Our Cases
The following is a list of cases handled by the firm and their results.
1. $7,000,000.00 plus confidential settlement for seriously injured worker and his wife.
2. $4,300,000.00 premises liability/liquor liability verdict obtained for 25 year old man who was rendered a quadriplegic when he was pushed into and over a poorly maintained wall surrounding a stairway landing by an intoxicated patron of a bar located in the building. Trude v. Martin, et al., No. GD90-7920 in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County.
3. $3,700,000.00 liability and underinsured motorist (UIM) insurance settlements obtained for a 51 year old man sustaining fractures of both arms and both legs, and a below the knee amputation of one of his legs, as the result of a crossover head-on collision.
4. $1,000,000.00 judgments obtained for each of two young girls against bar that over-served and then threw out severely intoxicated patrons. The girls were injured and witnessed their Mother’s death as the result of the ensuing head on vehicle collision. Superior Court affirmed that the bar’s insurer wrongfully denied a defense to the bar. Penn-America v. Peccadillos, 2011 Pa. Super 176, 2011 Pa. Super LEXIS 2237 (Pa. Super. 2011).
5. $1,500,000.00 settlement obtained for a worker suffering a head injury, torn rotator cuff shoulder injury, rib and spinal fractures, and exacerbation of pre-existing degenerative spinal disc disease as the result of a fall at the factory where he was a supervisor, due to the failure of an independent contractor retained for plant maintenance to have properly reconnected a removable railing.
6. $1,500,000.00 verdict, plus delay damages, obtained for an incapacitated brain injured patient with preexisting schizophrenia. During a combined uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, tonsillectomy and bilateral nasoseptoplasty surgical procedure, the Defendant attending anesthesiologist absented himself from the operating room during a significant portion of the procedure, including during the key portion when the patient was emerging from anesthesia, resulting in the Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist prematurely removing the endotracheal tube, causing respiratory and cardiac arrest, and resultant permanent severe brain injury due to lack of oxygen before the patient was eventually resuscitated. Woodson v. The Medical Center, et al., No. 10601-2002 in the Court of Common Pleas of Beaver County.
7. $1,250,000.00 inadequate security verdict, plus delay damages, obtained for multiple gunshot victim convenience store clerk. Wojcik v. Handee Marts, et al., No. GD97-2316 in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County.
8. $970,000.00 in settlements obtained for pedestrian who suffered significant skull fracture, requiring removal of half of skull to accommodate brain swelling (replaced one month later), with resultant permanent loss of sense of smell, and for her husband who suffered minor injuries but observed his wife being injured and was with her during her near death experience and eventual remarkable recovery.
9. $850,000.00 settlement obtained for the estate of an 81 year old female Alzheimer's patient who was a resident of a personal care facility that advertised itself as specializing in Alzheimer's patient care. Due to underfilled patient quotas, a 62 year old brain damaged male patient was admitted to the facility, and repeatedly exhibited violent tendencies. The woman was discovered in the facility's hallway in the middle of the night, severely beaten.
10. $825,000.00 in policy limits settlement from liability insurer plus additional payment by the state fund providing additional coverage to doctors, for 50 year old man sustaining permanent injury to his shoulder as the result of operating surgeon’s negligence.
11. $757,273.45 verdict, plus delay damages, collected for the estate and widow of a now deceased patient whose bone cancer was misdiagnosed and inappropriately treated at age 74, resulting in about 1000 days of improperly controlled painful symptoms and the performance of unnecessary and ineffective invasive dental and prostate procedures. Gbur et ux. v. Golio, No. GD03-5415 in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County.
12. $906,212.34, plus delay damages, verdict collected for 56 year old man who sustained serious injuries requiring four surgeries as the result of a fall on a slippery and unattended floor while he was making deliveries as a truck driver to the Hospital’s loading dock. Courthouse staff believe this was the highest verdict for a slip and fall accident case ever rendered by a Beaver County jury. Holland et ux. v. Valley Medical Facilities, Inc. t/d/b/a Sewickley Valley Hospital a/k/a Heritage Valley Sewickley, an operating division of Heritage Valley Health System, Inc. No. 12441-2009 in the Court of Common Pleas of Beaver County.
13. $555,135.00 verdict collected for 40 year old woman who developed severe heart failure due to her family physician’s failure to order standard blood tests that would have revealed an underlying treatable condition, which, if promptly and appropriately treated, could have avoided the resulting permanent heart damage. Busch-Fish et vir. v. Ruth D. Martin, M.D. et al. GD06-26250 in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County.
14. $415,000.00 in settlements collected for a 39 year old man who fractured numerous bones in a two car auto accident. The other driver’s insurer paid its policy limits. It was also contended that the injured party’s vehicle was defective, leading to worsening of some of his injuries, but the engineer retained by a previous lawyer to examine and store the vehicle failed to protect it from a flood that the engineer knew or should have known was likely to occur, causing him to discard the flood damaged vehicle part, resulting in an additional professional negligence settlement.
15. $400,000.00 settlement obtained for a 45 year old woman and her husband for a doctor's failure to timely diagnose and treat a cancerous lump in the patient's breast, eliminating the chance for a lumpectomy, and requiring a total mastectomy.
16. $350,000.00 in policy limits settlements obtained from other driver’s insurer and UIM carrier for 59 year old woman for multiple fractures sustained in head-on collision, despite her unrelated total disability that preceded the accident.
17. $300,000.00 settlement for 55 year old woman who slipped and fell on water on floor of a restaurant after her meal. The fall caused a previously asymptomatic cyst in her lower back to become painful, and the blow to her head caused ongoing dizziness and memory problems.
18. $325,000.00 in settlements obtained from other driver’s insurer and UIM insurer for 54 year old man injured in rear end auto accident, who sustained further injury due to misplacement of a catheter in his penis at the emergency room.
19. $313,276.93 award collected for Estate and heirs of a legally blind and nearly deaf 101 year old woman who was required by the nursing home where she resided to ambulate in her wheelchair to an elevator in order to get to the dining hall. She passed the elevator and inadvertently rolled down a flight of stairs, causing numerous injuries that led to her death.
20. $295,000.00 in settlement obtained from liability and UIM insurers for a 75 year old driver of a car "T-boned" in the middle of a four-way intersection resulting in a dislocated shoulder, broken ribs and crushed lungs. $97,000.00 in settlements were also obtained from the liability and UIM insurers for the wife-passenger, who sustained a torn rotator cuff of her shoulder, dizziness and a brief recurrence of a pre-existing Bell's Palsy facial twitch in the accident.
21. Near policy limits $270,000.00 settlement for elderly couple where husband-operator of car turned left in front of speeding oncoming car, causing significant injuries to husband and instantaneous death of wife-passenger.
22. $250,000.00 in settlements and underinsured motorist (UIM) arbitration award obtained from the liability insurer ($100,000.00 limits of coverage), the UIM insurer ($100,000.00 limits of coverage obtained after UIM arbitration) and $50,000.00 from plaintiff's UIM insurer to settle bad faith suit handling claims arising out of a rear-end motor vehicle collision resulting in aggravation of a pre-existing cervical disc herniation requiring fusion surgery for a 46 year old woman.
23. $220,000.00 in settlements from other driver’s insurer and UIM insurer for 51 year old woman sustaining hip injury in low speed rear end collision.
