Recent Wins for Clients

Medical malpractice settlement against orthopedic surgeon and his practice group for the inappropriate surgical removal of a 50-year-old man’s left kneecap in treatment of multi-compartmental knee arthritis.

Pre-lawsuit settlement for family of a 73-year-old widow who died from metastatic lung cancer after cardiothoracic surgeon failed to inform her of a mass in her lung visible on CT Scan three years earlier.

Settlement in nuisance and negligent trespass case for plaintiffs who sustained significant property damage and resulting loss of business income when a massive earthen slope broke free during an extensive rain storm. The slope failure occurred due to a neighboring landowner’s failure to properly maintain its land, which led to the formation of unnatural depressions on the land that pooled water and over-saturated the adjacent slope during the rain storm.

Recovery in personal injury lawsuit against driver and bar in which he was served. In this wrongful death case, the driver became intoxicated before driving a corporate-owned exotic sports car off the road and into a tree at a high rate of speed, resulting in the death of both himself and his passenger. SUGARMAN attorneys represented the family of the passenger in their claims against the driver and the bar.

Pre-suit settlement on behalf of young woman who was struck by a drunk driver while she was a pedestrian. Plaintiff sustained severe injuries, including a permanent foot long scar down the center of her face.

Settlement in personal injury case for 39-year-old construction worker, who fell 15 feet to the ground in Norwell, Massachusetts while working on the roof of the defendant general contractor’s property. The construction worker sustained bilateral wrist fractures requiring multiple surgeries, and facial lacerations.

Settlement reached for family of 34-year-old man with cerebral palsy who died after accidentally asphyxiating himself between metal railings and the base of his bed after his caretakers left him in his bed awake and unattended for three hours.

Settlement of medical malpractice case for parents of newborn who died several hours after her birth due to the mismanagement of her labor and delivery, resulting in severe anoxic injury.

Gynecological malpractice verdict against OB/GYN for negligence in improperly positioning patient during surgery resulting in neuropathy, and injury to her ureter. The verdict is the largest ever recorded in the District Courts of Massachusetts.

Settlement for bilateral hearing loss in newborn where lab test showed elevated levels, but lab and physicians failed to act.

Settlement in medical malpractice wrongful death case for family of a 47-year-old man who was improperly discharged from the hospital following failure to diagnose and treat an evolving heart attack, resulting in his death several hours after discharge. This was the second largest medical malpractice settlement reported in Massachusetts in 2017.

Substantial recovery for family of man in his fifties who was sent home from a walk-in clinic and died shortly thereafter from cardiac arrest.

A physician’s failure to perform emergency CT scan to diagnose spinal cord compression resulted in paraplegia for patient at Boston hospital. The medical malpractice  lawsuit settled before trial.

Wrongful death settlement following the death of 54-year-old intensive care patient when the medical providers at a Boston-area hospital failed to properly intubate the patient.

Settlement obtained for the family of a 26 year-old man who was killed when a tire detached from a truck on the highway, striking the man’s windshield and causing fatal head injuries. The defendant truck driver was a student a trade school where the tire and wheel assembly had been improperly secured to the truck by the defendant truck driver and a fellow student due to the negligence and gross negligence of the school in failing to provide proper supervision and inspection of the work performed.

Settlement of wrongful death and personal injury cases arising out of drunk driving incident in which the front seat passenger was killed and the back seat passenger was severely injured. Settlement obtained against drunk driver and the tavern which overserved him in the two hours prior to the incident.

Settlement on behalf of a family who lost a child as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. SUGARMAN attorneys brought product liability and general negligence claims alleging improper installation of a residential boiler, and a defect in the boiler which allowed it to create and introduce high concentrations of carbon monoxide into the home during foreseeable weather events, such as heavy snow storms.

Settlement against site owner, operator and outside contractors for the mother and father of a 20-year-old man who died from severe burns as a result of an industrial steam explosion in Salem, Massachusetts.

Settlement from OB/GYN doctor in medical malpractice case for brain-injured child. The lawsuit alleges that the doctor failed to timely perform a C-section at a Boston hospital even after it became clear that the baby was in distress. The child suffered lifelong personal injuries as a result of the doctor’s delay.

In one of the first civil trials following the lifting of the COVID-19 court closures, SUGARMAN partner David McCormack obtained a jury verdict for a client who sustained a severe femur fracture after slipping on ice at the corporate defendant’s property. For several days following a snowstorm, the defendant and its employees failed to inspect the property, a busy gas station and convenience store in Lowell, and failed to find and treat the ice that caused the plaintiff to slip and fall. The jury, sitting for Middlesex Superior Court in Lowell, returned a verdict in favor of SUGARMAN’s client after just 3 hours of deliberations.

Settlement for family of man who died after undergoing major abdominal surgery for appendiceal cancer. Post-operatively, the surgeon ordered Venodyne boots be applied to the patient’s lower extremities in order to mitigate the risk of the patient developing pulmonary emboli. A nurse caring for the patient, however, failed to apply the boots during a 12 hour shift. Soon after, the patient collapsed and died from bilateral pulmonary emboli.

A week before trial was scheduled to begin, SUGARMAN principals David McCormack and Benjamin Zimmermann reached a significant settlement for their client and her husband in a case involving negligent hospice care over the course of many years. SUGARMAN’s client was an at-home hospice patient of the defendants for over 5 years and had been prescribed excessive and increasing amounts of narcotic pain medications to the point where she was unable to perform basic tasks. After not receiving answers to their concerns about the client’s deteriorating condition, her family brought her to a local hospital, where medical providers immediately began weaning her off all the medications. The client’s condition improved almost immediately. Through discovery and motion practice, SUGARMAN uncovered the hospice company’s employee bonus program which incentivized employees to keep patients in hospice care and to avoid patients from being seen at hospitals or by outside providers. During the case, SUGARMAN also defeated the defendants’ motion seeking to dismiss the case on various legal grounds — a Superior Court judge found that all of the client’s claims were legally and factually supported. The settlement was the second largest personal injury settlement reported in Massachusetts for 2021.

Pre-trial settlement for man who developed severe Levaquin-induced tendonitis with resulting complications after his local pharmacy dispensed Levaquin to him instead of a sleep aid. The error went undetected for two months.

Settlement for family of man who died from colorectal cancer as a result of his primary care physician’s failure to perform a sigmoidoscopy, colonoscopy or any of the accepted methods for screening and detecting colorectal cancer. By the time the patient’s colorectal cancer was diagnosed, it had metastasized to his liver and lungs.

Settlement against a primary care physician following the death of a father of two children who died from myocardial infarction as a result of the defendant’s failure to appreciate the severity and cause of the patient’s complaints and failure to properly interpret the patient’s EKG readings.