After a 3-week trial in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, the team at Pansini Law Group won a $5 Million unanimous jury verdict for their client in the construction site accident case of Yoder v. McCarthy Construction. The verdict is the largest to date in Philadelphia County post-COVID and believed to be the largest such verdict in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Represented by Michael Pansini, and David Pizzica, Mr. Yoder was catastrophically injured when he fell through a hole in a roof during a construction project. The general contractor, McCarthy Construction, was paid to cover the hole pursuant to contract, and was required to cover the hole pursuant to OSHA regulations. Rather than accepting any responsibility, McCarthy Construction tried to blame the fall on our client claiming that he should have been watching where he was walking. The jury rejected this argument and placed 100% of the blame on McCarthy Construction.
The defense made zero offers before trial and offered only $300,000 and $500,000 during trial which were rejected out of hand. This case is a shining example of the tenacity and zealous advocacy that Pansini Law Group provides to their clients, and is consistent with the firm’s approach; “Treat each client like family, represent each client passionately, spare no expense in each case and take every case to trial, unless a client is offered the maximum compensation we feel the client deserves.” The firm will also be seeking insurance bad faith damages on Mr. Yoder’s behalf.
After scaffolding fell in a high-rise building, causing one (1) worker to lose his life and the other to suffer a severe brain injury, we sued the general contractor as well as numerous lumber companies. Defendants paid over 17.6 million dollars.
In the construction accident case in which a young man suffered a serious brain injury, we sued 13 different Defendants. After a lengthy jury trial, the client obtained a 16 million dollar resolution.
The case of Costello, et al v. PECO is a great example of tenacious and aggressive lawyering, obtaining top dollar and assuring safety and policy changes by a large corporation. Our clients, firefighters, were permanently injured in a gas explosion that occurred in a minority neighborhood. Litigating the case, we documented PECO’s response time to a gas emergency in an affluent neighborhood vs. a minority neighborhood. We also obtained evidence as to PECO’s putting corporate profits over public safety. PECO retained, arguably, one of the most influential defense firms in the City in an effort to defend itself in our lawsuit and tried to limit the rights of professional rescuers including police officers, firefighters, and first responders. We represented not only our clients, but the Grand Lodge of the FOP, the International Association of Professional Firefighters, and the Valiants in our effort to defeat PECO. To keep pressure on PECO, we pursued legal proceedings in Federal Court, the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County, and before the Public Utility Commission. That case truly exemplified who we are. We not only won every battle against PECO, but we also won the ultimate war against PECO. The resolution included the following: – PECO paid 15 Million Dollars to our clients; – We defeated PECO’s efforts to limit the rights of police officers, firefighters, and first responders; – As part of the resolution, to assure the safety of the public and to make sure that all citizens are protected, whether living in affluent neighborhoods or minority neighborhoods, the settlement was contingent upon PECO and the PUC creating policy that every PECO gas call had to be responded to within one (1) hour or PECO had to provide an explanation to the PUC for its failure to comply.
We obtained a 10 million dollar jury verdict. Although the client did not lose consciousness and continued to work, the jury understood how a traumatic brain injury can destroy a man’s life and the relationship that he has with his family.
$9.5M
Joseph Renda v. Martin Stone Quarries, Inc., et al
Due to the defective design of a tractor-trailer and the negligent practices of a stone quarry, a tractor-trailer driver was permanently injured. After a lengthy jury trial, the jury’s verdict was 9.9 million dollars.
We sued a major utility company after a utility worker fell off the utility pole suffering severe injuries. The utility company paid 8.75 million dollars.
After two generations of the same family were killed in a crash when a Chevy Tahoe slid into a PECO telephone pole, we sued PECO and General Motors. Through intensive research and investigation, we successfully established that the telephone pole was so dangerously placed that it created a hazard to motorists. In addition to a multi-million dollar resolution, we insisted that PECO remove and relocate the telephone pole so that such a tragic incident would not happen to others.
After a cafeteria worker slipped and fell on spilled milk in an open refrigerator resulting in severe permanent neurological injuries, during a lengthy jury trial, the Defendants paid 6.5 million dollars.
Although all injuries may not appear on its face to be serious, we represented a young woman who was rear-ended with chronic pain to her neck which her doctors reported would be permanent. After a jury verdict, the unanimous jury awarded her 5 million dollars.
We took on the flooring industry having to do battle with such corporations as 3M and Johnson and Johnson. When our client suffered a severe brain injury as a result of the floor creating an unreasonably slippery surface, we used generally accepted engineering and industry standards to establish that products made by the flooring industry were hazardous to the public. When the flooring industry attempted to use its influence and monies to change ASTM standards in an attempt to defeat our lawsuit, we took on the industry, as well as ASTM. After evidentiary hearings and our obtaining affidavits from engineers and forensic experts throughout the country, we prevailed by not only obtaining a multi-million dollar resolution for the client, but also assuring that others who were injured can hold the flooring industry to the necessary industry standards.
We have represented Local 5 and its members for decades. We have obtained multi-million dollar verdicts in death cases, amputations, and brain injury cases.
We have such confidence in our skills and experience that in the case of Lemke v. Hilton Hotels, et al, we told the insurance company that for every day at trial that the insurance company refused to settle, our demand would go up by $250,000.00 per day. We weren’t kidding. After the second day of trial, the insurance carrier settled, paying us $500,000.00 more than we demanded at the time of jury selection.
We successfully sued BMW concerning a design defect against its prestigious 7 Series car. We were successful in obtaining a multi-million dollar resolution during trial.
After an insurance company and its insurance defense lawyer failed to protect our client, we sued the insurance company for bad faith and the lawyer for legal malpractice. After a forty-two (42) day jury trial, the jury unanimously awarded a multi-million dollar verdict which is the largest bad faith verdict in assumpsit in the history of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
We are not afraid to accept difficult cases and try difficult cases to verdict, even cases that have been turned down by other lawyers. We sued a horse farm in Chester County after a young woman was thrown from a horse, fracturing her back. After a six (6) day trial, a Chester County jury awarded a multi-million dollar verdict. According to a ten-year scan of surveys in PaLaw magazine, published by ALM, this is the largest personal injury verdict and the second largest verdict in a civil case in Chester County in the last five (5) years.
