Results

We secured a defense award on behalf of a skilled nursing facility in a hotly contested “wound” case after a two-day arbitration. The 93-year-old plaintiff had been a resident at the nursing facility for over three years without having suffered any pressure injuries, despite a plethora of risk factors. In August 2019, she was transferred emergently to an acute care hospital where she was diagnosed with a myocardial infarction (MI) and cardiogenic shock.

We won dismissal of a charge filed by the Ohio Civil Rights Commission (OCRC) against our client, a public housing authority. A tenant claimed the housing authority discriminated against him based upon race, disability, sex, and sexual orientation or engaged in retaliation. The OCRC determined there was no discrimination and dismissed the charge against the housing authority.

We obtained summary judgement on behalf of a homeowner in a 10-plaintiff negligence action arising from a house fire. In granting summary judgement, the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas agreed that the plaintiffs’ failure to secure a cause and origin expert was fatal to their case as the fire was alleged to be electrical in nature and, thus, outside the purview of the average juror.

We successfully contested a claimant’s request for authorization for a van equipped with a wheelchair lift, arguing it was not a medical necessity following a work-related injury. Testimony revealed the claimant’s significant mobility challenges were due to a work-related traumatic brain injury and spastic hemiplegia. However, the employer/carrier contested the request, asserting it was neither reasonable nor medically necessary based on the authorized treating physician’s assessment.

We successfully defended a Massachusetts-based insurance company in a bitter dispute with the federal government regarding a Medicare conditional lien request. The insurance carrier’s satellite office is based out of New Jersey, and the underlying claim involved an injury sustained in a motor vehicle accident with payments being made to the claimant under a New Jersey PIP policy. The carrier exhausted the PIP policy following the injury.

After four hearings, we obtained the dismissal of a complex legal malpractice action arising out of litigation in the U.S. District Court over the failed purchase of a Kia dealership in New Jersey. The plaintiff’s claims against our client, a well-known transactional lawyer with one of the largest firms in the United States, involved hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees and losses related to the investment in the dealership.

We obtained summary judgment on behalf of several Philadelphia narcotics police officers in a Section 1983 malicious prosecution and fabrication of evidence lawsuit. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania dismissed the case, with prejudice, finding the record was barren of any fabricated evidence by any of the defendant officers that was ever used in or influenced any criminal proceeding against the plaintiff, the officers possessed probable cause to charge the plaintiff, and the plaintiff tendered no evidence of an underlying constitutional violation. 

We successfully defended an appeal of the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to the defendants in a motor vehicle accident case. The evidence indicated that, at the time of the accident, the plaintiff’s vehicle had stopped while partially merged from a service road onto the main traffic lane when it was struck by our clients’ truck, which was driving on the main lane, on the driver’s side of the plaintiff’s car. On appeal, the plaintiff argued our clients were a proximate cause of the accident.

We won a premises liability case involving allegations of negligent sidewalk design. The plaintiff, a quadriplegic who has been in a wheelchair since 1984, entered our client’s convenience store using the designated wheelchair ramp without issue. However, upon leaving the store, he inexplicably failed to use the same ramp and, instead, attempted to go directly over the curb, resulting in a fall and a fractured leg. During his deposition, the plaintiff admitted he successfully navigated the wheelchair ramp upon entering the store.

We won a very hard-fought motion for summary judgment based on the plaintiff’s failure to prosecute in a matter that is now 10 years old. Suzanne won oral argument to dismiss the suit, based on the plaintiff’s failure to prosecute his case, by proving both actual prejudice to the client, a psychologist, and an inexcusable seven-year delay in any activity by the plaintiff.