A federal South Carolina jury awarded a $112 million verdict to JW Aluminum Co. against two insurers who refused to cover the costs of equipment destroyed in a fire.
National firm Reid Collins & Tsai achieved the win for its clients utilizing lessons learned from focus groups and shadow jurors, who gave real-time feedback during the five-day jury trial.
After two hours of deliberating, Bill Reid, senior partner at Reid Collins and counsel for the plaintiff, said the jury came back and rewarded exactly what he and his team had requested: $32.3 million for repair and replacement costs and the $80 million policy sub-limit for business-interruption losses.
Bill Reid, member of Reid Collins & Tsai in Austin. Courtesy photo
Reid said it is a goal of their firm to give their associates trial experience, whether that's examining witnesses, arguing motions or other functions, especially "in the age of the dying jury trial."
"For young lawyers to be able to get experience is very difficult, particularly on a large, consequential case like this was," Reid said. "It's cool to share the work and try the case as a team. ... To trust younger people with real roles at a trial of this magnitude is probably not something many firms would do, and I'm pretty proud of that."
Craig Boneau, Scott Saldaña, Dylan Jones, Julia Byrne, John Hammel Strauss and Sam Hilliard of Reid Collins were also on the trial team.
The lawsuit was brought in 2021, originally against four insurers: ACE American Insurance Co., General Security Indemnity Co. of Arizona, Westport Insurance Corp. and AIG Specialty Insurance Co.
AIG and Westport settled with the plaintiff in 2024 and 2025 respectively, the terms of which are confidential.
JW Aluminum ran into the dispute with the insurers after a 2020 fire that burned up legacy equipment at a plant.
There was a plan in the works to replace the legacy equipment, which the insurer used to argue that the claim was too high because the equipment was going to be taken out, Reid said.
"The way I argued the case in closing arguments was the insurer would have you believe that a decision to rip out the equipment had already been made," Reid said.
However, Reid said an email was drafted the day of the fire by the CEO to be sent to the board, stating the decision to remove the legacy equipment and build a new plant should be put off for a few weeks to "gain better ecomonic clarity."
"JW didn't make a decision to remove the equipment, the fire made the decision for them," Reid said.
The case was hard-fought, going up to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals during the litigation after the South Carolina District Court initially granted the insurers' motion for summary judgment, but the ruling was unanimously reversed.
When the plaintiff was getting for trial, the firm conducted two studies, one early on in the case and one down the road with a more developed record. The trial team learned that a good comparison to the company's business model involving an intermediate product, 20,000 pound rolls of aluminum, and products made with that material could be compared to pizza dough and pizza.
In addition, Reid said during the trial, they also had shadow jurors giving them feedback throughout the trial to make sure their message was landing. However, Reid said it's important that if a shadow jury is used, it's seen as a tool, not something to rely on exclusively.
"You want to get local people because you want feedback from people who live in the community," Reid said. "You also want people that are going to give you their opinion, so it may not be a juror that you would choose, because you really want critical feedback."
Anne M. Nagel, Ashley C. Vierce, Charles John Rocco, Dawn Marie Brehony, Garion Thomas Liberti and Michael S. Errera of Foran Glennon Plandech Ponzi and Rudloff; Joseph Rutledge Young Jr. and Brian C. Duffy of Duffy and Young; and John Edward Cuttino of Gallivan White Boyd, counsel for the insurers, did not respond to a request for comment.
Read the verdict:
Nov 21
Deal Summary
