Results

We obtained summary judgment in a Sunshine Act case in the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas. The plaintiff alleged that the school district violated the law by temporarily requiring school board meeting attendees to show photo identification to gain entry without holding a public vote prior to implementation of the measure. The court determined that this security measure did not constitute a policy requiring a public vote and that the plaintiff was not prevented from attending school board meetings because he possessed a valid driver’s license and chose not to produce it.

We secured summary judgment for our client, a tow truck company, in three consolidated cases venued in Essex County Superior Court arising out of a fatal motor vehicle accident caused by an illegal left-hand turn by a tow truck driver. The plaintiffs alleged that our client was liable under a theory of respondeat superior as the tow truck driver’s employer. The plaintiffs further alleged that our client negligently hired, trained, supervised and entrusted the vehicle to the driver.

We won a decision from the Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division, which affirmed an order for summary judgment in a complex multi-party legal malpractice action. This case involved financial ventures that led to two legal malpractice actions. The dismissal was affirmed, with the Appellate Division agreeing with the trial judge that the plaintiff’s expert reports were net opinions and inadmissible.

We secured a jury defense verdict in a general liability lawsuit brought against our client, a Pennsylvania moving equipment rental company. The plaintiffs were in their car at a McDonald's drive-thru in Delaware when their vehicle was struck by an unattached trailer that had blown from an adjacent parking lot during a storm. The trailer was blown from the parking lot of the adjacent gas station which rented trailers to the public as part of a dealership agreement with a Delaware moving equipment rental company that had the same parent corporation as the client.

We obtained a “no cause” verdict in an employment discrimination case for a New Jersey state university. The plaintiff, seeking back pay, front pay, emotional distress, attorney fees, punitive damages and costs, alleged she was terminated from her position as director of the university’s performing arts center due to her age, gender and/or in retaliation for reporting internal complaints of age/gender discrimination.

We obtained a defense verdict following a three-day jury trial in a slip-and-fall injury case in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County. The plaintiff slipped in the allegedly wet lobby of a commercial building and claimed a serious and ongoing injury to her right shoulder. Problematic for our case was the lack of a surveillance video of the incident, photographs of the lobby contemporaneous to the incident, or an incident report.

We secured a victory in a case involving an Article 75 petition seeking to vacate a master arbitration award. Following oral arguments, the court unanimously affirmed the lower court’s decision as neither the lower arbitration award nor the master arbitration award were neither irrational nor contained errors of law or fact.

The plaintiff slipped in the lobby of a commercial building and claimed a serious and ongoing injury to her right shoulder. She alleged she fell due to a wet floor caused by the facilities management’s cleaning process and the lack of sufficient visible wet floor caution signs. The plaintiff underwent two surgeries, claimed ongoing pain and suffering, and sought $500,000 prior to trial. 

We successfully transferred two consolidated cases involving alleged falls by construction workers from Philadelphia to Cumberland County. Our clients were located in Lancaster County, and the only codefendant was located in Philadelphia County. We filed preliminary objections as to venue, arguing that the codefendant was a “phantom” defendant named to obtain venue in Philadelphia County. The court was convinced by our arguments. This ruling cuts against the current trend of giving broad deference to plaintiffs on venue issues.

We secured a summary judgment in a case in which the plaintiff slipped and fell on our client’s premises. An employee had clocked out and was in the process of gathering his personal belongings from the front-end counter when he allegedly created a dangerous condition by dropping his “personal jug” of iced tea on the floor, which the plaintiff slipped on. We argued that the retailer was not vicariously liable for the acts of the employee, who was “off the clock” at the time.