SHB Victories Make List

Three of Shook, Hardy & Bacon’s top defense victories last year made the VerdictSearch reporting service list of 20 notable defense verdicts rendered in 2003. The list takes into account such factors as high-profile parties, sympathetic plaintiffs, unsympathetic defendants and skillful opposing counsel.

Grant Law’s win last May in Stewart v. Ford Motor Co., a products liability case tried in Sacramento County, Calif., Superior Court, made the list. The jury rejected a diabetic man’s claims that Ford was responsible for serious burns to his foot and found for Ford. The plaintiff later withdrew all post-trial motions.

Ken Reilly and Bill Geraghty obtained a defense verdict in Routh v. Philip Morris, Inc., in Miami-Dade County, Fla., Circuit Court in October. In that case, a flight attendant claimed that her lung cancer had been caused by second-hand smoke. The court has since denied plaintiff’s motion for new trial.

The third SHB victory on the list was Estate of Badenhoop v. Lorillard Tobacco Co., won by Roger Geary and Jim Berger in Maryland federal district court. The jury returned a defense verdict in this Kent cigarette filter case last April.