Plaintiff Testifies Live in California from England.
In a first for California civil litigation, a plaintiff, represented by Baum & Blake, testified live in an Orange County trial without leaving his hometown of Dorchester in southeast England. This long distance testimony was accomplished by international video-conferencing-a live television link over international telephone lines.
The judge and jury held court in a studio in nearby Costa Mesa. The plaintiff, who had been injured while on vacation in California, appeared in a studio in Dorchester. Direct examination, cross-examination and documentary exhibits were utilized during testimony which lasted approximately two hours. "It was no more expensive than having the plaintiff travel to California," said Martin Blake, who was successful in winning a verdict for his British client.
Recent Speaking Engagements
In September 2000, David Baum spoke at the Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association's Annual Convention in New Orleans on the topic 'Current Juror Attitudes and How To Deal With Them'. In December 2000, Martin Blake spoke at The Kansas Trial Lawyers Association's Annual Convention in Kansas City on the topic 'The Limits of Advocacy and Other Ethical Dilemmas'.
Part 2 of the Balcony Collapse Case Results in a Jury Verdict Holding a Property Management Company Responsible.
Our last newsletter reported a $12+ million verdict in the notorious San Francisco balcony collapse case. One person died and several were seriously injured following the collapse of a decayed and improperly-supported fourth floor balcony. This result was obtained in April, 1998, with a unique reverse-bifurcation procedure which decided the issue of damages, before the liability of defendants was established.
Part 2 of the case, against the landlord and a property management company, went to a jury trial in September in San Francisco. The property management company denied all liability and refused to settle within its insurance policy limits, blaming all responsibility on the landlord. The landlord and owner of the building had been a headline story for several months, and had been prosecuted for manslaughter after the catastrophe.
Nevertheless, lead counsel David Baum obtained a jury verdict which found the property managers 55% responsible for the collapse, and the landlord 45%. "The result was very gratifying to our plaintiffs' team," said Baum, "given the widespread media coverage of the landlord's fault." The verdict will result in payments to date to the plaintiffs of $10 million of the original $12 million fixed as damages.
Video Demonstration Helps Widow and Children Recover $1.4 Million in Dangerous Highway Case.
Following a three-week trial in August, 1998, the widow and two teenage children of a deceased truck driver were awarded a verdict of $1.4 million by a Sacramento, California, jury. The case, handled by Martin Blake, arose out of a crash which occurred when the driver lost control of a loaded water truck and crashed on the Oroville-Quincy Highway in Plumas County. The road was under construction by a company which failed to warn of an extremely steep grade, sharp curve and slippery road conditions.
The case was difficult for the plaintiffs as eyewitnesses confirmed the deceased's speed as 45 mph in a 25 zone, resulting in a solo roll-over. A defense Dangerous Highway Case video showed that road conditions were obvious. However, Baum & Blake proved there were earlier accidents which implicated the dangerous nature of the road. Plaintiffs demonstrated, through extensive graphic exhibits that defendants failed to post warning signs so the truck driver was trapped by the unexpected road hazards.
"Critical evidence included a video of the operation of a similar truck, taken from inside the cab," said Martin Blake. "By focusing on the driver's feet, as he double de-clutched, and his hands, as he changed two sets of gears, we educated the jury about the difficulty of driving a heavy truck and why early warning of grades, curves and road surface is crucial to a truck driver's safety."
The case also presented difficult damages issues as the deceased had opened up a new trucking business two years before his death after leaving his job as a city street maintenance worker and had little income to demonstrate the financial potential of the business. Plaintiffs argued that the jury's assessment of future earning capacity should be based on the deceased's former earning potential, not his actual "new business" earnings. The defendant contested the economic loss claim but the jury accepted plaintiffs' argument and awarded the full measure of economic loss.
