January 15, 2007
Largest Verdicts & Settlements 2006
Bench awards of $1 million and more
1. $9.38 MILLION
($15 million with interest)
Bourque v. O'Dea
Suffolk Superior Court, No. 01-1960
Date of verdict: July 18, 2006
Plaintiff's counsel: Jeffrey N. Roy and Paul E. Ravech, Ravech & Roy, Boston
The plaintiff went with friends to a small bar. Despite the fact that they were minors, they were not asked for identification. Each had at least four to five beers and two mixed drinks. The driver drank even more. The driver, with the plaintiff in the passenger seat, began driving erratically and traveling in excess of 60 mph. The driver failed to negotiate one of the curves and wrapped the car around a telephone pole on the passenger side. The driver was charged with operating under the influence, but he went to Ireland to escape prosecution. The plaintiff alleged that the defendants were negligent in serving alcohol to the driver. The plaintiff sustained a significant intracranial injury. The plaintiff obtained the judgment against the driver following a $3.4 million settlement against the defendant bar.
2. $8.75 MILLION
($12.5 million with interest)
Milliken & Company v. Duro Textiles, LLC
Bristol Superior Court, No. BRCV2002-01364
Date of verdict: June 12, 2006
Plaintiff's counsel: Jeffrey Upton, Hanify & King, Boston
Judge E. Susan Garsh held a successor company liable for the debts of its predecessor company under the de facto merger and continuation theories of successor liability. The successor company was established by the owners/secured lenders of the predecessor company to purchase the assets of the predecessor company and continue the business following a U.C.C. Article 9 foreclosure sale by the owners/secured lenders.
3. $5 MILLION
Instrument Industries Trust v. Danaher, et al.
Suffolk Superior Court Business Litigation Session, No. 2003-3960
Date of verdict: Feb. 27, 2006
Plaintiff's counsel: Daniel J. Lyne and Christopher M. Morrison, Hanify & King, Boston
The plaintiff sold all of the operating assets of New England Affiliated Technologies to Kollmorgen Corp., which was later acquired by the defendant. The transaction contained a three-year earn-out provision to be triggered in circumstances where "any portion of the business is merged or consolidated without the Seller's consent." The seller maintained that certain of the operating assets were integrated into the business of the buyer's affiliate and insisted that a triggering event occurred and that the deferred purchase price had been earned. The buyer asserted that the integration of operations post-sale was not material to the performance of the business and was not within the terms of the trigger clause. Judge Allan van Gestel concluded that the parties intended the term "merge or consolidate" in their less formalistic sense, because they had acquired only assets.
4. $3.1 MILLION
Estate of John L. McIntyre, etc. v. United States of America, et al.
U.S. District Court, No. 01-10408-RCL
Date of verdict: Sept. 5, 2006
Plaintiffs' counsel: Steven M. Gordon and William E. Christie, Shaheen & Gordon, Concord, N.H.; Jeffrey A. Denner, Denner Pellegrino, Boston
Judge Reginald C. Lindsay awarded $3.1 million to the family of a man who was allegedly killed by fugitive mobster James "Whitey" Bulger, ruling that the federal government was liable for the man's death because a former FBI agent leaked his identity to Bulger. The man's family alleged he was killed by Bulger after a former FBI agent tipped off Bulger that the man had talked to agents in an investigation of Bulger and his cohort's involvement in a failed plan to send guns to the Irish Republican Army. The judge found that the FBI agent was the "proximate cause" of the man's death.
5. $2.2 MILLION
Springfield Education Association, et al. v. Springfield School Committee, et al.
Hampden Superior Court, No. 03-1035
Date of verdict: April 24, 2006 (amended final judgment)
Plaintiff's counsel: Sandra C. Quinn, Boston
Judge Constance M. Sweeney ordered the City of Springfield to pay public school teachers and administrators $2.2 million in back wages, plus 12-percent compound interest and court costs for illegally freezing wages. The wage freeze had been implemented by former Mayor Michael J. Albano.
6. $1.7 MILLION
($2.5 million with interest)
Jakubek v. Mason
Middlesex Superior Court, No. 2002-2869
Date of verdict: July 7, 2006
Plaintiff's counsel: Charles M. Waters, Todd & Weld, Boston
Judge Kenneth J. Fishman found a Lowell attorney deceived his client for nine years about the status of his case. The client's insurance carrier was awarded summary judgment because the complaint filed by the attorney was barred by the statute of limitations. After an appeal was rejected by the Supreme Judicial Court, the attorney made repeated misrepresentations in his meetings with the client regarding the status of claims. The client eventually filed suit against the attorney. Fishman awarded the client $700,000 in emotional distress damages, doubled the award and found the attorney's conduct was "extreme and outrageous."
7. $1 MILLION
Perez v. Greenidge
Suffolk Superior Court, No. 05-0963A
Date of verdict: Jan. 4, 2006
Plaintiff's counsel: Keith P. Slattery and Neil Burns, Law Office of Neil Burns, Boston
Judge Elizabeth M. Fahey ruled that a woman who was assaulted, battered and raped by a corrections officer was entitled to $500,000 in damages, doubled under Chapter 93A, plus interest and attorneys' fees, for a total in excess of $1 million, after the attorney she retained failed to prosecute her case. As a result of the attorney's failure to prosecute, summary judgment was granted against the plaintiff, without objection. The defendant attorney filed a motion for reconsideration, which was allowed, yet the attorney still failed to prosecute the plaintiff's case and a motion for judgment on pleadings was allowed. The attorney allegedly entertained a series of pranks leading the plaintiff to believe that her case was still alive.
7. $1 MILLION
Estate of Lawrence Moretti
Suffolk Probate & Family Court, No. 91P-0672
Date of verdict: Sept. 6, 2006
Plaintiff's counsel: Robert J. O'Regan and Diane A.D. Noel, Burns & Levinson, Boston
Judge Nancy A. Gould found that a home health aide took advantage of his 84-year-old handicapped client. The defendant allegedly had a new will signed and isolated the client from his friends. He terminated his client's longtime lawyer, obtained a power of attorney and took charge of managing finances. The judge found that the defendant used his client's money to pay for personal needs, took other large sums of cash, and had used a power of attorney to find out the details of his client's finances and then gain control over them. Gould rejected the defendant's claim that his client executed a new will to him out of gratitude for faithful care.