Greenberg & Bederman Lawyers have a reputation for excellence in personal injury law, including auto, truck and motorcycle accidents, complex litigation. Below are overviews of some of our significant personal injury cases.
Auto Accidents
Tractor vs Motorcycle
Defendant was operating a tractor trailer owned by his employer. While Defendant was attempting to make a left turn, his tractor trailer collided with Plaintiff’s motorcycle. Plaintiff alleged that Defendant operated the trailer in a negligent manner, failing to pay full time and attention to his driving. Defendant owner alleged that defendant operator was completing his turn when Plaintiff, operating his motorcycle grossly in excess of the posted speed, collided with the side of the trailer. Plaintiff suffered severe spinal injuries that rendered him a paraplegic and wheelchair bound.
The court granted motions excluding evidence that Plaintiff was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident and that he tested positive for controlled dangerous substances.
Six months before trial, Defendant’s excess insurance carrier paid $1.3 million and, on the day of trial, defendants themselves offered another $500,000.
Bus vs Pedestrian
On December 15, 1993, at approximately 5:30 P.M., a District of Columbia employee was driving a school bus on Good Hope Road, SE.
As the bus turned right onto 13th Street, SE, it struck, knocked down and ran over our client, who was crossing Good Hope Road in the pedestrian crosswalk.
The traffic signal facing our client was green, and the pedestrian signal facing our client showed “walk.”
Our client sustained extensive avulsion type injury to both legs, which caused significant loss of soft tissue and muscle. Our client’s left leg was amputated immediately after the accident. Her right leg was amputated 28 months later, leaving her wheelchair-bound and competitively unemployable.
Defendant alleged that our client was contributorily negligent and that after our client had cleared the front of its bus, she then fell back into its path in reaction to the presence of a phantom vehicle which appeared ahead of our client in the crosswalk.
Our client alleged that Defendant had negligently entrusted its vehicle to a driver whom Defendant knew to be vision-impaired and an incompetent and unsafe driver.
The case was settled for $2.1 million and waiver of DC Medicaid lien of $275,000.
Medical Malpractice
Artery Damage
The case involved an injury that Plaintiff suffered on February 25, 1993 at a hospital in Washington, DC. On that date, Plaintiff, then age 39, underwent coronary angioplasty. During the procedure, her left main coronary artery was damaged and approximately 50 minutes following the procedure Plaintiff suffered cardiac arrest. The resuscitation was prolonged, approximately 40 minutes, but Plaintiff suffered catastrophic brain injury from which she never recovered. Plaintiff died on January 15, 1999, having lived six years following her injury in chronic care facilities.
The claim was brought by Plaintiff’s husband on behalf of Plaintiff’s Estate, against Plaintiff’s cardiologist. The claim against the cardiologist was that he failed to recognize the injury to the left main coronary artery during the procedure and that he failed to timely respond to Plaintiff’s increasing chest pain following the procedure until just prior to her arrest.
The case was tried before a jury which awarded $5.5 million to Plaintiff’s estate and $1.35 million to Plaintiff’s husband individually for loss of consortium.
Infection
Robert B came to the Emergency Room with severe back pain and a history of an infection. He was admitted to the hospital and the diagnosis of a probable spinal epidural abscess was made. This is an infection that can seed in the spinal column adjacent to the spinal cord and requires emergency surgery. Mr. B needed an immediate MRI to confirm the diagnosis, but the hospital’s MRI could not accommodate him. The hospital had no arrangements in place to obtain an “open” MRI and surgery to repair the abscess was delayed for five days. Robert B became a paraplegic as a result. We were able to obtain a significant settlement in excess of $5 Million for Robert.
Mary Q underwent gastric bypass surgery. Following surgery, she developed a hernia at the operative site and had to be readmitted to the hospital for repair of the hernia. After the surgery, she developed bed sores and did not receive adequate nutrition. She died because she was not able to fight off the infection from her bed sores due to her malnutrition. After the deposition of our wound care expert the case settled for a significant sum.
Baby M suffered a disabling injury at birth to the nerves that serve his left arm, causing him to suffer a permanent disability known as brachial plexus palsy. This injury occurs when the baby’s shoulder gets “stuck” during birth. This is known as a shoulder dystocia. If the obstetrician fails to do a Cesarean Section or if the obstetrician pulls too hard on the baby’s head and neck while trying to deliver the baby, this can cause permanent injury to the nerves that control the function of the arm and hand, this is known as brachial plexus palsy. We have handled at least fifty of these shoulder dystocia cases and have achieved significant compensation for these injured babies.
Margaret P underwent back surgery to repair a herniated disc. She lost a great deal of blood during the surgery. Following surgery, she developed a blood clot at the site of her surgery. The nurses failed to properly monitor her to insure that she was able to move her legs. Because of a delay in recognition of the blood clot, it compressed her spinal cord causing her to suffer paralysis. We were able to obtain a significant settlement of the claim following the deposition of the negligent nurse.
Jacqueline A then almost 21 years old, contacted Greenberg and Bederman regarding an injury sustained at the time of her birth. The records revealed that she has suffered a shoulder dystocia at the time of her birth and that the delivering obstetrician has failed to manage this complication properly. She had suffered a permanent injury to the nerves of her brachial plexus, known as an Erb’s Palsy. The delivering obstetrician was still practicing and Greenberg & Bederman ultimately settled for case for $500,000.
Misdiagnosis
In February 2010, a Fairfax County jury awarded nearly $3 million to the family of a man who died after his esophagus tore while he was swallowing a piece of steak, finding an Alexandria radiologist liable for misdiagnosing the man’s condition as a hiatal hernia.
Large civil jury verdicts are rare in Fairfax, and Virginia’s cap on medical malpractice judgments required by the jury’s award of $2,933,500 to be cut by more than half, to about $1.25 million.
Just before trial, the Fairfax anesthesiology group involved in the man’s death agreed to pay a settlement of $600,000.
Hector Alvarez, 52, of Springfield first went to the Inova HealthPlex at Franconia-Springfield on July 6, 2006, complaining of chest pains and trouble swallowing after he had barbequed a steak and taken a bite. The piece of meat had gotten stuck in his throat, attorney John J. Sellinger of Greenberg & Bederman, said, and “he later said it felt like it went down the wrong way.”
According to court records, Alvarez was given a number of tests at Inova HealthPlex, including X-rays, an EKG and a CT scan of his chest. The CT studies were sent electronically to William J. Dunwoody III, a radiologist with the Association of Alexandria Radiologists, who was working that evening at Inova Alexandria Hospital, Sellinger said.
Dunwoody’s computer notes indicated that his impression was the Alvarez was suffering from “a large hiatal hernia,” according to court papers. Sellinger said doctors continued to treat Alvarez with various oral medicines, but his pain did not decrease. Dunwoody and his attorney, Stephen L. Altman, did not return calls for comment.
About midnight, Alvarez was taken by ambulance to Inova Fairfax Hospital. Doctors continued to search for the cause of his severe chest pain and continued to give him oral treatment. About 4 p.m. on July 7, Sellinger said, a surgeon looked at Alvarez’s CT scan and spotted a perforated esophagus.
The surgeon ordered that Alvarez be immediately prepared for an operation to repair his esophagus. The surgeon also ordered that Alvarez be given an epidural catheter, so that he could receive pain medication after the operation, Sellinger said.
But after the catheter was inserted and anesthetic applied, Alvarez went into cardiac arrest, records show. Court documents show that a doctor at Fairfax Anesthesiology Associates performed the procedure. The attorney for the anesthesiology firm, Richard L. Nagle, did not return calls.
Sellinger said Alvarez had been severely weakened by having a perforated esophagus for nearly 24 hours, and “if he hasn’t been so sick when they put the epidural in, he wouldn’t have arrested.”
There was difficulty resuscitating Alvarez, Sellinger said, and he suffered irreparable brain damage. The surgery was not performed.
Alvarez died July 17, 2006.
He had retired from a career in the Air Force and worked as an information technology specialist for the Defense Information Systems Agency, where Sellinger said Alvarez’s salary was $100,000. He was married with two adult children and was “an incredibly nice guy,” Sellinger said.
Alvarez’s window, Deborah A. Alvarez, filed a wrongful death suit in March 2007, naming Dunwoody, the Association of Alexandria Radiologists and Fairfax Anesthesiology as defendants. Neither the individual anesthesiologists nor Inova was named.
After a lengthy pretrial process, Fairfax Anesthesiology agreed in January to pay $600,000, court records show. But the Alexandria radiology firm, which Sellinger said was insured by ProAssurance, did not make a settlement offer and elected to go to trial.
The trial began early this month before Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Jane Marum Roush. It was postponed for a week by snow.
The trial resumed Feb. 16, when the jury issued its verdict against Dunwoody and the Association of Alexandria Radiologists. The jury was not told of the state cap on medical malpractice awards, which is $1.85 million for actions that occurred in 2006.
Long Term Disability Case
Claimant, a 62-year-old former anesthesiologist, was forced to cease practicing medicine as a result of the fatigue and exhaustion he suffered due to the effects of sclerosing cholangitis and hepatitis C. The defendant insurer denied claimant’s claim for long term disability benefits.
Claimant’s policy provided for payment of monthly benefits at the rate of $12,000 per month.
The insurer paid back benefits paid in full in the amount of $336,000 and settled future benefits in the amount of $250,000. The policy provided benefits to age 65.
This was a long-term disability benefits case governed by ERISA. Claimant made his application in excess of one year after ceasing employment. He had been treated on an informal basis with a specialist/friend who had not kept complete medical records. There was ample serological testing evidence which demonstrated the presence and extent of claimant’s disease processes. No vocational analysis was undertaken by the insurer to delineate the duties of claimant as part of the “own occupation” definition governing disability in this matter. The insurer’s failure to properly review these factors was presented as evidence of a violation of ERISA’s standard of review, i.e. that its denial of benefits could not be arbitrary and capricious.
Premises Liability
Plaintiff vs Grocery Store
Plaintiff was delivering bananas to Defendant’s grocery store. Defendant’s had a paper baler in its store that was used to compress cardboard boxes. The paper baler fell over, allegedly striking plaintiff’s back. Plaintiff fell to the floor.
Plaintiff suffered two herniated discs in low back resulting in chronic pain and depression. Plaintiff claimed $97,000 in medical expenses and $273,115 in lost income.
The jury awarded Plaintiff $381,000.00.
Apartment Fire
The owners of a Landover apartment complex agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle a lawsuit stemming from a claim by a woman that she was trapped in a fire in an apartment unit lacking a state-required smoke detector and suffered paralyzing injuries when she fell trying to escape from a second-story window.
Patricia L. Taylor, a National Weather Service secretary, who is paralyzed from the knees down, will receive an immediate $1,079,000 payment, plus monthly installments for the rest of her life from a $246,000 annuity fund.
Taylor, who had been trained as a cosmetologist before her injury, filed suit in Baltimore Federal Court against Ralph D. Rocks, general partner of Nelbel Limited Partnership, which owned the Washington Heights Apartments on Captial View Drive in Landover at the time of the May 11, 1986, fire.
Taylor was a visitor at the apartment of her boyfriend’s stepfather, Roland Clemons, when she was awakened by smoke between 4:30 a.m. and 5:00 a..m. Blocked by dense smoke from escaping through the apartment door, she climbed from a window and fell to the ground, suffering permanent spinal cord injuries. Clemons died in the fire. Prince George’s County fire officials concluded that the apartment lacked a smoke detector, although a building engineer said he has installed a new one two weeks earlier at Clemons’s request. Fire officials said the fire was started when Clemons fell asleep while smoking.
Product Liability
Karen M, age 4, was playing in the kitchen of her apartment. Her mother was cooking a large pot of soup on the burner atop the stove in the kitchen. Karen lowered the front door of the stove and then she leaned on the lowered front door. This caused the stove to tip forward and the pot of boiling soup to fall onto Karen M who suffered 3rd degree burns over much of her small body.
Investigation revealed that the stove manufacturer knew that its stoves would tip forward from time to time; that to prevent this, the manufacturer equipped the stove with an anti-tipping bracket that would fasten the stove to the floor or wall; that the stove in Karen M’s apartment was installed in the apartment during a renovation several years before the accident; that the stove in Karen M’s was equipped with an anti-tipping bracket that was not installed when the stove was delivered to the apartment; and that, in fact, the anti-tipping bracket was found in its original, unopened plastic bag affixed to the rear of the stove.
After lengthy and contested litigation, the case was settled for $2.5 million dollars.