Patrick J. Lawless

Patrick Lawless (Partner-New York, NY), Brian Del Gatto (Partner-NY/CT/AZ/WA), Douglas Connors (Partner-Stamford, CT) and Andrea Strain (Of Counsel-Stamford, CT) teamed to defeat an appeal before the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department to recover damages for personal injuries from an order of the Supreme Court, Queens County in an alleged slip-and-fall incident. The plaintiff offered contradictory statements, first in the emergency room stating that he was talking on his cell phone at the time of the accident, and later at his deposition, denying he was talking on his cell phone when the accident occurred. In defense of our major Canadian aerospace client and our nationally represented insurer, the team moved, inter alia, to compel the production of the plaintiff’s cell phone records, and the Supreme Court directed the plaintiff to produce the records within 30 days, resulting in this from the Court: “Here, the willful and contumacious character of the plaintiff’s conduct can be inferred from his repeated failure to respond to the defendants’ demands for discovery of his cell phone records, his failure to meaningfully and timely comply with the Supreme Court’s order directing such disclosure, and his failure to provide any reasonable excuse for these failures … Even after the conditional order of dismissal was issued, which again directed the plaintiff to produce his cell phone records, the plaintiff still did not comply with the court’s directive. Accordingly, the court properly, in effect, upon re-argument, adhered to its prior determination conditionally granting that branch of the defendants’ motion, which was pursuant to CPLR 3126(3) to dismiss the complaint.”

With a consistent settlement demand of $10 million or more throughout the case, the clients were delighted with the outcome.
 

Jana Farmer (Partner-White Plains, NY), Pat Lawless (Partner-New York, NY) and John Cahill (Associate-White Plains, NY) secured summary judgment in a Little League matter pending before the New York Supreme Court, Suffolk County on the eve of mediation. The plaintiff, a spectator at our client town and Little League franchise baseball game, was struck by a foul ball from another field. She alleged a concussion, TBI and other neuropsychological symptoms as a result. Throughout discovery, Jana, Pat and John established that the plaintiff was a dedicated “baseball mom” who regularly attended professional games and watched baseball on TV. She was aware of the risks of being hit by foul balls. The court noted that our clients had provided adequate protective screening and were able to demonstrate through an experienced baseball field design expert that the protections they offered exceeded industry standards. 

Mathew Ross (Partner-White Plains) and Patrick Lawless (Partner-New York) obtained an excellent unanimous decision from the Appellate Division, Second Department on a difficult construction case. Mat tried the case for a large city and its School Construction Authority in the latter part of 2019 and obtained a unanimous jury defense verdict after the plaintiff turned down a sizeable offer to settle the case while the jury was deliberating. The plaintiff appealed the final judgment, which included the earlier denial of his summary judgment motions and motion to reargue that we successfully opposed, as well as the jury verdict. Pat handled the appeal with Mat and argued the appeal. This great teamwork sets forth good case law on the industrial code sections that were identified and upholds the jury’s verdict against a well-known plaintiff’s firm.