Weitz & Luxenberg, who helped him get through grueling days of depositions. Burshtyn was really good with John, Mary says.
Mary sat in on the final of five days of deposition testimony and was impressed. “She protected him so well,” Mary remembers. “If they asked a question that was improper, she went right after them.” Patti, Mary believes, “just wanted the best” for John.
Their last trip home to New York was a grueling travel experience over Christmas in 2013. When they got back to Florida, they went to see the oncologist. The doctor put John’s X-rays on the screen. They were all white. “I knew right away it was really, really bad,” Mary says.
“John, we can’t do anything more for you,” the doctor said. “I would suggest you have hospice.”
John “really thought he was going to get better,” Mary says. They went home and took each day as it came. But John began to visibly deteriorate. Still, he made jokes. He would joke about getting out of the shower. He called his oxygen setup his chariot.
John didn’t want to get hospice help. But Mary said she couldn’t do it alone. So the hospice worker came and drained the blood from a port in John’s back.
Toward the end, John asked Mary to take him to church. His friends were there from church, as they always were. And when John got up to take Communion, they all stood up. His friends, Bernie, John, and George, along with the group of Vietnamese women who were there every day — they stood up and clapped for John.
“That was the last time he went to church,” Mary says.
One day, when Mary was helping him dress, John told her he didn’t want any dark shirts; he wanted something cheerful. He seemed to be choking. He started to cry. John never cried, not even at the deaths of his parents and sister. “I put my arms around him. I said, ‘Are you ok? Are you afraid?’ He said, ‘No, I’m not afraid.’ He said, ‘I’m afraid for you.’ I thought I would die.”
Maybe a day after that, their house was full of family and friends downstairs. Upstairs, on the bed, John had a nosebleed, and then the blood started coming from his mouth. They called hospice. Mary said not to bring an ambulance, but to bring a transport vehicle.
The grandchildren were shielded in a closed room when they lifted John onto the gurney. “Everybody was crying in the kitchen,” Mary says. “I didn’t. I didn’t cry a lot. It helped me stay strong.”
John was taken to the hospice where he had a beautiful room. They started him on morphine and visitors poured in to see him. Their son came with granddaughter Erin, who sang the song, “Let It Go,” for her grandfather.
After a few days, John told Mary not to talk one morning. She later realized he needed to save his breath long enough for their sons to arrive. The nurse practitioner walked in and told her it was time. And so she called New York and told them to come now. The entire family was around him.
A hospice volunteer, a former Marine, walked in with his Labrador retriever named Holly. Mary told the man John had been in the Marines. The volunteer brought Holly over to John and had her put her nose right up to John’s. The volunteer pointed his finger down and Holly stayed for about 14 seconds, just a few breaths, Mary says. Then the volunteer put his finger up, and Holly backed away from John. At that moment, Mary says, John died.
John donated his body to science, Mary says, with the hope of helping find a cure to this horrible disease.
Because of the help John and Mary received from Weitz & Luxenberg, Mary says, she is now able to live comfortably, although her needs are few. She is also making sure their grandchildren are educated in good schools.
Mary encourages others who are affected by asbestos exposure to take advantage of the legal help that’s available. Even people who aren’t ill can feel the effects later in life.
To this day, Mary and her sons have to get regularly checked. Mary said she has a CAT scan every year and her sons have to be monitored because of all that time she spent putting those asbestos-coated work clothes in the washing machine.
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CATEGORY: MesotheliomaClient Testimonials
These attorneys give you confidence. They know what they’re doing and how to do it properly. They help you feel that things are going…
Because someone was careless with asbestos and didn’t do anything to keep people like my mom safe, I lost her and I lost my older brother both in the same day.
My mom was still alive when she called Weitz & Luxenberg for help. She made the decision to call right after being diagnosed with mesothelioma. She knew what mesothelioma was, she knew how it happens, and she knew what was coming. For those reasons, she also knew that she needed to get legal representation quickly.
Mom never shared with me how she chose Weitz & Luxenberg. It’s possible she saw one of their commercials on TV. Or it could have been that a friend recommended them. Or it might have been that she went looking for law firms and decided Weitz & Luxenberg was the best one.
However it happened, she was very happy with her choice, and so were my brother and I. She was happy with everybody from Weitz & Luxenberg who she had dealings with. She was very pleased, very satisfied. These attorneys give you confidence. They know what they’re doing and how to do it properly. They help you feel that things are going to turn out alright.
Mom was diagnosed with mesothelioma by chance. It was February of ‘09. She had gone out to dinner and something she ate caused her tongue and throat to swell enormously. My brother, Anthony, rushed her to the hospital. They got the swelling under control, but then she had complications that kept her in the hospital. While she was there, she had a heart attack. The doctors were getting ready to clean out a clogged artery and put in a stent when they noticed on the x-ray they had taken of her chest a tumor over her lung. She was shocked. Anthony and I were shocked. None of us could believe it. It was just one bad thing right after another.
The heart attack prevented them from right away treating Mom for mesothelioma. They had to let her get her strength back from the heart attack first. When they were able to start mesothelioma treatment, the first big thing they did was surgery to scrape the tumor from the lining of the lung. The thoracic surgeon said he got almost all of it off, but couldn’t get at the rest of it because of the curvature of the lining. Then they started Mom on chemotherapy. She did fine with the treatments for the next two years. During most of that time she stayed physically strong. Her family doctor, when I’d take her to see him, he’d tell her “you’re doing incredible.” And she was.
Mom developed mesothelioma because she had been exposed to asbestos earlier in her life. She didn’t work directly with asbestos, but there were times when she came into contact with it, like when she worked briefly as a secretary in the office of a company that made asbestos products for the construction industry. Once a week, the office trash would be collected for disposal by someone who’d enter through a door that connected the office to the factory. The trash collector probably had all over his shoes and clothes asbestos dust that he tracked in from the factory floor. That gave my mom what they call “secondary exposure” to asbestos, which can be just as deadly as direct exposure.
Another way she came into contact with asbestos was from construction materials her father brought home from his job at that same factory where she worked as a secretary. My dad worked at that factory too, for 17 years as a machinist. He very probably brought asbestos dust home with him on his clothes and Mom breathed it in when she shook his things out before putting them in the washer.
My dad died in 1997 of lung cancer. But an autopsy that was done on him showed he was in the early stages of mesothelioma. Had he lived a while longer, he probably would have died of that instead.
Before he died, my dad hired a law firm to represent him as an asbestos exposure victim. It wasn’t Weitz & Luxenberg. Weitz & Luxenberg never would have treated my dad the way this other law firm did, like he was just a number.
After Dad passed, my mom took over the lawsuit as the executor of his estate. Mom did not like the way those lawyers handled Dad’s case while he was alive and she didn’t like their handling of it after he was gone. Just trying to get in touch with them to ask questions was frustrating. No open lines of communication. Mom made it clear that she was definitely not calling them to represent her now that she needed legal help for herself.
With Weitz & Luxenberg, there were a number of lawyers working on my mom’s lawsuit. The one we had the most regular contact with was Mary Grabish Gaffney. She was the most caring and extremely professional lawyer that I’ve ever met. Mary came to our house and talked to us. She wanted to see how Mom was doing. It wasn’t lawyer-business-as-usual. Mary’s caring meant so much to my mom.
Mary steered us through a number of emotionally trying events. The worst was the deposition. It took place in a meeting room at a local hotel and went on for hours. Mary was incredibly kind and patient with Mom, and really helped her be at ease. It was very difficult for me and my brother to sit there, unable to step in to protect my mom, which is just what we instinctively wanted to do because the lawyers for the defendants were very abrupt, very cold, very rude, snide. The defense lawyers had no compassion for my mom. But it wasn’t necessary for us to do anything. Mom had Mary with her. We knew Mom was in good hands. Mary took good care of her. She did a super job. Mom was really pleased – and that was what was most important to me and my brother. All I could say is Mary is a true professional who left an unforgettable lasting impression on my family. She’s not only a skilled lawyer, but a compassionate person.
It was in September of ’11 that the cancer started seriously weakening Mom. About six months later, they stopped chemotherapy because it was doing more harm than good. At about that time, they arranged for Mom to start hospice care.
And this is the thing. My mom’s illness affected everyone in our family. Anthony and his wife and adult kids, they lived about 15 minutes from my mom’s house, so they could check in on her often. My wife and I and our kids did the same. But during Mom’s final four months, Anthony was there in the house with her around the clock. Except for maybe four brief times, he never left her side. Anthony was so focused on making sure Mom was comfortable, on making sure she got all her medicines exactly when she was supposed to take them, he was so focused on all this that he neglected his own health. It got to the point where he would barely sleep because he was so afraid that something would happen to Mom in the middle of the night and he wouldn’t know about it.
During Mom’s last two weeks, I was there around the clock too and started not sleeping for the exact same reason that Anthony wasn’t sleeping. But this whole ordeal was really hitting Anthony hard – harder than any of us actually knew. The Sunday before Mom passed, Anthony was looking awful. On top of not sleeping he also wasn’t eating. I told his wife she needed to get on him about taking better care of himself. That same day, Anthony gave us a scare when he collapsed and the paramedics had to be called. They wanted him to get in the ambulance and go to the hospital for tests. But he refused. “No, I’ve got to be here for Mom,” he told them. The paramedics made Anthony promise that he’d get help as soon as possible.
Mom died two days later. We were all there when she passed. I told Anthony how proud and thankful I was of what he did for Mom. And then we hugged. A few hours later, we all left the house, except for Anthony. He said he wanted to stay and keep an eye on things. The next morning, Anthony’s wife found him dead of a heart attack on the floor at Mom’s house.
I’m convinced that the only reason my brother died was because our mother had that cancer, and it tore Anthony up inside to see what was happening to her.
It meant a lot to me that the lawyers, when I told them about what had happened to my brother, asked if there was anything they could do to help. I could feel that our loss filled them with sadness. It wasn’t them just saying things to be polite. They genuinely felt pained for us.
My brother and I were both supposed to be the executors for my mom’s estate. But with him gone now, it’s been hard. He’s the older one, so he was always the protector. He’d be taking the lead on all this if he were still alive. I’m doing things as sole executor that are unfamiliar, so I’m depending heavily on Weitz & Luxenberg to guide me along. They’ve been doing a great job helping me know what to do, getting all the paperwork, answering all my questions.
Weitz & Luxenberg also has been very good about giving me information. Once, when I’d lost track of a settlement payment and somehow couldn’t show it had ever even been received, Weitz & Luxenberg was able to tell me right over the phone everything about that payment – when it was made, who it was from, what the amount in question was, the date the documents relating to the settlement were notarized, everything.
Another Weitz & Luxenberg attorney who I have nothing but praise for is Dena Young. I started talking to Dena after my mom passed away. I’m very appreciative of the fact that she was so helpful with any concerns that I had. I feel the same way about Leonard Feldman, David Kaufman, and James Thompson who are three other Weitz & Luxenberg attorneys I’ve been working with. They are thoroughly professional and very helpful.
So, Mom is gone now. But Weitz & Luxenberg hasn’t shown any less interest in her case. That other law firm, they lost interest in my dad’s case right from the get-go, it seemed like. But Weitz & Luxenberg is still fighting to get justice for Mom and for the family. In fact, they’re fighting just as hard now as at the start. That speaks for itself. It’s a good feeling to know that I can count on them.
My mom’s case is probably about halfway through. We’re expecting it to go on for another few years. Already, though, a number of good settlements have come in, and there are probably more ahead.
It’s important to me to keep pressing forward with this lawsuit because it’s what my mom would want me to do. When she got this diagnosis of cancer, she was mad, angry. She wanted justice. She didn’t deserve what happened. And now it’s up to me to continue the fight. That’s just what I intend to do. It’s been a rough couple of years. Through it all, I’m so grateful for Weitz & Luxenberg. None of the progress made would have been possible if not for the hard work of these great lawyers.
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