Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly articles from January 2003

Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly archives from January 2003

Commentary: a changing landscape in legal ethics.
January 6, 2003... Byline: Arnold R. Rosenfeld The collapse of Enron and World.Com, as well as the financial scandals attributed to such other entities as Tyco, Adelphia and other companies, has raised in the public's mind serious questions about the role...

Tenant may cancel lease over glitch in zoning, rules Mass. Superior Court Judge.
January 6, 2003... Byline: John O. Cunningham A commercial tenant could cancel a lease for retail space when it learned that a local building department would not permit the intended use for that space under the town zoning ordinance, a Superior Court judge...

Mass. Supreme Judicial Court: should charity cap apply to 'uncooperative' hospitals?
January 6, 2003... Byline: Jason M. Scally The Supreme Judicial Court will hear arguments this week on a case that could determine whether a hospital is barred from claiming charitable immunity where it failed to comply with a discovery order in a medical...

New Mass. Housing Ct. Chief plans to expand volunteer program.
January 6, 2003... Byline: Bainbridge D. Testa New Housing Court Chief Justice Manuel Kyriakakis says he will expand the court's "Lawyer for the Day" program from Boston to all housing courts across the state -- a move likely to be lauded by some lawyers for...

Defendant entitled to see victims' med records, rules Mass. Supreme Judicial Court.
January 6, 2003... Byline: Jason M. Scally A criminal defendant seeking a new trial was entitled to view victims' medical records where no psychotherapist-patient or social worker-client privilege was asserted, the Supreme Judicial Court has ruled. A...

Mass. Appeals Court Case Summaries: January 6, 2003.
January 6, 2003... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Appeals Judgments Affirmed The Appeals Court has affirmed, pursuant to Rule 1:28, judgments in the following cases. Although the decisions do not appear to address any substantive issues...

Mass. Supreme Judicial Court Case Summaries: January 6, 2003.
January 6, 2003... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Constitutional Senate President - Initiative Amendment Where a plaintiff filed a complaint seek declaratory relief with regard to the defendant Senate President's failure to bring an...

Mass. Superior Courts Case Summaries: January 6, 2003.
January 6, 2003... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Employment Sex Discrimination - Merit Pay - Retaliation Where a plaintiff alleges that the defendant employer committed sex discrimination by not giving her merit pay increases and also...

1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Case Summaries: January 6, 2003.
January 6, 2003... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Dismissal - Failure To Prosecute Where a plaintiff's complaint was ordered dismissed when her counsel failed to appear for the initial scheduling conference, the dismissal...

U.S. District Court Case Summaries: January 6, 2003.
January 6, 2003... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Mail Fraud Where a defendant has moved, under Rule 29 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, for entry of acquittal, notwithstanding a jury verdict, on two mail fraud...

Commentary: 2002: the year in limerick.(tough year for the courts)
January 6, 2003... Byline: David L. Yas With 2003 still a babe in diapers, I recount the year that was in 2002. And while I'm at it, I bust out the limerick stick.... Don't worry, it's all in good taste and no one is from Nantucket. So here is the year in...

Massachusetts' Top 10 Jury Verdicts 2002.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Business Lawsuits Join Torts In Review Of Year's Biggest Cases Massachusetts' top 10 jury verdicts of 2002 suggest that business and employment cases are becoming some of the more lucrative...

Massachusetts' Top 10 Jury Verdicts 2002.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff 1. (TIE) $20 million - Drug Companies Settle Patent Suit Berlex v. Biogen 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Plaintiff's counsel: Choate, Hall & Stewart, Boston This case involved...

Massachusetts' Top 10 Jury Verdicts 2002.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff $1.7 million Smith v. Bell Atlantic, et al. Middlesex Superior Court, No. 98-2828 Date of verdict: May 24, 2002 Plaintiff's attorneys: Laura R. Studen, Shepard Davidson and Nancy...

Massachusetts' Top 10 Jury Verdicts 2002.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Following is a summary of the post-verdict developments from Lawyers Weekly's Top 10 Jury Verdicts of 2001. Four of the cases have been settled; five are still on appeal; and in one the defendant...

Massachusetts Court Database Is Finally On The Way.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Bainbridge D. Testa Court officials who have long been criticized for the state's antiquated computer system say they are getting very close to launching a statewide system that will link every court in the commonwealth and make...

Massachusetts Court of Appeals Case Summaries: January 13, 2003.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Landlord And Tenant Summary Process - Retaliatory Eviction Where a summary process action culminated in a judgment for the landlord and a dismissal of the tenant's counterclaims, the...

Massachusetts Court of Appeals Case Summaries: January 13, 2003.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Appeals Judgments Affirmed The Appeals Court has affirmed, pursuant to Rule 1:28, judgments in the following cases. Although the decisions do not appear to address any substantive issues...

Massachusetts District Court Case Summaries: January 13, 2003.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Search And Seizure Police Stop - 'False Alarm' 911 Call Where the police stop of a vehicle was reasonable when it occurred, the lawfulness of the stop was not affected by the fact that the...

Laser Surgery Device The Focus Of Patent Case: But Jury's $17.2M Verdict Rejected By Judge.
January 13, 2003... Byline: John O. Cunningham Proving a patent infringement case is never easy; claimants have won fewer than 30 percent of the time in Massachusetts over the last two decades. But it's harder when it involves a complex medical device that...

Massachusetts' Top 10 Jury Verdicts 2002.
January 13, 2003... Byline: John O. Cunningham Massachusetts' top 10 jury verdicts of 2002 suggest that business and employment cases are becoming some of the more lucrative matters for lawyers to handle -- a potential byproduct of jurors' growing skepticism...

Employee Collects After Harassed By Superior.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Jeanne Greeley After Karen DeMichele complained to her superiors about being sexually harassed by a company executive, she was fired, lost her benefits, and was sued for breach of fiduciary duty and misrepresentation. However,...

Hotel Held Liable In Tragic Dramshop Case.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Jeanne Greeley It took a team of Worcester attorneys more than 11 years to win a verdict for their paraplegic client, but the long wait paid off when a jury finally awarded more than $3 million in damages -- the largest...

New Massachusetts Law May Cure Land Deals Being Held Up By Lis Pendens.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Jason M. Scally Real estate practitioners tell Lawyers Weekly they are encouraged by the passage of a new bill which will allow expedited challenges to requests for lis pendens -- a provision that will allow lawyers to eliminate...

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Case Summaries: January 13, 2003.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Murder - Joint Venture - Merger Where a defendant, convicted of felony-murder in the first degree, has moved for release from unlawful restraint, an order denying the motion...

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Case Summaries: January 13, 2003.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Bankruptcy Rent - Use And Occupancy Where a commercial lessor seeks payment of postpetition use and occupancy charges and rent for the period ending April 6, 2002, when the Chapter 7...

Observations On Judicial Demeanor Of Massachusetts Superior Court Judge.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Superior Court Judge Maria I. Lopez is the subject of a Judicial Conduct Commission inquiry that, in part, concerns her courtroom demeanor during an exchange with a prosecutor. The Lopez case...

'Rug In The Road' Leads To Tragic Accident.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Marc Hogan The life of a 37-year-old single mother from Shirley and her ensuing legal battle both turned on, in Quincy lawyer Peter L. Eleey's words, "a rug in the road." On Nov. 20, 2000, a multi-vehicle collision on Route 2...

Veteran Gets $7.1M For Botched Bladder Procedure: Believed To Be State's Largest Med-Mal Verdict For Elderly Plaintiff.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Jeanne Greeley Eighty-four-year-old Ralph Penta stands in a photo with his shorts at his knees and his undershirt pulled high, exposing his grossly disfigured stomach, a colostomy bag strapped to his hip, and thighs striped with...

Infant Overdose Nets $7.2M Against Hospital: Child's Preexisting Conditions A Challenge.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Jason M. Scally When a four-and-a-half-month-old child suffers brain damage after receiving a 125-fold overdose of medication, it would appear to be a slam-dunk case for the plaintiffs. But first impressions can be deceiving....

Massachusetts Governor Signs Bills.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff The following bills have been signed into law by Gov. Jane M. Swift. The anticipated effective dates are listed but are subject to change. The full text of statutes may be ordered from Lawyers...

U.S. District Court Case Summaries: January 13, 2003.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Copyright Infringement - Class Action Where a plaintiff's copyright for a wallpaper design allegedly has been infringed, her request to certify a class of defendants should be granted....

U.S. Magistrate Judges Case Summaries: January 13, 2003.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Attorneys Fees Where a plaintiff abused the judicial process by asserting a right to evict the defendant corporation from certain Belchertown property and basing this assertion on...

Financial Firms Slapped With $8.7M Verdict: Court Holds Merrill Lynch Liable For Losing Clients' Money.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Marc Hogan After one of Dan Carpenter's many high-risk stock deals went bust, his Merrill Lynch brokers wrote him a memo that read: "What's $1.5 million between friends?" But the lawsuit that followed was no laughing matter....

$21.4M Verdict For Failure To Perform C-Section: Child Suffered Permanent, Severe Injuries At Birth.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Jeanne Greeley Even though she was more than two weeks overdue, Bobbie Jo Rivard spent five days being juggled from doctor to doctor, pumped with a drug that failed to induce labor, and was even refused a C-section when she finally...

Worker With Pacemaker Wins Handicap-Bias Suit.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Jeanne Greeley When Belmont Springs claimed it didn't have any jobs available for a 20-year employee looking to return to work after being out on short-term disability to have a pacemaker installed, it reeked of discrimination to...

Newspaper Misreports Overdose; Doctor Prevails.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Jeanne Greeley On March 23, 1995, the front page of The Boston Globe was splashed with this headline: "Doctor's Orders Killed Cancer Patient." It was an article that detailed the tragic death of one of the newspaper's own...

Practitioners Needn't File Entire Trust Document.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Jason M. Scally Lawyers said a new law that will eliminate the requirement of filing entire trust documents in real-estate matters will help ease administrative headaches and protect their clients' privacy. The new law,...

Massachusetts Court of Appeals Rules Man Can Insurance Co. Despite Nixing Offer.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Bainbridge D. Testa A mentally handicapped man who was injured when his caretakers left him unattended could sue the caretakers' insurance companies for unfair settlement practices -- even though the man had represented that he...

Massachusetts Superior Court Case Summaries: January 13, 2003.
January 13, 2003... Byline: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly Staff Arbitration Insurance - Policy Limit Where a plaintiff policyholder seeks to enforce an arbitration agreement with respect to a dispute with the defendant insurance company, the dispute...

1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal's newest member settles into job.(Judge Jeffrey R. Howard)(Interview)
January 20, 2003... Byline: Jeanne Greeley Of all the challenges Judge Jeffrey R. Howard anticipated when he joined the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last spring, getting trapped in the courthouse probably wasn't one of them. But that's exactly the...

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rejects claim of' 'mild' age discrimination.
January 20, 2003... Byline: Bainbridge D. Testa A sales manager who was fired and replaced with a woman just two years younger than her could not sue for age discrimination, the Supreme Judicial Court has held. In so ruling, the court for the first time...

The fall of Boston law firm Hill & Barlow.
January 20, 2003... Byline: Jeanne Greeley Hill & Barlow veteran Richard W. Renehan sits cross-armed in a chair, his battered briefcase on the table in front of him, his eyes reddening and welling with tears. He is searching, struggling, grasping for...

Boston attorneys see benefits in expansion of land court.
January 20, 2003... Byline: Jason M. Scally Real estate lawyers and Land Court officials are lauding the passage of a bill that expands the court's jurisdiction and creates opportunities for "one-stop shopping" of many real estate claims that previously were...

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules father may be liable for support to guardian.
January 20, 2003... Byline: John O. Cunningham A father could be responsible for support payments to the court-appointed guardian of his child, even after the child turned 18, the Supreme Judicial Court has ruled. The father argued that the Probate &...

Commentary: finding poetry in the law.(Massachusetts)
January 20, 2003... Byline: David L. Yas Just a passing "what if" from the twisted recesses of my mind... A: Hello, I'm Alex-andria von Pretense and welcome to the Downtown Club's monthly poetry reading for tragically affected psuedo-intellectuals. With...

Massachusetts District Court rules company gets counsel fees in mechanic's lien action.
January 20, 2003... Byline: Jason M. Scally A lumber company looking to enforce a mechanic's lien for money it was owed from a construction project was entitled to interest and attorneys' fees incurred during an action to enforce the lien, a panel of the...

How a small Massachusetts law firm pulled off one of the year's biggest deals.
January 27, 2003... Byline: Joe Cunningham Some time in the afternoon of Sept. 10 last year, shouts of joy and triumph erupted from the southwest corner of the Boston office of Davis, Malm & D'Agostine. C. Michael Malm, a lead partner in the 30-lawyer...

Massachusetts tort reform bill targets med-mal verdicts.
January 27, 2003... Byline: John O. Cunningham Massachusetts lawyers are concerned about the possible passage of a new tort-reform bill -- one that would eliminate jury awards in excess of $500,000 for "general" or non-economic damages in certain...

A battle brews: the public policy debate.(Massachusetts)
January 27, 2003... Byline: John O. Cunningham Valerie A. Yarashus, president of the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys, and Dr. Barry Manuel, chairman of the state's largest medical malpractice insurer, ProMutual Group, will likely square off in...

Boston lawyer sheds light on purchase of window co.
January 27, 2003... Byline: Rebecca J. Berfanger With last year's dramatic drop in merger-and-acquisition activity, deals of any nature are noteworthy these days. So when Copenhagen-based VELUX acquired Sun Tunnel Systems, Inc. of California in a recent cash...

Omission of financials led to large legal-mal settlement.(Massachusetts)
January 27, 2003... Byline: Bainbridge D. Testa A lawyer who negotiated a $412,600 settlement of a husband's legal malpractice lawsuit against two lawyers -- his former divorce attorney and his ex-wife's -- said that the case illustrates how important it is...