Results

Won a dismissal of a school board member on a 12(b)(6) motion. The board member was sued for defamatory comments made during a public school board meeting about a teacher who was terminated from her employment with the district.

Successfully defended a high-exposure workers' compensation claim on behalf of a mushroom processing plant in Berks County. The case involved a claim petition in which an employee alleged a debilitating work-related injury involving a lumbar spine disc herniation with radicular components after alleged heavy lifting at work. Based on the claimant's inflated average weekly wage and the severe nature of his injury, this was a high exposure claim. A complete medical exam was undertaken on behalf of the mushroom facility by a nationally recognized orthopedic surgeon.

Obtained summary judgment in the Supreme Court of Westchester County, New York, on behalf of our client, a home inspection company. The case involved claims for negligent home inspection, gross negligence and fraud as a result of the plaintiffs' discovering over $1.4 million in actual damages from mold and vermin following their purchase of a home in Armonk, New York. The plaintiffs executed a home inspection agreement and hired the defendant company to perform the pre-sale home inspection.

Obtained a dismissal with prejudice on behalf of a bank in a Florida trial court for lack of personal jurisdiction, and also obtained a per curiam affirmance by the Fifth District Court of Appeals. The plaintiff, a Florida corporation, alleged counts for theft, civil conspiracy and fraud against our client. The plaintiff alleged the bank and an officer were part of a conspiracy to transfer unit owners' deposit money in one development to another development in order to allow another bank to make a $30 million loan.

Obtained a directed verdict on behalf of a broker-dealer and a broker in a FINRA arbitration in New York. The claimant, a sophisticated and wealthy owner of a broker-dealer, alleged that he was being charged an unreasonable mark-up on municipal bond sales. The claimant further alleged that he was the victim of elder abuse. 

Represented an Orthodox Jewish synagogue, through a non-profit Directors and Officers policy, that was sued by its former Cantor for wrongful termination. The Cantor claimed that under Talmudic law, he had the job for life. We disputed the argument and alleged that the Cantor's disrespect for the Rabbi with whom he worked justified the termination. The Cantor's claim was for $1.7 million. The parties, by an arbitration agreement enforceable in civil court, submitted the dispute to a rabbinic court, known as a Beth Din.

Obtained summary judgment on behalf of a homeowner in a case pending in Mason County, Kentucky. The plaintiff was an independent contractor hired to trim trees on the defendant's property. He sustained severe and debilitating injuries after falling over 30 feet from an extension ladder, including multiple back fractures and has incomplete right T11, left T12, and incomplete L3 motor paraplegia due to his fall. Further, his doctors opined that he would be wheelchair bound and have a permanent total disability from work for the remainder of his life.

Obtained a defense verdict in a legal malpractice case in Florida. Our clients, two board-certified construction lawyers, had unsuccessfully defended the plaintiff, a real estate developer for a project in West Palm Beach, Florida, in a lawsuit brought by the general contractor that ended with an adverse jury verdict of over $1 million. In the underlying lawsuit, the two lawyers pursued a litigation strategy that, upon reflection, had little chance of success. The lawyers never communicated to their client the prospect of an adverse result, at least not in writing.

Obtained a defense verdict after a five-week medical malpractice trial in New Jersey. The plaintiffs alleged that our clients, an emergency medicine physician and a nurse practitioner, failed to diagnose and test for a subarachnoid hemorrhage (brain bleed) in a patient who came to the Emergency Department with a non-traumatic nosebleed and hypertension. When she arrived at the ER, the 59-year-old plaintiff was evaluated by the nurse practitioner, who performed a full exam of the patient and treated the nosebleed with nasal packing.

The defense succeeded on a motion for judgment on the pleadings in a breach of contract/bad faith claim against an insurance carrier in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.