Case Results – Settlements & Verdicts
Many firms promote their ability to obtain great results for you. Too often, however, such claims are not supported with specifics. Let us share with you some representative litigation results we have obtained for our clients:
Personal Injury
$4.5 million recovery. Personal injury; construction site accident. A 51-year old plumber working on a job site was severely injured when he fell approximately 30 feet to the ground while attempting to pull equipment into a third-floor loading door from a wooden box attached to a forklift. Case settled after three separate days of mediation.
$1.25 million settlement. Wrongful Death; Roadway Construction Site Accident: A 19-year-old girl was killed when she fell off a motor scooter that was being driven on a street under construction. The roadway construction site allegedly had been negligently maintained and secured and was in a dangerous and defective state at the time of the accident, which occurred at night.
$1 million settlement. Wrongful Death; Underinsurance Claim: A 69-year-old woman was killed in a single car accident. We obtained for her estate the limits of the applicable bodily injury and underinsurance coverage limits in a case involving sophisticated conflict of law and damage evaluation issues.
$825,00.00 recovery. Pedestrian Accident: A 77-year-old man was struck and injured while walking across Commonwealth Avenue here in Boston. The vehicle which struck him had a green light but other peripheral allowed us to recover for this man’s leg and shoulder injuries.
$750,000.00 settlement. Medical Malpractice: A 38-year-old commercial fisherman fell through a deck opening and suffered a fracture to his leg. The fracture allegedly was improperly diagnosed and treated and resulted in significant permanent disability.
$500,000 settlement. Dog Bite; Minor: A 5-year-old girl was bitten and mauled by a neighbor’s dog and suffered permanent facial scarring.
$400,000.00 settlement. Medical Malpractice: A young woman delivered her first-born child and then immediately underwent a post-delivery surgical procedure, which caused incontinence and other complications, and allegedly was performed in an improper and negligent manner.
$330,000.00 settlement. Premises Liability; Negligent Maintenance; Trip-And-Fall Accident: A 70-year-old woman, while walking on the premises of a private school, tripped and fell in a hole on a negligently maintained sidewalk and sustained extensive dental injuries and a possible residual heart attack.
$330,000.00 recovery. Premises Liability: A 39-year-old woman was at a bar here in Boston and slipped and fell on a concrete floor which had condensation formed on it due to inadequate air conditioning. This individual sustained an injury to her wrist requiring two surgeries.
$312,500.00 settlement. Premises Liability; Negligent Maintenance; Trip-And-Fall Accident: A 45-year-old woman, while walking in an alleged negligently maintained strip mall parking lot, stepped into a hole and suffered permanent and ongoing disabilities in both legs.
$300,000.00 recovery. Social Host Liability: An 18-year-old teenager was injured during overly aggressive horseplay at a friend’s house where minors were drinking alcohol. This individual sustained a burst fracture to his lower back.
$275,000.00 settlement. Wrongful Death; Aviation Accident: Two young adult teachers and their two minor children were passengers in a small plane that crashed in a foreign nation; there were no survivors. The settlement amount, given the limitations imposed by the law of the foreign nation where the accident occurred, represented a significant recovery for the families of the deceased.
$300,000.00 settlement. Industrial Accident; Product Liability; Defective Design And Manufacture: An assembly line worker sustained two partial finger amputations while working on a metal press machine, which allegedly was defectively designed and lacked adequate safety guards.
$250,000.00 settlement. Medical Malpractice: A young woman gave birth to a baby with severe multiple disabilities. Her medical providers allegedly failed to properly diagnose fetal distress during delivery.
$175,000 settlement. Premises Liability; Snow And Ice; Slip-And-Fall Accident: An automobile damage appraiser — now 54 years old — slipped and fell on “black ice” while visiting a repair shop and suffered a mild traumatic head injury.
$44,600.00 settlement. Bicycle Accident: A 58-year-old Connecticut man, while vacationing on Nantucket Island, was struck by a motorist as he was cycling in a designated bicycle path.
$40,000.00 verdict. Dental Malpractice: A 30-year-old woman underwent several teeth extractions. During surgery, the dentist allegedly removed more teeth than had been authorized by the plaintiff patient, who therefore alleged lack of informed consent and battery.
$24,000.00 settlement. Negligent security; Assault: A 32-year-old graduate engineer was forcibly and wrongly ejected from a Boston bar/restaurant by security staff (bouncers), during which process the ulna of his dominant hand right wrist was fractured.
In addition, we have recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars for injured clients in numerous automobile and commercial trucking accident cases, as well as in all other types of personal injury litigation.
Business And Commercial Litigation
Contract. Breach of Contract; Quantum Meruit; Fraud; Negligent Misrepresentation; Violation of G.L. c. 93A: Our clients, a limited liability entertainment production company and several individual partners, leased space at a prestigious downtown Boston venue operated by a national restaurant corporation for the purpose of hosting a high-profile holiday party They advertised and sold tickets through several public and social media. After the event, for which the clients had paid most costs in advance, the plaintiff corporation sued our clients, claiming they had failed to pay for all the food, beverages and services it had provided. Our clients contended the plaintiff’s own failure to properly manage the provision of security and services had caused any loss the plaintiff allegedly incurred. A reasonable settlement was achieved after several jury trial days when, in our view, it became evident that the plaintiff’s allegations, particularly as to damages, were not entirely supported by the evidence.
Shareholder Suit. Breach of Fiduciary Duty; Fraud; Civil Conspiracy; Corporate Successor Liability: We represent the president of a bio-tech medical device company in a suit originally brought in the Massachusetts Superior Court Business Litigation Session against our client, the company, the company’s chief executive officer and others. Plaintiffs, who were minority investors in the company’s alleged corporate predecessor, assert that the defendants and other majority shareholders conspired to defraud and deprive them of the value of their stock at a time when the alleged corporate predecessor was winding down and entering into an assignment for the benefit of creditors. Motions to dismiss were filed in behalf of each defendant at the outset of the case. All claims were dismissed except those for breach of fiduciary duty and fraud against our client, who had been a member of the alleged corporate predecessor’s Board of Directors. Extensive discovery ensued. Shortly before trial, the parties agreed to arbitrate the matter before a retired judge with extensive trial court and appellate experience. Following several full days of hearing and witness testimony, the arbitrator issued a detailed, comprehensive written finding for our client. The plaintiffs, two of whom are lawyers, now seek to overturn the arbitrator’s decision; the matter is pending at the Appeals Court.
Construction. Breach of Contract; Delay Damages: We defended a property owner who was sued by a construction contractor. The contractor claimed the property owner and another defendant caused delays in the completion of the project and thereby caused the contractor to incur increased costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Our client contended the contractor’s own actions had been the primary cause of any delays and that the alleged increased costs were largely unfounded and excessive. We obtained a favorable outcome after a contentious jury trial.
Construction. Real Estate. Historic District; Architectural Commission; Enabling Act; Declaratory Judgment; Injunctive Relief. Our client purchased an unused property from the Commonwealth located in a historic district in the City of Boston. He demolished the dilapidated structure and proposed to build a new townhouse residence consistent in design and size with the surrounding neighborhood. The client obtained the required approval of the historic district Architectural Commission. Several neighbors then joined in a suit to overturn the Commission’s approval and to prevent construction. After lengthy litigation, including summary judgment motions, followed by a trial, a Superior Court judge ruled that the Commission’s reasons for approval of the proposed new construction were sufficient in law and supported by the evidence.
Defense Cases
In the course of our defense practice, we have obtained numerous judgments after trial and favorable settlements for our clients in cases involving motor vehicle accidents, construction site accidents, negligent security, premises liability and other claims. Our clients have included uninsured private clients, insured individuals, small businesses and large corporations, including Fortune 500 companies, as well as local well-known organizations, such as the Boston Red Sox. Regardless of the client’s status — whether an individual or a large business — or the size and scope of the alleged claim, we devote the same attention to detail, efficiency and results to every case. But don’t just take our word for it; we would be happy to provide you with references, including the names and contact information of claim managers and corporate risk managers with whom we have worked over the years, and presently work with today.
Indemnification, Duty To Defend And Additional Insured Coverage Matters
Recently, we recovered over $40,000 for one of our defense clients, pursuant to a duty to defend/additional insured clause in the contract between our client and a third party. After litigation, these monies were paid to our client by the insurance carrier for the third party; significantly, summary judgment had been awarded to our client and the above monies represented all the attorneys fees and costs incurred by our client.
On another recent case in which the general contractor filed a separate lawsuit against our client — a subcontractor/vendor — seeking indemnification and defense costs in excess of $100,000, we were able to obtain summary judgment in favor of our client, thereby having the claims alleging indemnification, a duty to defend and additional insured obligations dismissed.
This case involved complex issues concerning what constitutes an “additional insured,” the “arising out of” standard and other issues related to this matter and summary judgment was allowed in favor of our client, thereby absolving it from any obligation to pay the general contractor’s defense costs or monies it paid to settle the underlying tort action.
We have also initiated numerous declaratory judgment actions on behalf of insurers to determine the existence and extent of insurance coverages. As part of this service, we frequently provide opinions and interpretations on provisions in both personal and commercial line insurance policies with regard to coverage, exclusions and exceptions to those exclusions.