John O'Quinn, Texas personal-injury lawyer, killed in car crash -- latimes.comJohn O'Quinn, Texas personal-injury lawyer, killed in car crash
O'Quinn, 68, and his driver were killed in Houston when their SUV hit a tree. The lawyer had won mammoth verdicts in fen-phen and tobacco lawsuits.
Bloomberg News
October 29, 2009 | 1:00 p.m.
John O'Quinn, the Houston trial lawyer who won a $1-billion verdict in a diet drug case and shared more than $3 billion in legal fees representing Texas in tobacco litigation, died today in a car crash. He was 68.
O'Quinn was killed with his driver when their sport utility vehicle slammed into a tree in Houston, attorney Neil McCabe at the O'Quinn Law Firm confirmed.
O'Quinn, known for a folksy style and rapport with jurors, represented plaintiffs in personal-injury and product-defect lawsuits, winning billions in jury verdicts and out-of-court settlements.
"He had lots of earth-shattering verdicts," Richard Laminack, a former partner at the firm, said in an interview. "He won $12 million for a dead bull, $105 million for the death of a worker at Monsanto. He had quite a track record."
O'Quinn was one of five Texas lawyers who shared $3.3 billion in legal fees for their role representing the state in negotiating a $17.3-billion settlement with the tobacco industry.
In 2004, he won a $900-million punitive-damages judgment as part of a $1-billion verdict against Wyeth on behalf of the family of a woman who died after taking the diet drug fen-phen. The case was appealed by the company and later was settled, O'Quinn told Bloomberg News this year.
O'Quinn was a donor to Texas causes, including the Houston Council on Alcohol and Drugs, Laminack said. "He left a big mark on the city of Houston."
If the name doesn't ring any bells, John O'Quinn was said to have one of, if not the, largest car collections in the world.
O'Quinn attended an exhibition of Duesenberg's as a child at the Sam Houston Coliseum, to see what his father called "the greatest car ever built." In 2003, O'Quinn saw a 1932 Duesenberg Durham Tourister for sale at a Houston auction, at which he bought 14 cars that day including the Duesenberg for $405,000.[4]
O'Quinn maintained an extensive collection of cars, with a total value of over $100 million to purchase and maintain 618 cars,[7] including: seven Duesenbergs; the 1911 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost featured in the film Titanic; John F Kennedy's 1962 Lincoln Continental Bubble Top limo; a 1937 Bugatti Type 57 Atalante.[4]
In September 2006, he bought: a 2005 Lamborghini Gallardo covered with 33 celebrity autographs ($500,000); the Batmobile used in the filming of Batman Forever ($335,000), a 1941 Packard limousine used by President Franklin D. Roosevelt ($290,000), a 1938 Talbot-Lago ($3,350,000); and a 1938 Town Car used by Pope Pius XII ($250,000).[4]
The centre piece of the collection is plain grey 1975 Ford Escort GL, once owned by Polish priest Karol Wojtyla - before he became became Pope John Paul II. Bought at the Kruse auction at SEMA, the car was sold by the Pope at auction for charity to Chicago restuaranter Jim Rich in 1995, who paid $102,000 for the car.[8] O'Quinn paid €690,000 for the car October 2005.[4]
In late 2006 O'Quinn discovered that several cars were missing from his collection, including a Ferrari 575M and a 1965 Ford Shelby Mustang GT350. O'Quinn tried to get in touch with Zev Isgur, a 32-year-old ex-con whom he'd befriended and entrusted with the management of his collection of classic cars. Isgur was later convicted of embezzlement.
John O'Quinn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Almost got a chance to see a part of the collection, but it never came together. RIP, Mr. O'Quinn.
