CASES IN DETAIL

The Organic Farm

When a successful organic rice farmer in central Texas had a neighboring farmer, through a mix up with an applicator, apply chemical fertilizer on his land, he thought he was ruined. Not only was his next crop not going to be organic, he had to go through the USDA organic certification process again and to do that he had to let his land lay dormant for a prescribed period of time. The Brotherton Law Firm took on his case and filed suit against the neighbor and the applicator for negligence. After discovery and depositions, the parties went to mediation about 2 weeks before trial. There was insurance involved and settlement was secured at mediation with a number that was satisfactory to our client.

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A Good Deal All Around

For some unknown reason, an employee decided to take pictures of his private area and transmit them to a customer. The offended customer hired an attorney and sued the employer. The Brotherton Law Firm took on the case and spoke to the attorney, who was demanding $2 million for his client’s discomfort. In the pleading, the plaintiff claimed PTSD, agoraphobia, general anxiety, and depression, all from a quick glimpse of her cell phone. I advised our client to turn this in to her insurance carrier only to be denied coverage. We filed suit against the carrier who then decided to defend our client. When we went to take the plaintiff’s deposition she and her attorney insisted that she couldn’t leave her house (because of her agoraphobia) and we had to take her deposition at a picnic table in her garage. We couldn’t use her bathroom in the house and we had to take restroom breaks at the local McDonald’s. To make matters worse, the employee who sent the offending text message quit and disappeared. We slogged on, taking the depositions of her mother and step father and her ex-husband. All painted a picture of a woman that had serious mental health issues way before the errant text message got to her cell phone. The plaintiff and her attorney agreed to settle for nuisance value and the insurance carrier decided it was a good deal all around. Needless to say, our client was happy that it was over.

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Restaurant Revival

When one of our clients decided to sell one of his restaurants, it was a bittersweet day for him. It was his flagship restaurant but he had received an offer that he simply couldn’t refuse. He had built the restaurant into a booming enterprise because of his involvement in the community and his charitable work. He warned the buyer that he would have to stay involved in the community in order for the restaurant to succeed for him. The buyer ignored the advice and in fact hired a general manager who knew nothing about the community. The restaurant was floundering within 2 to 3 months and first the buyer asked for his money back and when our client said no, the buyer filed suit. Our client asked us to defend the suit and when the buyer stopped making payments, we filed counterclaims. There it sat for over a year until we agreed to meet and our client agreed to take over the restaurant if the buyer agreed to bring all payments current. Our client quickly brought the restaurant back to its original success as word in the community got around that he was once again at the restaurant.