Published October 07, 2016 in General News
Popular rumors regarding the death of the jury trial in the United States are greatly exaggerated.
Kotz Sangster attorneys Dennis Egan and Chris Ferlito, with the assistance of Jeff Sangster and Kevin O’Dowd, successfully obtained a jury verdict in federal court in Ann Arbor in favor of our client, a marine contractor, wrongly accused by the owner of a tugboat of causing the partial sinking of the boat.
The owner of the tugboat sued our client for breach of contract, claiming our client left sea chest valves, used for cooling the engine, open after completing its work on the boat. After our client’s last day of work on the tugboat, a whole 14 months later, a cold snap caused a power failure at the dock which interrupted heat to the boat, thus causing the water pipes to freeze and burst and partially flood the boat.
Dennis and Chris demonstrated to the satisfaction of the jury that our client closed the valves as part of its standard procedure and discredited the testimony from the boat owner. The jury rendered a no cause of action verdict in our client’s favor, and the court entered a judgment in our favor.
