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We have achieved successful financial results for clients in a number of litigation and personal injury claims including, for example, motor vehicle accidents, construction site accidents, and injuries from defective products. While many claims settle without filing a lawsuit, we are ever ready to fight for our clients to achieve the best for them, including filing suit. Several noteworthy claims are selected.
Motor vehicle accident
Confidentiality Agreement on financial terms - S.U.V. rollover
This was a tragic single car motor vehicle accident claim of a Sports Utility Vehicle rollover. Of the five occupants, four teenagers died and one survived. We represented the estates of two sisters who perished and the sole survivor making negligence and wrongful death claims against the manufacturer of the vehicle. Our claims were based on the negligent design of the vehicle which caused it be dangerously prone to rolling over. There were no issues of speeding or intoxication.
$550,000 settlement - passenger- motor vehicle accident
Our client was a rear seat passenger intoxicated and asleep in an uninsured black Toyota that was stopped perpendicular to and straddling two travel lanes on an unlit section of Route 95 south in Warwick, Rhode Island. This vehicle was likely stopped for several minutes before the time of the collision. The Toyota was struck by Defendant's delivery truck traveling at 65 miles per hour. The client was admitted to a Rhode Island hospital for approximately six weeks during which time he reported to his physicians that he had a pre-existing brain injury from an assault in 1984. After filing suit, Defendant's examining orthopedic and psychiatric experts each found the client had no permanent impairments or disability related to this motor vehicle accident. Otherwise, Defendant contended any brain injury was pre-existing. Before this motor vehicle accident, client did not work and lived with his girlfriend. She testified at deposition that there were no lasting changes in client after the accident.
$315,000 settlement – passenger- motor vehicle accident
This claim arose from a rear-end motor vehicle accident in Bourne, Massachusetts where our 54 year old client was a restrained front seat passenger. Upon impact, her right leg struck the dashboard and she sustained a fracture of the distal femoral shaft requiring o.r.i.f., a stay in a nursing facility, and rest at home for 5 months. The medical specials were $60,000. Lost wages were $23,000. Our client returned to full duty employment in an office. The claim settled in mediation with the insurer.
$100,000 settlement - motor vehicle accident, drunk driver
Our client was rear-ended on a highway by a drunk driver while returning home from work. He sustained a torn left rotator cuff and a fractured and dislocated left shoulder. Recovery included liability and underinsured motorist insurance benefits.
$100,000 settlement – motor vehicle accident
Our client was struck broadside by a vehicle that supposedly ran a stop sign. Our client dislocated his right shoulder, fractured a clavicle and several ribs, and lacerated his ear. The case settled for the policy limits after suit was filed and we obtained a real estate attachment on the property owned by the other driver.
$95,000 settlement - motor vehicle accident
Client was rear-ended on the Brightman Street Bridge causing a foot injury.
$78,500 settlement - motor vehicle accident
Our client was operating his employer's delivery truck on Route 24 when it was struck from behind by another truck, driven by the Defendant. The Defendant contended that the client caused the accident by abruptly cutting into Defendant's lane of travel directly in front of the Defendant then immediately thereafter, stomping on the brakes causing the Defendant to drive into the rear of the truck being driven by the client. Our client claimed he sustained neck sprain and positional vertigo. The workers' compensation insurance paid about $4,300 in medical benefits and $2,600 for weekly wage benefits.
$55,000 settlement/arbitration - motor vehicle accident- underinsured benefits
The defendant's insurance company presented a final offer of $15,000 to an injury victim before she became our client. We agreed to take on her case and charge her a legal fee only on any sum we could recover for her above and beyond the $15,000 offer. We negotiated another $5,000 from the liability insurer, then pursued an underinsured motorist claim with our client's own insurer recovering an additional $35,000 at an arbitration hearing. Had the client accepted the original $15,000 offer, it would have prevented any further recovery from her own underinsured insurance carrier. We obtained an additional $40,000 for her.
$24,700 arbitration award – motor vehicle accident
After receiving an inadequate settlement offer of $11,000, we filed suit and then agreed to arbitrate this soft tissue injury claim resulting in an award of $24,700.
$24,000 settlement - passenger- motor vehicle accident
Our client was age 74 at the time of the rear-end motor vehicle accident and sustained a soft tissue back injury for which he treated for several months. After rejecting the insurer's offer of $5,500, we filed suit. Soon after, the claim settled for $24,000.
Construction
$3,400,000 - Construction Site Accident - floor collapse
A concrete floor that was being poured collapsed at a job site in Worcester, Massachusetts. The five clients, union masons, were assisting in the concrete pour. They fell 40 feet to the ground below suffering a range of personal injuries. We pursued claims against the General Contractor, the architect, the structural engineer, and other subcontractors. Due to reduced liens and lump sum settlements the worth of the all the claims was approximately $4,000,000
$670,000 - Construction Site Accident - floor collapse
A concrete floor that was being poured collapsed at a job site in Hudson, Massachusetts. Our seven clients, masons and laborers, were assisting in the concrete pour. They fell 20 feet to the ground below suffering a range of personal injuries. We pursued claims against the General Contractor and the supplier of the form work. The claims settled for between $20,000 and $450,000. The workers' compensation liens were reduced to about one-third.
$560,000 - Construction Site Accident - electric shock
The client was working as a union carpenter foreman for a Massachusetts contractor at the Providence Place Mall construction site. While walking in the garage area of the Mall, he claims that he touched a live and partially insulated electric wire with his left hand, which caused him personal injury. We negotiated the $90,000 workers' compensation lien down to $20,000.
$550,000 - Construction Site Accident - falling load of plywood
The client was a union ironworker working at the entrance to the Ted Williams Tunnel when he was struck by a load of plywood that slipped from the slings of a crane that was under the control of the Defendant's employees. The load fell about thirty feet causing comminuted fractures of the client's right ankle and right fibula. In our lawsuit, we alleged that the load was negligently rigged in the crane slings and that the Defendant failed to give the client an adequate warning that an over-head hoist was commencing.
$165,000 - Construction Site Accident- underground electric cable explosion
Client was employed as a laborer by an excavating contractor, re-laying a water main within a roadway. A backhoe being operated by a co-employee, severed an underground energized electric cable owned by the Defendant electric company, causing an explosion. The client was standing in the trench being excavated and claims to have injured his left knee, right thigh and low back but continued working until laid off several months later. About 13 months after the incident, client believed his weakened left knee gave way, causing him to fall while in his home and fracture his left ankle. Client claimed this fracture was related to the industrial accident of over one year earlier.
$150,000 - Construction Site Accident - roof truss collapse
The roof truss system collapsed that client was erecting as a framing carpenter at the premises of the Defendant. The client alleged that the property owner was negligent in failing to exercise reasonable care while acting as the general contractor to supervise the work of its subcontractor, the client's employer. Client also alleged that a second Defendant was negligent in the operation of a crane which may have caused the roof truss system to collapse. Client broke both elbows in the fall and injured his left knee. The Defendants contended that the client and his co-workers caused the accident by following unsafe construction practices in erecting the wood roof trusses. The crane operator contended that the crane was not in operation when the trusses fell. We negotiated with the workers' compensation insurer to waive repayment of about $125,000.
$125,000 - Construction Site Accident - trench collapse
Client is an electrician who entered a trench to lay conduit pipe. The depth of the trench exceeded 5 feet. The trench partially collapsed, causing the client to twist and injure his hip. We filed claims against the excavator and the property owner for failing to properly shore up and support the side walls of the trench. Each Defendant contended that it was client's employer (which was cited by OSHA) that was at fault for the client's injuries.
$95,000 - Construction Site Accident - struck by concrete truck chute
The client was working for a company rebuilding a part of North Main Street in Fall River including installing curbstone along the sidewalk. The client worked as a laborer, spreading smooth the wet concrete along a curbstone. The Defendant supplied the wet concrete to the work site. The client was injured while wet concrete discharged down the chute of the Defendant's truck and the chute swung into him. The difficult part was a co-employee gave a statement that the client actually caused his own injury by pulling the chute into himself. We negotiated with the workers' compensation insurer to reduce its lien by about $100,000.
$92,000 - Construction Site Accident - struck by falling reinforcement bar rod
The client worked as a union ironworker at the Deer Island Sewer Treatment Plant. He was injured when an employee of the Defendant was walking/climbing on a wall made of reinforcement bars and kicked out a steel reinforcement bar which descended upon the client, striking him in the back of the neck. He had two fractures of the vertebrae at levels C-6 and C-7 which healed uneventfully and he returned to work. Treatment was principally rest at home and occasional chiropractic.
Defective Product
$525,000 settlement plus waiver of workers' compensation lien of $79,697.04, waiver of Hunter's Case offset, plus lump sum settlement of $50,000- work place products liability claim
This was a products liability claim which arose out of a work place accident involving a new industrial machine. Client's dominant hand became entangled in a nip point he claimed was unguarded. We brought suit against the machine's manufacturer and its distributor. In turn, these Defendants brought a third party claim against the manufacturer of the component nip point. The defense argued the hazard was obvious, it was guarded by height, and the client misused the machine by standing on a chair to make an adjustment near the nip point without depowering the machine in violation of his employer's lockout/tag out rules.
After the accident, the client continued to work in a supervisory capacity, overseeing co-workers who operated this same machine. His injuries required pinning and repairs of the PIP joints, soft tissue repair, and, subsequent fracture management. He underwent ulnar nerve transposition as well as manipulation and arthroscopy of the left shoulder with decompression and open AC joint resection. The case was settled for $525,000 with the self-insured employer agreeing to waive its lien of nearly $80,000, waive its Hunter's Case rights, and paying a lump sum settlement of $50,000.
$55,000 settlement - work place accident caused by defective electric motor
The client worked in a fruit juice manufacturing plant. She stepped over a floor mounted electric pump and apparently accidentally knocked off the cover to the motor's cooling fan blades. The exposed fan blades lacerated her leg. After examining the machine with a mechanical engineer, we discovered the electric motor had a snap-on designed fan cover, rather than a bolted cover. Through further investigation and litigation, we also discovered the motor's manufacturer discontinued making the snap-on cover, replacing this defective design with a cover that bolted on. The self-insured employer significantly waived its workers' compensation lien.
Other claims
$409,788.28 recovery from verdict and settlements- breach of contract claim
This was a three count breach of contract claim by a road construction company to perform construction work for it under three separate contracts. Our client was owed unpaid balances for work properly performed under the contracts. The Town brought 3 counterclaims against the client alleging damages from improper workmanship in violation of the specifications under the three contracts. Further, the Town claimed that the Plaintiff used excessive quantities of materials and over-billed the Town for which no payment was due. During litigation but before trial, we negotiated a settlement of one claim and the Town paid $17,500, the full balance owed on Count 3. Additionally, during litigation but before trial, we negotiated two partial payments totaling $167, 288.28 on Count 1. Accordingly, we claimed at trial our client was still owed $155,126.81 on Count 1 and $49,417.73 on Count 2. The Jury found that the Town breached Counts 1 and 2, awarding damages to our client on each count for $139, 444.21 and $49,417.73, respectively. The Jury found that our client did not breach either contract and found for our client on the Town's 2 counterclaims. The matter was settled for the sum of $225,000. At the time of filing the Complaint, our client was owed $389, 332.82. Through settlement, before and after verdict, we recovered $409,788.28.
$350,000 judgment - injury during hockey game
The client was struck in the neck with a "high stick" during a high school hockey game and sustained several fractures of his cervical vertebrae.
$265,000 settlement- injury at a shopping mall
This was a premises liability claim which occurred inside a shopping mall. Our client was seated on a public bench near an escalator, reading a book during a shopping trip. Two maintenance employees who were carrying a table while descending the escalator, dropped the table which struck the claimant's back and the back of the head. The injuries principally included compression fractures at L2 and T12; lumbar radiculitis; head trauma including two contusions in the parieto-occipital region, right side; short term cognitive impairment largely restored; reactive depression; and posttraumatic stress disorder. Our client eventually returned to work as a teacher but claimed disability and sought early retirement. The defense strongly contested the extent of disability.
$120,000 settlement - negligent police car chase
The client was a passenger in an uninsured motor vehicle that supposedly ran a stop sign which caused several municipal police cruisers to give chase in violation of the city's own chase protocol and accepted police safety standards. The chase caused the uninsured vehicle to crash and the client was seriously injured. We obtained $20,000 in uninsured benefits from a family policy and $100,000 from the city which was the maximum allowed under Massachusetts General Laws chapter 258.
$19,323 judgment - dog attack
Our client was confronted by Defendant's dog which broke free from the Defendant's daughter who was walking the dog on a leash. The dog ran around the client entangling her legs in the loose leash which caused her to fall to the sidewalk, injuring her left knee. The client missed about one month from work and had several months of physical therapy treatment.
Defense verdict on Purchase and Sale Agreement
This was a lawsuit for specific performance against our client arising from an alleged breach of contract. The plaintiff was a lessee under a written lease for commercial property owned by our client in Seekonk, Massachusetts. The lease contained a paragraph amounting to an option to purchase the property. Upon exercising this option to purchase, the lease contained precise language regarding the manner in which the sale price is determined: "It is agreed that the current value is $375, 000.00 and that the premises will be re-appraised by an independent appraiser to be chosen by Preston K. Hood, Jr. and if he is unable or cannot do so, then by a certified appraiser acceptable to both lessor and lessee….."
By letter of November 11, 2001 addressed to defendant, plaintiff, through its counsel, exercised the option to purchase. Because Preston K. Hood, Jr. was deceased, lessee's counsel proposed using Peter M. Scotti & Associates of Providence, Rhode Island (Scotti) as appraiser. Counsel for the parties conferred but lessor's counsel did not agree to use Scotti and lessee's counsel would not consider using other appraisers suggested by lessor's counsel. Eventually, the lessee hired Scotti to appraise the property who determined its worth to be $265,000. At trial, lessee alleged that lessor, through his counsel, agreed to use Scotti and was bound to convey for the purchase price of $265,000. Lessor had his own appraisal performed which determined the value was $600,000. Following a trial, the court found that there was no agreement between the parties to use Scotti and found judgment for the Defendant lessee. Each party had new counsel at trial. No appeal was taken by lessee.
Planning Board Appeal, Westport, Massachusetts
This case was the appeal by our clients who were two sets of abutters to a lot that was improperly granted subdivision approval to create two house lots. A property owner filed a proposed definitive subdivision plan seeking subdivision approval from the Westport Planning Board of a two lot subdivision on her property which was already developed with a house that she owned and lived in. In her subdivision plan and petition, the subdivider sought to construct a dead-end gravel road along her northern lot line, which road and lot line abut the southern lot line of the lot of one of our two clients. The road, as designed, would be a distance of only 11 feet from the north side of the subdivider's existing house whereas the Westport Zoning Bylaw requires both the minimum setbacks from a road on which the dwelling has frontage and a side yard to be 25 feet. The new road would reduce the subdivider's frontage on the main road from 150 feet to 132 feet, or less, whereas the Westport Zoning Bylaw requires minimum road frontage to be 150 feet. In their complaint, our clients sought to annul the decision claiming the Planning Board decision as being in violation of at least two provisions of the Westport Zoning Bylaw. We served a motion for summary judgment to annul the decision which motion was allowed on May 8, 2006. Thereafter, the parties submitted an agreed upon proposed judgment was which was approved by the Court on May 30, 2006. No appeal was taken by the Town.
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