Kelly-Moore Paint Co. will have to pay $55.5 million to Alfredo Hernandez, Sr., a 47-year-old cancer patient. Hernandez sued the paint maker alleging that the company's paint products and joint compound contained asbestos. Hernandez used Kelly-Moore's products while working in the construction industry during the 1970s.

A jury awarded Hernandez the $55 million verdict, including $15 million in punitive damages, after it found that Kelly-Moore continued manufacturing asbestos-containing products even though the company knew that asbestos causes cancer and other serious health problems.

Hernandez's attorney worries that her client, who already lost one of his lungs to cancer, may not survive the appeals process.