Taylor H. Allin

Taylor Allin (Partner-Phoenix) and Nicholas Merritt (Associate-Phoenix) successfully defended their client, a national home improvement store, in an arbitration involving construction defect and breach of contract allegations. The client contractually arranged for a general contractor and a supplier of roofing materials to replace a private homeowner’s roof. During the delivery of materials, the roof was damaged. While waiting for an assessment of repairs, the roof was further damaged by a rainstorm. The house was not repaired and eventually declared a total loss due to exposure to the elements over a long period of time.  

The homeowners' insurer also brought a subrogation action seeking damages for the cost of the entire home for over $400,000. The homeowners sought damages over $1,000,000. The arbitrator agreed with the mitigation-of-damages argument advanced by Taylor and Nicholas, limiting damages to the original incident and the first rainstorm only. Fault was allocated equally between the delivery company and the general contractor. Additionally, Plaintiffs were not awarded attorneys' fees as they were not the prevailing party.
 

Partners Paul Dougherty (Los Angeles, CA), Greg Lee (Los Angeles, CA), and Taylor Allin (Phoenix, AZ) with Shirley Jin (Of Counsel-Los Angeles, CA) prevailed on a Rule 12 motion to dismiss in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona on behalf of a Chinese tire manufacturer based on lack of personal jurisdiction. The lawsuit arose from a highway rollover accident in which the rear tire of the plaintiff’s motorcycle, which had been manufactured at the client’s plant in Jiangsu, China, experienced a tread/belt separation. The plaintiff argued that the Chinese client had sufficient minimum contacts with Arizona based on, among other things, marketing and sales throughout the United States, a website, authorized retailers in Arizona, and the issuance of a recall by a domestic subsidiary that allegedly impacted Arizona. After taking the motion to dismiss under submission for more than nine months, the district judge ultimately agreed with the defense team that the plaintiff had failed to meet his burden of establishing sufficient minimum contacts with Arizona, and granted their motion to dismiss without leave to amend. 

Taylor Allin (Partner-Phoenix, AZ), Brian Del Gatto (Partner-Phoenix, AZ), and Brian Page (Associate-Phoenix, AZ) secured dismissal in the Arizona Federal District Court on behalf of Wilson Elser’s client, an independent contractor tour guide. The client was working in his independent contractor capacity for a tour company, during which time the company offered an optional flight operated by a separate, unaffiliated entity. Several passengers chose to take the flight, which tragically crashed, resulting in two fatalities and injuries to other passengers. The plaintiffs all brought suit against the tour company, the flight operator, and the tour guide. Wilson Elser filed a motion to dismiss the claims against the client on the basis that he owed no duty in connection with the flight. The court agreed and granted the motion, dismissing the case with prejudice and without leave to amend, resulting in major savings in legal fees for the client and avoiding involvement in a case allegedly worth multiple millions of dollars.

Phoenix, Arizona, partners Taylor Allin and Brian Del Gatto and associate Blake Bracht obtained dismissal of a defamation case against our client, a liquidator in a UK bankruptcy who was appointed to oversee liquidation of the plaintiffs’ assets. Plaintiffs alleged our client made numerous harassing, threatening phone calls and sent text messages to them and their U.S. business partners, forcing the failure of multimillion-dollar business deals. Taylor, Brian and Blake argued the allegations were false and being used to leverage a better settlement of the bankruptcy debts in the United Kingdom. They lost a Motion to Dismiss on jurisdiction early, and after completing discovery and establishing no communications from the United States to the UK could be proven by evidence, the U.S. District Court, District of Arizona ordered an evidentiary hearing on the jurisdiction issue. The plaintiffs made false statements to the court about why they could not attend the evidentiary hearing and had it postponed multiple times. The Wilson Elser team filed a motion for sanctions once evidence of plaintiffs' false representations to the court were definitively established. The court agreed, noting plaintiffs were purposely avoiding attending the evidentiary hearing and unreasonably delaying a judicial decision. Wilson Elser successfully argued that the case should be dismissed with prejudice as lesser sanctions would be inappropriate. 

Taylor Allin (Of Counsel-Phoenix, AZ) and Blake Bracht (Associate-Phoenix, AZ) obtained a full dismissal of a product liability case against the firm’s specialty vehicle customization client. The plaintiff filed a complaint for breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and breach of warranty against the client for allegedly improperly performing a custom engine upgrade to the plaintiff's specialty vehicle. The client is based in California and did all of the work in California, while the plaintiff is based in Arizona. Taylor and Blake strategically removed the case from state court to federal court and then filed a motion to dismiss based on lack of personal jurisdiction over the client in Arizona. The plaintiff contended there was personal jurisdiction because he resided in Arizona, received marketing emails from the client while in Arizona, and the vehicle was transported to and from Arizona. The judge agreed with Taylor and Blake’s arguments that this was insufficient for jurisdiction because the plaintiff initiated the contact and requested the marketing emails, while a third party controlled the marketing emails and the client did not perform the transportation of the vehicle. The court granted the motion and denied plaintiff's request for jurisdictional discovery.