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In what appears to be the largest pre-trial settlement ever of a single personal injury case, Airbus Helicopters and Air Methods Corp. agreed to pay $100 million to settle claims arising from a 2015 crash.
“I’ve been doing this now for 37 years, and by far these were the most horrific injuries I’ve ever seen,” said plaintiffs lawyer Gary Robb of Robb & Robb.
Flight nurse David Repsher suffered burns over 90 percent of his body, in some places down to the bone. The Airbus helicopter he was riding in burst into flames when it crashed 32 seconds after takeoff in a parking lot next to the St. Anthony Summit Medical Center in Frisco, Colorado.
“It’s amazing this man survived,” Robb said. “He spent nine months in the burn unit, he had 400 surgical procedures. He went from weighing 189 pounds to 87 pounds. He had to re-learn to swallow, eat, talk, roll over, stand and walk.” In addition to being disfigured, Repsher’s kidneys failed, he has permanent hearing loss and loss of function of his hands.
The suit was filed in the District Court of Summit County in Breckenridge, Colorado in 2015. Apart from his client’s devastating injuries, Robb said he focused on the fact that the helicopter did not have a crash-resistant fuel system, which has been mandated on newly-certified helicopters since 1994.
Because it lacked such a system, the helicopter burst into flames 1.8 seconds after impact, giving Repsher no time to escape. “It was not a high-impact crash,” Robb said. “He could have walked away.”
A report by the National Transportation Safety Board also cited Airbus’ preflight hydraulic check, lack of warning related to tail rotor hydraulic system pressure and design of the dual hydraulic system as causes of the crash.
Trial was scheduled for March 5 when the parties struck a deal on Feb. 1. According to VerdictSearch, it’s the highest payout ever to a single plaintiff in a personal injury case.
Airbus was represented by a team from Nixon Peabody led by Joseph Ortego and Wheeler, Trigg, O’Donnell LLP. Medical transport company Air Methods Corp. was represented by Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, with William Katt as lead trial counsel.
The Met Wins Suit Seeking Return of Picasso Masterpiece
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York can keep its $150 million painting, “The Actor,” by Pablo Picasso.
On Wednesday, Senior U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska of the Southern District of New York dismissed a suit by the great-niece of the painting’s original owners, German Jews Paul and Alice Leffmann. They sold the work in 1938 when they fled Fascist Italy for Switzerland and then Brazil.
It’s a big win for the museum and its legal team, led by Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr international litigation chair David Bowker.
I wrote about the suit in July. To recap: the Leffmann’s great-niece, Laurel Zuckerman, represented by Lawrence Kaye of Herrick, Feinstein LLP, asserted that the painting was sold under duress and for less than fair market value—the equivalent of about $250,000 today—to Picasso’s dealer, Paul Rosenberg, and collector Hugo Perls, in Paris. It was later gifted to the museum by Thelma Chrysler Foy, whose father founded Chrysler.
Zuckerman wanted the painting back plus $100 million in damages.
But Preska dismissed her claim for failure to allege duress under New York law. The judge noted that the Leffmanns took nearly two years to sell the painting (which was safely in Switzerland), rejected offers from other dealers, attempted to improve their leverage to maximize the sale price, and had other assets that they sold, including property in Italy.
“[T]he 1938 transaction occurred between private individuals, not at the command of the Fascist or Nazi governments,” Preska wrote. “Thus although the Leffmanns felt economic pressure during the undeniably horrific circumstances of the Nazi and Fascist regimes, that pressure, when not caused by the counterparties to the transaction (or the defendant) … is insufficient to prove duress with respect to the transaction.”
Andy Sandler to Exit Buckley Sandler for New Ventures
Andrew Sandler of BuckleySandler.
Andy Sandler is not one to sit back and play it safe.
In 2009, he gave up the security of a partnership at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, where he headed the consumer financial services enforcement and litigation practice, to team up with Buckley Kolar and launch Buckley Sandler.
Now, in an exclusive interview Sandler shared that he will leave the firm he helped build on March 20—nine years to the day after it was founded.
He’ll devote himself to running his three other companies instead: financial services industry consulting firm Treliant, compliance software provider Asurity, and private investment company Temerity.
In retrospect, his workload seems almost superhuman: During his tenure as chairman and executive partner of 158-lawyer Buckley Sandler—which in 2016 was the second-most profitable Am Law 200 firm, with profits per partner of $2.6 million—Sandler simultaneously launched three new businesses.
Treliant is the oldest, established in 2009 to advise bankers, lenders, mortgage and brokerage companies and FinTech firms on compliance, risk management and operations. Buckley Sandler was originally an investor, but Sandler later bought the firm out.
He went on to found Temerity in 2014, which makes real estate and venture capital investments (it helped fund Lyft), as well as equity investments in “misunderstood, undervalued companies.” That was followed by Asurity in 2015, which bills itself as “RegTech solutions built by compliance experts.”
The entities are independent from Buckley Sandler, which counts 21 of the 25 largest banks in the U.S. as well as the top 10 credit card issuers as clients.
The firm has also hit the jackpot in select contingency fee cases, which make up 5 to 10 percent of its portfolio. Sandler himself was lead counsel in a $554 million settlement in 2014 for the Navajo Nation from the U.S. government for mismanaging tribal trust funds.
But eventually—even for him—something had to give.
In an email to colleagues on Wednesday morning, Sandler wrote that after returning from a “wonderful family trip … I have reached the conclusion that it has become too difficult to continue to juggle my role as Chairman and Executive Partner of Buckley Sandler with my responsibilities leading Treliant Risk Advisors, Temerity Capital and Asurity Technologies and still have time to pursue my personal interests.”
In an interview, he acknowledged that stepping away from the firm is difficult. “I’m only comfortable doing this now because we have from Day One worked hard at institutionalizing the firm in terms of diversity of clients, business development and a strong, comprehensive leadership team,” he said.
It’s an open question how the firm, a major player in representing companies before the now-defanged Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will fare in the deregulatory Trump administration. But Benjamin Klubes, who along with John Kromer will continue to serve as the firm’s co-managing partners, touted Buckley Sandler’s state AG, white collar, licensing and Bank Secrecy Act-related practices. “We’re optimistic about 2018 as our momentum continues,” he said.
See also Buckley Sandler Co-Founder Andy Sandler to Leave Firm
What I’m Reading
On Day 3 of Waymo v. Uber, a Cinematic Moment With Kalanick on the Stand
With former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick on the stand for his second day of testimony, Charles Verhoeven of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan played the iconic “greed is good” speech that Douglas delivered while portraying the fictional corporate raider Gordon Gekko.
NY Contractor Settles U.S. Labor Dept.’s First Complaint Under Trump
Hey look, they did enforcement!
Rabobank Subsidiary Forfeits $368M in Money Laundering Probe
The bank was represented by Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy partners James Cavoli and Tawfiq Rangwala.
Despite Judge’s Tongue-Lashing, ‘Serial Objector’ Escapes RICO Suit
“As vexing as the court finds the behavior of defendants and other ‘serial objectors,’ the court is unable to find that the alleged conduct constitutes racketeering activity,” the judge wrote.
Aetna, Settlement Claims Administrator Sue Each Other Over HIV Mailings
Not Gibson Dunn’s finest hour.
FEC Commissioner Goodman Leaves Post for Wiley Rein
His departure from the FEC leaves four remaining commissioners and eliminates the Republicans’ majority on the commission.
