Articles Posted in Civil Litigation

Affirming a ruling by the late Judge Rowland Barnes, who was murdered in his courtroom a few weeks ago, the Court of Appeals has held that the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) is not subject to punitive damages. Ironically, the case arose from a brutal assault at the Lindbergh MARTA station, for which the…

In Albany Bone & Joint Clinic PC v. Philip D. Hajek MD, the Georgia Court of Appeals ruled on 3/11/05 that a medical clinic’s bylaws, which entitled all departing shareholders to the book value of their stock, did not constitute a financial “penalty” on shareholders who left the clinic to work for a competitor. The…

A federal court win for the home team was just published at Giddens v.The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, 356 F.Supp.2d 1313(N.D.Ga.,2004) [Westlaw $$$]. We represented a dentist / real estate developer on a disability insurance claim after he had liver failure requiring a liver transplant at the Mayo Clinic. The insurance…

Abuse of injured immigrants is an old story. I once knew an insurance claims manager who was very proud of his tactics in dealing with Hispanic immigrants who had injury claims. First, he told them, “No English, no dinero.” Second, he would schedule meetings with claimants and get someone from INS to show up, check…

The McKesson – HBOC merger led to a legal morass due to allegations of accounting irregularies at HBOC. A few months later, McKesson discovered that, due to accounting fraud, HBOC’s common stock had been overvalued and that, consequently, McKesson had paid too much for it. McKesson hired a law firm and accounting firm to investigate…

Company A entered two intellectual property licensing agreements with Company B, but a year later was $3 million behind on payments and unable to pay the debt. Company B agreed to forgive the debt in exchange for software developed by Company A, with a provision that Company B would pay Company A net profits from…

Chancellor Bismark in Germany said that those who love laws and sausages should not see how either are made. Anyone who has watched a legislative body in action can well understand what he meant. However, we lawyers have to work with the statutes legislators pass, and try to make some sense out of those sausages.…

Legal jargon is convenient shorthand for discussion among lawyers and judges, but is is often befuddling to even intelligent, well-educated lay jurors. “Preponderance,” rarely if ever used by non-lawyers in everyday speech, is such a term. Ken Shigley represents plaintiffs in wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases statewide in Georgia, and in other states subject…

Two cases decided in November 2004 help to clarify the often befuddling concept legal doctrine of “proximate cause” in Georgia jury instructions. In John Crane Inc. v. Jones, 278 Ga. 747, 604 S.E.2d 822 (2004), the Supreme Court of Georgia held that it is error to charge that each of multiple defendants must have been…

Nineteen years ago, the Georgia Supreme Court decided the case of Yost v. Torok, 256 Ga. 92, 344 S.E.2d 414 (1986), holding that any party who brings or defends an action, or any part thereof, that lacks substantial justification or is imposed for delay or harassment, could be liable for a common law tort of…