Maryland Business Attorney Blog

A Minnesota judge awarded the families of four victims $4 million dollars from large corporation for engaging in a "staggering" patter of misconduct aimed at covering up its role in the deaths of four people whose car collided with the train. A jury had previously awarded the families $21.6 million and placed 90 percent of the blame for the accident on the corporation because a crossing gate was not working properly.

The judge found that the corporation lost or fabricated evidence, interfered with the families' investigation of the accident and "knowingly advanced lies, misleading facts and/or misrepresentation" in order to conceal the truth. The judge found that the company started destroying evidence within minutes of the accident. The company was accused of losing or destroying a computer disk that recorded the train's speed and other factors in the night of the collision, failing to disclose the awareness of previous signal problems at the crossing and destruction of records of work done near the crossing. Also two witnesses, neither of whom were experts or at the scene of the accident, were paid thousands of dollars by an attorney hired to help the corporation fight the wrongful-death cases.

If you are involved in a business lawsuit arising out of corporate misconduct, litigation abuse, or destruction of evidence contact my office in Rockville or Baltimore for a free case evaluation and initial consultation at 1-800-320-0080.

U.S. District Judge Andre M. Davis adopted the recommendations of Magistrate Judge Susan K. Gauvey that Leviton, through its then-attorneys engaged in "vexatious litigation tactics" which included failing to appear at depositions without proper excuse and filing objections to deposition requests based on attorney client privilege.

On March 31, 2005, Leviton sued University Security Instruments, Inc. claiming that the company had infringed on a patent for a ground fault circuit interrupter. Meihao, who made the products that Leviton claimed were infringed, moved for a declaratory judgment that the patent was not infringed, valid or enforceable due to Leviton's improper conduct before the Patent and Trademark Office. The case was referred to the magistrate when discovery disputes were becoming contentious and protracted. Leviton voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit on November 28, 2007 as Gauvey was prepared to order the company to produce documents and testimony related to Meihao's inequitable-conduct defense.

Davis found that Leviton, through its attorneys, had committed "egregious misconduct" during the litigation and ordered that they pay $800,000 in attorneys fees and expenses. Among the misconduct cited by Davis was refusing to cooperate with discovery requests, filing baseless motions and objections and failing to respond to properly issued subpoenas.

To contact an experienced Maryland business attorney please contact my offices in Rockville or Baltimore at (800) 320-0080.