Maritime Fraud
An aggressive defense (including aerial surveillance) turned up a family conspiracy of slips and falls.
After the judge threatened plaintiff with federal criminal prosecution, his lawyer voluntarily dismissed the Jones Act/Unseaworthiness suit on the morning of trial.
Sullivan v. Keystone Shipping Co., (D. Mass. 1994).
In another curious case, on learning that plaintiff had just been through Chapter 7, we got his personal injury claim dismissed because he had concealed it from the bankruptcy court.
Monteiro v. Mormac Marine Transport, Inc., (D. Mass. 1997).
Hurricane Bob
We defended 28 third party claims against yacht owners.
Convincing attorneys to drop 23 of those claims while settling two claims where the insured’s liability was clear, we took three suits to trial in state district court, winning defense judgments in each.
Fowler v. HIGH TIME (1992); Swift v. BLUE MARGARITA and BOAT/U. S. (1992);
Sweeney v. TALISMAN and BOAT/U.S. (1994).
The Perfect Storm
We defended Warner Bros. in a suspicious but severe personal injury suit arising during filming, settling plaintiff’s multi-million dollar demand for 1% just prior to jury selection.
Baker v. Warner Bros., (D. Mass. 2001).
Collision and Limitation of Liability
On appointment by Hull and P&I Insurers after a charter fishing boat sank with loss of life when a speeding yacht ran it over in fog, we immediately arranged salvage for evidence preservation and accident reconstruction.
Confident with our navigational and our marine surveyor’s forensic evaluations, we then aggressively pursued litigation, culminating with unique surveillance video which devastated the yacht owner’s case, absolving our client.
In re HAWKEYE (D. Mass. 1996).
Summary Judgment
When an AB Seaman lied on his pre-employment medical questionnaire, we minimized defense costs with an early summary judgment dismissal.
Stone v. Mormac Marine Transport, Inc., 1996 AMC 735 (D. Mass. 1995).
Similarly, we won swift jurisdictional dismissals in state court for a Danish time charterer in Mercado v. K/S Terkol Tank (1998), for an Italian manufacturer in Gonzalez v. Stiavelli Officiana Meccanica (1997), for a Chinese telecommunications firm in Trans National Communications International, Inc. v. Webway Communications, Inc. (2004), and in federal court for a Florida rigger, The Edson Corp. v. Nance & Underwood, Rigging and Sails, Inc. (D. Mass. 2008).
Jury Verdict
After the jury returned a defense verdict for a scallop boat client in a Jones Act/unseaworthiness suit, the judge dismissed the maintenance and cure suit too, since plaintiff fisherman’s need for future surgery was not clear.
Bonneau v. Guidance Fishing Corp., 919 F.Supp. 46 (D. Mass. 1996).
Massachusetts Waterways
When a residential dock owner was sued by his neighbors, we vindicated him before the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and then recovered his attorneys’ fees in full.
In re DeMaio, 5 DEP Rptr. 59 (1998).
Wrongful Death
Our client, a marine construction contractor, was disassembling the largest crane in the Western Hemisphere at a Quincy, MA shipyard, for barging to Romania. One of the four legs (weighing 337,000 pounds) failed, crushing a union ironworker hired by a subcontractor.
Our experts determined that another union ironworker’s defective welding caused the failure. During his deposition he admitted to buying his “forged” and “counterfeit” state welding certificate “off the street” from a third union ironworker.
The welder’s deposition testimony and drawings also demonstrated ignorance of 10th grade geometry: he measured the failed fillet weld along its hypotenuse, thereby rendering it undersized because industry practice and welding codes require measurement along a leg of a fillet weld’s right isosceles triangle.
The subcontractor contributed $1,000,000 to the settlement.
Harvey v. Norsar, LLC, Suffolk Superior Court SUCV2008-04097.
