Plaintiff Voluntarily Dismissed with Prejudice!
We had the pleasure of defending clients (a business and its driver) in a motor vehicle accident with injuries (lumbar/cervical). This was a rear-end collision, and higher than usual medical bills. We had no liability defense (sudden-stop defense, etc.) so we turned to causation (of injury) and damage-type defenses. During discovery, we conducted surveillance on the Plaintiff revealing Plaintiff continued to work a labor job and was caught dragging and then # # lifting a 15-foot tree (5-6 inch diameter) into a truck, after squatting to collect debris. We deposed Plaintiff and learned Plaintiff received help from Plaintiff’s spouse and neighbor with various household tasks (grocery shopping, lawn work, child care) – we deposed both "knowing" the neighbor's depo would take only 15 minutes to corroborate Plaintiff's story. We had no idea the neighbor was at odds with Plaintiff and the depo lasted over an hour. We learned we didn't "know" what we thought; instead, we learned SO MUCH MORE!
From the neighbor we learned Plaintiff works with Plaintiff’s spouse performing manual labor five days a week, takes extended bike rides (pedal not motor), mows the lawn (push), and builds decks, all recorded on text messages Plaintiff sent to the neighbor. The neighbor provided us with a video of Plaintiff dancing in the club showing full range of low back/hip motion by rotating and gyrating (probably what you are picturing right now). Plaintiff claimed lost wages and a complete inability to work moving forward; yet, Plaintiff and spouse had hundreds of online reviews from their clients, post-accident, complimenting the couple's manual labor work, posted to the spouse’s company website, Google, Yelp, and FaceBook. We requested Plaintiff's tax records; Plaintiff objected and dropped the wage loss claims to prevent our access to the taxes; however, we wanted the tax records not to defend a wage claim but to impeach Plaintiff’s claim of being physically unable to work any job post-accident; we set Plaintiff's objection for a hearing (case resolved first).
Mediation resulted in an impasse. We received a post-mediation settlement Demand from Plaintiff. We provided Plaintiff with our video surveillance and text messages including the infamous gyrating dance video. We offered Plaintiff a zero-sum and a promise not to seek attorneys fees/costs, only if Plaintiff immediately dismissed the case, with prejudice. Plaintiff filed a dismissal with prejudice. Plaintiff had a great liability and good damages case until she stretched the truth and got caught! Look under every stone because Our clients deserve nothing less!
If you are looking for experienced and assertive defense counsel, contact Scarborough Attorneys at Law (813) 253-0097.