Liability: Battle Lost, War Won

Thinking in large, impressive figures, as is his habit, Negligence Lawyer Melvin Belli asked a million dollars for his clients. Belli was representing the widow and children of William Kapell, the brilliant 31 -year-old pianist killed in an air crash in 1953 while returning home from Australia. At the trial in 1961, Belli bolstered his argument with a lustrous array of musical talent to testify to Kapell's genius and high earning power — Rudolf Serkin, Artur Rubinstein, Van Cliburn, Jascha Heifetz, Isaac Stern, Leonard Bernstein, Leopold Stokowski. But before the jury could...

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