Chuck Custer and Jon Yonemitsu successfully defended a national manufacturer of scaffolding equipment in a four week jury trial in Sacramento Superior Court. The product liability action involved the collapse of an elevated power driven scaffold from which several workers fell suffering significant personal injuries. The claims against Gordon & Rees' client totaled $2.1 Million and involved complicated issues of employer and comparative negligence, contractual indemnity and mechanical and metallurgic engineering principles. The jury deliberated less than three hours finding employer fault. Gordon & Rees' client paid no damages.

Partner Debra Meppen (LA) with assistance from Tamar Karaguezian and Shauna Durrant, obtained a defense verdict in a sexual battery, harassment and orientation discrimination action after a 6-day Los Angeles Superior Court jury trial. Ms. Meppen represented the alleged harassers. The plaintiffs were a lesbian couple who alleged they were battered and abused because of their gender and sexual orientation. The lead plaintiff claimed to have suffered severe and debilitating depression as a result of the purported abuse, but found time to be a contestant on two colorful reality television shows. The jury deliberated for less than two hours over the 12 causes of action and punitive damages claim.

After a nine day trial in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Michael Bruno and Marcie Isom obtained a complete (unanimous) defense verdict in another high profile disability discrimination case. This time, Gordon & Rees LLP represented longtime client, The Regents of the University of California (Boalt Hall School of Law and the University of California, Berkeley).

The plaintiff, a former student at Boalt Hall School of Law, suffers from various mobility and vision impairments. He sued the University and two deans alleging that they discriminated against him on the basis of his vision disability by failing to provide him timely enlarged print materials as an accommodation. Mr. Bruno and Ms. Isom successfully argued the University's attempts to accommodate plaintiff, including offering him a host of alternate effective accommodations and ultimately spending hundreds of hours and over $160,000 for larger materials, were sufficient to satisfy even an "unintentional discrimination" standard.

The case involved untested and complicated interactions between California's Unruh Act and the ADA. Nevertheless, on the defendants' motion for judgment as a matter of law, the court dismissed the individual defendants on the basis of insufficient evidence for both the intentional and unintentional discrimination claims. The jury deliberated for less than an hour before exonerating The Regents on all counts.

more court successes...

Mark Davis (SF) and Brian Maschler (SF) served as borrower's counsel to a sizeable Central Valley agricultural business group in connection with a pair of syndicated term and revolving credit line facilities with principal amount in excess of $200,000,000, to fund further growth of the enterprise.

Phil Wang (SF) and Gil Garcia (SF) represented an engineering firm in the acquisition of a commercial office and retail building in downtown San Francisco. The transaction included (i) negotiating the purchase agreement and related contracts with the seller; (ii) negotiating the term loan agreement, deed of trust, and related loan documents with the Chicago office of Merrill Lynch; and (iii) negotiating the title policy and other closing documents with the title company, LandAmerica Commercial Services.

Gordon & Rees also advised the purchaser on its due diligence review of existing leases and contracts, title and survey issues, and physical and environmental due diligence as well as supervising the brokers, property managers and all closing matters. Mark Davis (SF) assisted in the formation of the purchasing entity. Carol Schaner (OC) assisted on related tax and estate planning issues.

more business successes...