CASE RESULTS

$11.1 Million Medical Malpractice

J.S. v. Victory Memorial Hospital, et al $11.11 million medical malpractice verdict. Woman goes to emergency department complaining of headache, ear ache, and sinus infection. Although initially the emergency department doctor chose to discharge her, she refused to leave when she had difficulty walking out of the hospital. A brain infection, a rare form of bacterial meningitis, was not diagnosed by the emergency department physician, thus the proper antibiotic was not administered, and everything plaintiff now does in her life, walking, speaking, thinking, have been affected by the failure to diagnose and she must now live in a nursing home setting for the rest of her life.

$5.36 Million Slip and Fall

M. W. v. Rouse-Randhurst: $5.36 million slip and fall, construction negligence verdict. A 30-year-old plumber carrying a 50-pound toolbox seriously injured his right knee when he slipped and fell while at a construction jobsite. The man was walking across concrete insulation matting placed at the site. He slipped while stepping onto a curb and then banged his knee into the curb. The matting was used to insulate the ground for a planned pour of concrete. Our theory was that the use of the matting violated a local construction ordinance because it was not slip-resistant. The defendants offered a total of $250,000.00 to settle the case. This is the record high for a knee injury on a slip-and fall case in the State of Illinois. 

$1.2 Million Construction Negligence

C.C. v. S.C. Food Services and Manch Wok: $1.2 million construction negligence verdict. Union tile setter was going from one side of the fast food counter to the other when a dry wall bucket he used for support went out from under him and he suffered a compression fraction of a lumbar vertebrae when he fell to the ground. The owner had failed to provide a ladder in violation of local ordinance for safety

Medical Malpractice Settlement 

J.O. v. Franciscan Sisters Health Care Corp., confidential settlement. Union electrician was neglected by nursing staff following a back surgery in which he was on a continuous infusion of morphine for pain. As his respiratory condition deteriorated, he went into a “code blue.”   Although brought back to life, he lives with so-called mild brain injury. On the first day of trial, with the trial judge telling plaintiff he was foolish to reject the offer of settlement because no plaintiff had ever won a medical malpractice case in her court, the defense increased the offer to the amount of plaintiff’s demand as the jury was ready to be selected.

$4.1 Million Wrongful Death

O. L. v. USAA: $4.1 million settlement for woman who died at work. The client’s employer’s building underwent a major renovation, designed and built by the landlord. The local village required the entire building, not just the renovated area, to be brought up to code. Our client died in a fire while performing her job the same way she had for years, pursuant to a decades-old protocol. We sued the landlord, claiming that there would have been no fire had the area where our client was working been brought up to code.

$3 Million Medical Malpractice Settlement. 

A woman underwent a kidney transplant, but she then developed nausea and vomiting. On the morning she died, she was doing well enough to tell her husband to go ahead and go to work while she stayed at home. Our theory in this medical malpractice case was that the woman should have been put on antibiotics as a matter of course (prophylactically), because she was being immuno suppressed with anti-rejection drugs at the time and was unable to fight off ordinary infections. 

Significant Appellate and Lower Court Rulings

Spiegelman v Victory Memorial Hospital, , --- N.E.2d ----, 2009 WL 1606641, Ill.App. 1 Dist., June 05, 2009. The court affirmed a medical malpractice case in which the plaintiff obtained a jury verdict of $11.11 million. Plaintiff presented sufficient evidence to establish that emergency room physician was apparent agent of defendant hospital in medical malpractice case for failure to timely diagnose or treat bacterial meningitis despite acknowledgement of independent contractor status in release form signed by plaintiff. Release was confusing and contained multiple parts; and defendant's advertising, emphasizing quality of care, implied agency.. In addition, it was not abuse of discretion to deny motion to transfer venue to Lake County despite subsequent dismissal of only defendant who resided in Cook County.

M. W. v. Rouse Randhurst: In a construction case, two defendants were found negligent and paid our client $4.15 million for a knee injury. A third defendant had earlier been dismissed from the case. Here, the appellate court ruled that the third defendant should not have been dismissed. It also ruled that the earlier payments did not prevent the case proceeding against the third defendant. The third defendant then paid an additional $150,000.00 to our client to settle the case. 

Raffen v. International Contractors, Inc., reported at 349 Ill.App.3d 229 (2D 2004) Automobile accident in which driver exiting onto highway between snow mounds struck and killed a passenger driving along that highway. The trial court had dismissed the case against the landowner who piled snow in locations that would obstruct the view of people leaving their property and the appellate court reinstated the complaint as properly alleging a claim upon which plaintiff could recover.