Geoffrey Belzer

Edward O’Brien (Partner-Louisville, KY), Geoffrey Belzer (Partner-Chicago, IL), and Andrew-John Bokeno (Associate-Louisville, KY) recently succeeded in securing an affirmance of summary judgment in the Ohio Court of Appeals in a multi-claim civil lawsuit brought against the firm’s client, a manufactured home community. Plaintiffs, who were tenants in the client’s community, brought a civil action in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas alleging the community failed to render cosmetic repairs to the plaintiff’s home, breached certain state statutes, and misrepresented certain aspects of the community and manufactured homes to the plaintiffs. The complaint set forth multiple legal theories of liability, including breach of contract, fraud and misrepresentation, breach of R.C. 5321.04, and violations of the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act. After the trial court granted our motion for summary judgment on all the above theories, the plaintiffs appealed the decision to the Ohio Court of Appeals’ Eighth Appellate District, which affirmed the trial court’s order granting summary judgment on each and every claim asserted against the client, finding no genuine dispute of material fact and entitling the community to judgment as a matter of law. As such, the Court of Appeals disposed of all of the plaintiffs’ causes of action against the firm’s client. 

Geoffrey Belzer (Partner-Chicago) obtained a defense verdict on behalf of a private client in a commercial matter in which a Chicago-area bank sought to recover $1.5 million on loan guarantees and more than $1.1 million in attorney fees spent in prosecuting claims of breach of contract, tortious interference, fraud and conspiracy. The defense verdict followed a three-day bench trial in the Cook County Circuit Court. In ruling for our client and an additional co-defendant, the judge relied on the evidence produced during trial, including the cross-examinations of the bank’s president and loan officer, to determine that the bank did not meet its burden to establish that it had disposed of the collateral for the loan (primarily a bridal design company with significant consumer and industry brand-name recognition) in a commercially reasonably manner. The evidence at trial demonstrated that the bank had received an appraisal in excess of $3.8 million for the business, did not demonstrate significant activity to attempt to sell the business, and ultimately sold it for $775,000 or less than 20 percent of its appraised value.

Geoffrey A. Belzer (Partner-Chicago), Anjali C. Das (Partner-Chicago), Peter J. Larkin (Partner-White Plains) and Jennifer S. Stegmaier (Of Counsel-Chicago) obtained a data breach class action dismissal in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of a radiology facility and archival imaging system that contained protected health information. About a year and a half after receiving notice of a breach, two patients filed a complaint against the firm’s client and its IT service provider for failing to implement adequate cybersecurity measures, alleging multiple unauthorized individuals had accessed their information. Geoffrey, Anjali, Peter and Jennifer prevailed on their motion to dismiss when the court held that allegations of increased risk of future harm alone is not a cognizable injury. The court also rejected each of the plaintiffs' additional theories of injury based on time and money spent on theft and fraud monitoring, “benefit of the bargain” injury, intrusion upon seclusion and statutory violations. Plaintiff’s counsel initially filed a purported class action designating another individual who was ultimately determined to never have been a patient of the radiology practice. Plaintiff’s counsel dismissed that action after the team moved for dismissal, and counsel then instituted the parallel suit involving these two plaintiffs and the motion to dismiss follows.