SPILLANE TRIAL GROUP OBTAINS DEFENSE VERDICT INMEDICAL FIDUCIARY DUTY TRIAL

Spillane Trial Group has obtained a defense jury verdict for Dr. Li Sheng Kong and his medical corporation, LSK Enterprises, Inc., against cross-complaints for breach of fiduciary duty in connection with West Coast Vascular, a vascular surgery practice in the Ventura-Santa Barbara community.

Two of the WCV partners accused the senior partner of performing surgeries not indicated by the patient’s condition, a violation of the False Claims Act.  Dr. Kong initially voted to expel the accused partner from the practice.  Then, feeling he had been unduly pressured, and suspicious of partisan motivations for, and the medical methodology underlying, the accusation, he rescinded his vote to expel the partner.  read more

Spillane Trial Group Wins $12 Million Jury Verdict

Spillane Trial Group was asked to substitute into a case in Ventura County Superior Court for Plan B Management, Inc. against Diversified Panel Systems (“DPS”), six weeks before trial.  Plan B claimed breach of contract and fiduciary duties arising from an oral joint venture to sell cold storage panels to customers for use in indoor grow rooms.  DPS was represented by Quinn Emanuel.

We defeated two motions for issue and evidence sanctions and every motion in limine but one.  On Friday July 28, 2023 the jury rendered a verdict in favor of Plan B for $12 million.

The jury found that Plan B and DPS had entered into an oral agreement to become 50/50 partners in Canna Panels, LLC. read more

Spillane Trial Group Wins and Collects Seven Figure Judgment

In addition to appearing for clients at the outset of a case, we appear at the eleventh hour, when summary judgment is denied, the settlement conference blows up, and the case hurtles toward trial.

This was the case for American Computers & Engineers (“ACE”), a company that rents high end custom computer equipment for vendors of major multi-media productions.  ACE rented numerous computer units to Martin Brinkerhoff Associates, Inc. (“MBA”), which produces multi-media extravaganzas for the likes of Disney and Hyundai.

MBA’s former IT Manager stole, and sold, numerous units rented by ACE.  MBA ceased making rental payments, eventually concluded their IT Manager had indeed stolen the equipment, informed ACE of the loss and applied for insurance coverage.  read more

Evidence Outside the Box

A trial is conducted in a box. 

Literally and figuratively. 

The literal box is the windowless room in a government building in which the trial is conducted. 

The figurative box is drawn by the judge, who admonishes jurors that they are only to consider the evidence admitted inside the courtroom and shall not conduct research or consider information beyond the evidence admitted in the trial.

Yeah, right.

Okay, when these rules were framed, to research a party in the case, a juror would need to travel to a good library, search through index cards, talk to a research librarian and wander the shelves to pull information not received in the trial.  read more

ELECTRONICALLY STORED INFORMATION REVISITED

Six years ago, I wrote about how facility with electronic discovery allows small litigation firms to have David v. Goliath results against large firms.  https://www.spillaneplc.com/advances-in-e-discovery-allow-smaller-firms-to-successfully-litigate-cases-once-only-handled-by-their-larger-counterparts/  In 2021, if you or your team have not mastered discovery of electronically stored information (“ESI”), you are not in the game.

Here are some tips for bringing your electronic discovery skills up to date.

  1. Consult with your technologist on production demands.  Parties may specify the way they want ESI produced.  Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 2031.030(a)(2); FRCP Rule 34(b)(1)(C).  Share your draft production requests with your technologist, or better yet, have a stock paragraph in your form file. 
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