A medical malpractice claim filed with the West Virginia Board of Medicine against our client, an area physician, was dismissed.

We obtained summary judgment for our client, a physician in West Virginia. Through an extensive and lengthy discovery processes, we were able to establish evidence the plaintiff had knowledge of the condition before the statute of limitations. The court granted a summary judgment.

We represented clients who were landowners adjacent to an underground limestone quarry. The quarry operation trespassed on the clients’ property and removed over 100,000 tons of limestone. The Kentucky Supreme Court clarified the proper measure of damages for trespass and removal of limestone. The proper measure of damages in all innocent trespass cases is the value of the mineral after extraction, less the reasonable expenses incurred by the trespasser in extracting the mineral. The proper measure of damages where the trespass has been determined to be willful is the reasonable market value of the mineral at the mouth of the mine, without an allowance of the expense of removal. There is no basis to recover separately for punitive damages.

We obtained summary judgment for our client, an electrical subcontractor in U.S. District Court – Eastern District of Kentucky. The plaintiff, an electrician, sued her employer and the project manager on a construction site claiming sexual harassment in the presence of open, movable urinals on the construction site and retaliatory discharge. District court granted summary judgment on all counts, finding no sexually hostile work environment as plaintiff admitted both other male employees had expressed distaste over the urinals and the other female employees had indicated they had no problem with them. The court also found the plaintiff’s discharge was not retaliatory, as her termination was for an admitted violation of the construction site’s no-smoking policy, and the site manager’s directive for her removal from the worksite for this violation and her employer’s lack of any other job sites to which it could send her rendered her termination valid. The judgment was not appealed.

We negotiated a favorable settlement for our client, an assisted living center, in a state court civil action involving claims of wrongful termination, disability discrimination, workers’ compensation discrimination, and intentional infliction of emotional distress following an employee’s termination after her exhaustion of workers’ compensation benefits. Among others, the suit included claims the employer had terminated the employee despite having information her likely return to work was within two weeks of the termination date and a dispute as to whether an offer of light duty was ever conveyed to the plaintiff. Potential damages included back pay and front pay, emotional distress damages, punitive damages and an attorney’s fee award. Mediation following the filing of a comprehensive summary judgment motion resulted in settlement.

Our client, a railroad company (the defendant), was sued in conjunction with the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA). The plaintiff in this case alleged injuries to his knees and back as a result of walking on large rocks along the railroad and in rail yards. The case involved issues of Federal Preemption about rock size and complex witness work. This case was tried to a verdict in the defense’s favor.

Our client, an international transportation company, was sued by an employee under the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA). The employee claimed a back injury due to the vibrations coming through the seat of a locomotive. We were able show through the employee’s own medical records and testimony he had discussed this injury with this physician outside the statute of limitations, which is three years. The trial court granted us summary judgment on the statute of limitations issue. The Plaintiff appealed the judgment which was upheld on appeal by the State’s Supreme Court. Not only was the judgment upheld on appeal, but the Court enacted a new point of law as a result for FELA cases in that State.

Rick Porotsky represented a Brazilian importer and distributor in a dispute with a large U.S. manufacturer, which was arbitrated in Sao Paulo Brazil through the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). Working with Brazilian co-counsel in a bi-lingual proceeding, Mr. Porotsky took the lead role in pre- and post-hearing briefings, opening statements at the arbitral hearing, presentation of economic experts, and cross examination of key English-speaking witnesses.

Our client, a national transportation company, was sued by an employee, a signal maintainer. The plaintiff was traveling in company vehicle, lost control of the vehicle which resulted in the truck rolling over. He alleged our client was negligent for failure to maintain the vehicle and claimed damages including years of future wage loss as a result of the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA). Ultimately, we were able to show the plaintiff had both responsibility for maintenance of the vehicle as part of his job duties as well as access to the company’s credit card to make any necessary repairs. This case was tried in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District in West Virginia.

We were able to negotiate a reasonable settlement for our client, a land holding company, in a massive litigation case. Over 3,000 plaintiffs – primarily property owners – sued land holding companies in Southern West Virginia who helped provide natural resources in the area. The suit claimed the land use, in terms of natural resource extraction, caused peak flow of water to increase resulting in the flooding and an overall change in the terrain of the land causing increased flooding. This case went on for ten years, and was one of the largest litigated cases in West Virginia history.

The plaintiff claimed a soft tissue back injury due to a slip-and-fall on snow and ice outside of our client’s, a national convenience store chain, store. We received a defense verdict at trial on the basis there was no negligence (no breach of any duty) on our client’s part.

Our client, a locally operated nonprofit day care center, was sued by a former employee. The plaintiff claimed sexual harassment and gender discrimination. We were able to obtained summary judgment on behalf of our client on grounds of insufficient proof. Due to the nature of this case, it received local and national attention.

We brought this case on behalf of a physician group against one of its former partners and a large hospital system, claiming the partner and the hospital system caused the physician group to lose millions of dollars by breaching contracts and fiduciary duties to the group. After a two-week trial in Jefferson Circuit Court, a jury awarded our client over $4 million.

In this shareholder derivative action, we defended the chairman and president of a corporation that owned a large shopping center. A beneficiary of a trust that owned shares in the corporation brought this lawsuit on behalf of the shareholders, claiming that our clients had breached their fiduciary duties in causing the sale of the shopping center for less than its fair market value. The beneficiary sought $50 million in compensatory damages, plus punitive damages. We obtained a dismissal of the action in its entirety for our clients on multiple grounds, including that there was no evidence of misconduct by our clients. On appeal, the Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of the case.