1925 Century Park East,
Suite 1250,
Los Angeles, CA 90067
Phone: (310) 551-7040
Fax:(310) 203-9321
INSURANCE
COVERAGE AND
DEFENSE
Charlston, Revich & Wollitz LLP prides itself on providing highly skilled and responsive services in the practice of insurance law. We specialize in all areas of insurance coverage and bad faith litigation and claims, particularly asbestos, environmental, mass toxic tort, construction defects, professional liability, director & officer liability, employment and general liability. We provide cost-effective and innovative solutions to the insurance problems and issues of our insurance company clients.
News
- Trial Victory in Equitable Contribution Claim Among Insurers
- Jury Trial Victory In Rescission/Bad Faith Suit
- Jury Trial Victory Defeats Claim Linking Autism with Pesticide
- Charlston, Revich & Wollitz LLP as seen in Forbes Magazine March 15, 2010
Last Updated on Thursday, 11 August 2011 14:34 Written by Administrator Thursday, 11 August 2011 14:29
Please click here to download the opinion (PDF).
Earlier this year, partners Jeffrey Charlston and Bruce Smyth secured a significant victory for firm clients United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company (“USF&G”) and American Specialty Insurance & Risk Services (“American Specialty”) after a month long jury trial in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California.
In United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company v. Lee Investments, LLC, the firm prosecuted a declaratory relief action for rescission of an insurance policy issued by USF&G to a Fresno water park, and defended bad faith and related claims brought by the entity owning the water park, and its broker, Aon. The jury entered unanimous verdicts in favor of USF&G on all of its affirmative claims, and unanimous verdicts against the water park and Aon on all of their claims against USF&G and American Specialty.
Based on the jury findings, the trial court has ordered restitution in favor of USF&G in excess of $1,000,000, and further findings by the court on the proper rate of interest on the restitutionary sums are pending.
United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company v. Lee Investments, LLC, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California, CV99-5583-OWW.
Alan Lazar and Tom Flynn recently won a landmark jury trial involving pesticides and autism. The plaintiff, a 13 year old boy, through his mother as guardian ad litem, claimed "brain damage" from his mother's alleged inhalation exposure to an organophosphate pesticide (Dursban) while pregnant. Plaintiff asked the jury to award $20 million in damages. Over two years before the pregnancy, our client, Andy's Termite & Pest Control, had applied the Dursban in the family's basement soil to control subterranean termites. The trial lasted 3-months, but the jury took only 4 days to render a defense verdict in favor of our client on all 14 theories of liability. (See West's Trial Digest Summary.)
Five years earlier, in 2002, Alan and Tom got the same case dismissed without a trial, when another judge ruled that plaintiff's expert testimony based on rat experiments was inadmissible "junk science" that could not possibly show a causal link between autism and the alleged exposure. However, the Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the jury, not a judge, should decide what weight to give to animal studies. See Roberti v. Andy's Termite & Pest Control (2003) 113 Cal.App.4th 893. That appellate decision, and this jury trial, have been closely watched by the legal community, as pesticides and autism remain subjects of great public interest.
When government regulators demanded that Union Oil Company of California (Unocal) clean up alleged environmental hazards, Unocal sued its insurance carriers to compel the carriers to pay for the costs of the cleanup. With hundreds of millions of dollars at stake, several key insurance companies turned to the Los Angeles law firm of Charlston, Revich & Wollitz LLP (CRW) for help.
1925 Century Park East, Suite 1250, Los Angeles, CA 90067-2746
Phone: (310) 551-7040 Fax: (310) 203-9321
