Boston Accident Lawyer Blog

My post today is not about a case decision or a new law, but about a person I know who qualifies in my opinion as one of the finest trial lawyers, and finest people, I know. His name is Leo Boyle. A founding partner of Meehan, Boyle, Black & Bogdanow in Boston, most people outside of legal circles might not know that name, but he is one of the true unsung heroes of our day – for several reasons.

First, Leo has dedicated his life to fighting for the “little guy” in society: The person who has been injured because of someone else’s negligence – be it a corporation or another unknown person. Regardless of who injured such a person, he or she had to go up against powerful corporate and insurance interests to achieve a measure of justice. That’s how our civil justice (civil liability) system works – 95% of the time, when an injured person sues a company or another person for negligently injuring them or worse, causing death to a loved one, it is an insurance company or corporate interest that defends the claim. And trust me, as a Boston injury lawyer who represents people who have suffered terrible injuries, I can assure you: Those insurance companies and corporate interests fight hard. The typical injury victim is usually an unknown person, without much power or influence: Literally David up against a huge corporate Goliath. Without a dedicated, talented lawyer to take up their cause, they don’t stand a chance. To employ some slang parlance, they’re toast.

Enter a man like Leo Boyle. Leo has spent his entire career fighting for the “little guy” – with incredible results. More lawyers should be like Leo; I know I’ve tried to be. Fortunately, I had the chance to observe and get to know Leo almost 25 years ago, when I was Public Affairs and Media Counsel for the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys (MATA,) and Leo was on the Board of Governors. He’s always been a source of wisdom and advice to me. Recently, the American Association for Justice (formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, or ATLA,) honored Leo by bestowing upon him the Leonard M. Ring Champion of Justice award in Washington, D.C. While the AAJ honored Leo for many different instances of justice that he has achieved for so many over the years, the award centered on Leo’s actions when he was President of that national bar association in 2001, then known as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA.)

Leo was President of ATLA when September 11 2001 struck. In those days following 9/11, Boyle did the exact opposite of what critics of trial lawyers would have expected: He called on trial lawyers across the country to refrain from filing lawsuits in connection with the national disaster. He did so because he knew that if such lawsuits were filed by every person or family who lost a loved one during these events, those victims would be tied up in litigation for years on end, not seeing a dime of compensation until those suits were settled perhaps a decade later. Instead, he lobbied Congress, one by one and in groups, to establish the September 11th Victims Compensation Fund that expeditiously directed a streamlined claims system and compensation payments to injured victims and their families, and to all those who lost loved ones in the disaster. Stop and think about the valor and decency of that effort: If Leo hadn’t done that, and Congress hadn’t established the streamlined Victims Compensation Fund that they did, a great many of those lawsuits that would have resulted would still be ongoing today – while the victims’ families languished, waiting for justice. Beyond convincing Congress to set up the streamlined claims and compensation system, Leo’s leadership helped to establish a national pro bono organization that offered free legal services for the victims' families. Funny, but I didn’t hear or see any “tort reform” advocates talk much about that. These are the same corporate interests that would like to severely limit, or take away, your right so sue someone in court if their negligence injures you or a loved one.

After Leo was successful in urging Congress to create the Victims Compensation Fund, he went further, recruiting hundreds of (largely New York City) lawyers to represent the thousands of victims for free. Knowing this was going to be a tall order, he made a difficult trip to New York City in October 2001 to convince attorneys there that this free, uncompensated work was morally necessary.

"It was a pretty daunting task to represent all of the victims for free," he recalled. "Everyone (in the legal profession) was aware that a lot of the work was going to fall to New York lawyers. There was a legitimate debate (among them) about ‘can we do this and still remain in business, and how are we going to do this?’" At this very uncomfortable meeting, Boyle stood up and said, "How can we not do this? If a fireman can rush into a building and lose his life trying to save somebody he doesn't even know, how can I not represent his children for free?"

That sealed it. Lawyers volunteering across the country eventually procured more than $7 billion from the fund for victims, all without being compensated for any of their efforts.

So the next time you think of 9/11 and of “heroes,” think of a man you’ve probably never met or heard of, but who saved thousands of victims and survivors of that tragedy from even more pain still. His name is Leo V. Boyle, and I’m proud to call him a friend.

Here’s a story of an interesting case involving a Massachusetts Wrongful Death claim. On December 9, 2000, the unthinkable happened to a young couple living in central Massachusetts.

Sherylann Miller, a 38 year-old married woman and the mother of a young girl, had been hired as a restaurant manager by a local KFC-Taco Bell franchise. The store site was still under construction, on Main Street in Clinton, and Ms. Miller was accepting job applications from prospective employees as the site was still being constructed on Dec. 9, 2000, the last day of her life. It was the last day of her life because a particularly pathetic excuse of a human being by the name of Quillie Merle Spray III, a 36-year-old tile setter from Oklahoma who had been hired by the restaurant’s general contractor to work in the restaurant at the time of the slaying, attacked Ms. Miller without any provocation, inflicting six fatal stab wounds to her head and neck. While this psychotic waste of space was later convicted of first-degree murder in Mrs. Miller’s death and sentenced to life in state prison without the possibility of parole, Mrs. Miller is still dead, and this psychotic murderer clearly should never been hired by the General Contractor who hired him. The victim’s husband, Thomas G. Miller was left a widow, and their daughter left without a mother. While, thankfully, criminal justice was served in the conviction of this psychotic murderer, should these victims be left without any civil remedy here?

As a Massachusetts Wrongful death attorney, I can assure you the answer is No. Enter a civil lawsuit against the responsible parties, for "Wrongful Death.” Thomas Miller did just that, filing the civil suit in 2003 as administrator of the estate of his late wife, Sherylann Miller. Named as defendants in the suit were the now-murder convict, Quillie Merle Spray; his brother, Gary Spray, who was working with him at the time of the slaying; and Boss Contractors Inc. of New Hampshire, the general contractor for the restaurant construction.

The suit, which included claims for negligent and grossly negligent wrongful death and conscious pain and suffering, accused the defendants of negligently failing to protect Mrs. Miller from her killer. Her husband alleged in the lawsuit that Quillie Merle Spray III was a substance abuser with a criminal record and a propensity for violence, and that the civil defendants who had control over this restaurant construction could have and should have known this (a principal legal test of negligence in Massachusetts.)

In what is probably a sign of the increased resistance of insurance companies to settle civil tort claims nowadays that clearly call for pre-trial settlement, the defendants and their insurers would not settle this case before trial, and the case proceeded to trial in Worcester Superior Court. At the 11th hour, a settlement was reached this past Tuesday, while the jury was in its second day of deliberations. The trial was entering its fourth week and the jury’s deliberations came to a close without a verdict after the settlement was negotiated. The financial terms of the agreement are confidential.

If you’ll take a look at my website, under the “Wrongful Death” Section of our Practice Descriptions, you’ll see that a wrongful death suit is a particular kind of “tort”: A wrongful death suit differs from other Massachusetts personal injury lawsuits such as product liability, construction site accidents, car accidents, medical malpractice and premises liability/slip and fall cases, in that the actual victim (called the “decedent”) is not bringing the suit. Rather, it is usually a family member or a representative of the deceased victim’s estate. A wrongful death suit alleges that the victim’s death would not have occurred but for the actions or inactions of the civil defendants, and this type of suit seeks the recovery of monetary damages for the surviving family's or the estate's benefit as a result of the victim's death.

Money can never replace the loss of a loved one. Once a tragedy like this strikes, the only thing the law can do is to provide a judicial remedy, assuming negligence can be established on the part of another party, for family members left behind. A wrongful death suit in Massachusetts allows a potential award of damages for the economic and non-economic harm done to the victim’s family. While expert testimony can usually estimate the loss of present and future income potential that a deceased victim of wrongful death would have earned for his or her family, as well as for medical expenses related to the victim’s death, “non-economic” damages compensate the victim’s family for the loss of companionship, love and affection that they will suffer as a result of the victim’s death.

In order to bring a Massachusetts Wrongful Death suit, the suit must be filed prior to the expiration of the Statute of Limitations, or the suit will be forever barred in the future. Hence, if you have lost a loved one due to what you suspect may be the negligence of another, it is extremely important that you speak with a qualified wrongful death attorney as soon as possible after the event which caused the victim’s death. We are very experienced in this area of litigation, and you are encouraged to contact us for a free, no obligation consultation.

Continue reading " Worcester, Massachusetts Wrongful Death Lawsuit Settled At 11th Hour " »