August 2, 2024
ShareKelley Kronenberg Secures “Once-in-30-Years” Summary Judgment in Wrongful Death Case with $10M in Exposure
Kelley Kronenberg recently achieved a significant legal victory in a complex wrongful death motorcycle case carrying $10 million in exposure, demonstrating our firm’s exceptional defense skills and strategic approach to high-stakes litigation.
Our team, led by Attorneys Matthew Garnett and Christopher Wright, was retained to represent a confidential client after the client expressed dissatisfaction with the defense strategy and recommendations of prior counsel. At the time of engagement, two co-defendants had already settled, and the plaintiff had signaled that the settlement value for our client was nearly double that of the settling parties.
While reviewing nearly 2 terabytes of case materials, our team recognized that this lawsuit had judicial and extrajudicial importance to the client nationwide. Matthew and Christopher developed a multi-faceted defense strategy that included:
1. Developing constitutional defenses that interfaced with principles of copyright and intellectual property licensing, the subject of which significantly strengthened parallel challenges to the duty and causation elements of the claim
2. Recasting the lawsuit as a financially and politically motivated smear campaign by the plaintiff’s retained expert
3. Carefully approaching communications with counsel for the plaintiff to condition expectations and avoid hostility while new legal issues were raised
After a transformative recasting of the client’s affirmative defenses, our team crafted a comprehensive 65-page summary judgment motion presenting eight independent dispositive challenges.
The case had several turning points, including a counterstrategy by counsel for the plaintiff to attempt to make trial preparation cost prohibitive. However, after reviewing our reply to their response to our summary judgment motion and counsel for the plaintiff collaborating with a well-regarded appellate specialist, the plaintiff effectively stipulated that its expert’s causation opinion was inadmissible under Florida law. The Court agreed, finding that there was no competent record evidence upon which a reasonable jury could find in favor of the plaintiff on the causation element of the claim against our client.
As a result, the Court granted our motion for summary judgment, entering a final judgment in favor of our client. The plaintiff took nothing by the action, and our client prevailed entirely. The defense issues developed during this litigation can potentially guide – or even prevent – litigation for the client in several jurisdictions.
The client’s General Counsel has described this outcome as a “once in 30 years” result. Our team was able to achieve this result partly due to collaboration and strategic input from both the client and the talented insurance professionals involved.
This victory demonstrates our General Liability and Third-Party Insurance Defense Division’s exceptional defense capabilities. It highlights our commitment to delivering outstanding client results, even in the most complex and high-stakes litigation matters. However, this was just another day in the office for attorneys Matthew Garnett and Christopher Wright.
To learn more about how Kelley Kronenberg’s Litigation Defense team protects clients from unwarranted claims in complex wrongful death and product liability cases, and how we can assist with strategic defense in multi-state operations, click here.