Fournaris & Sanet Highlights
Amtrak Crew Sues Hess Oil, Piling on the Lawsuit Express:
FORT LAUDERDALE - Eight Amtrak employees on board the train involved in the fiery collision with a tanker at the Cypress Creek crossing in March have filed a lawsuit against Amerada Hess Corp. and W. Jackson & Sons Construction Co.
Theodore J. Fournaris, with the Miami law firm of Fournaris and Eversole filed in Broward Circuit Court on behalf of Nancy Clark, Shirley M. Hines, Sandra R. Shirk, Canute A. McLeod, Melvin Ray Butler, Leroy Patrick, Alfred J. Ware, and Willie Arthur Dupree.
They claim bodily injury, great psychological and emotional trauma, mental anguish and loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life.
"Some of the crew members witnessed the truck driver being burned alive inside his truck", Fournaris said. "This has caused them great emotional turmoil. They are thankful to be alive. Given the actions of the truck driver in disregarding the most elementary rules of railroad safety, my initial investigation will center around whether the Hess Oil Co. driver was physically or mentally fit to operate this oil rig," he said.
No dollar amount was listed in the suit. The suit also names as a defendant, W. Jackson & Sons Construction Co., the contractor on a construction project to widen West Cypress Creek Road between Andrews Avenue and Northwest Avenue in Fort Lauderdale. - by Carol Ozemhoya
( this article appeared on 5/21/1993 in the South Florida Business Journal.)
Rental Car Suit May be Tourist Protection Landmark
FORT LAUDERDALE - The wife of a slain German tourist is suing Alamo Rent-A-Car and Days Inn for $10 million, claiming the companies were negligent and helped cause the death of her husband. Sonja Schell filed the suit April 20 in the Dade County Circuit Court on behalf of her husband, an executive for a Frankfurt chocolate factory.
Jorg Schell, 59, was shot to death outside a Homestead motel room on March 11 when he tried to protect his wife from two assailants who were stealing her purse. Theodore Fournaris, partner at the Coral Gables law firm Fournaris & Eversole, is representing Sonja Schell.
"For years the car rental industry has known that cars in South Florida have been targeted by criminal elements as easy marks," Fournaris said. "And in this case the evidence is very strong that (the Schells) were identified as tourists by their car."
This is the first lawsuit filed in Florida alleging that a rental car agency was negligent because it made available a "marked car." But Alamo is denying it did anything wrong.
"We feel unequivocally that we are not to blame," said Kathy Bradley, public relations manager for Alamo . "In situations like this, there is a search for someone to blame, and in this case, this is what has happened. We do not feel responsible."
The hotel owners declined comment on the matter. However, Fournaris believes the evidence is overwhelmingly in his client's favor.
"I think all of us in Dade County really know and understand the circumstances," he said.
The suit claims that Alamo failed to fulfill its legal duty to travelers by not warning them "that they were being provided with a vehicle which would single them out as tourists," the suit states. It also accuses that Alamo failed to replace the familiar Y and Z license plates with regular plates.
Schell's death occurred 12 days after Gov. Lawton Chiles signed an executive order Feb. 26 instructing the state to cease the issuance of license plates beginning with Y or Z and urging rental agencies to remove any of these plates. But Bradley explained that, at that time, the state had not changed its order on the way it administers plates, which was to assign a particular plate to a particular car.
"We had to wait until that car was returned by a customer before we could change the plate," Bradley said.
American Automobile Association Clubs of Florida estimates that it costs $2 to change a plate.
"That's a small price to pay for helping keep people safe," said Terry R. Farias, chairman of the AAA Clubs.
According to the governor's office, only 24,000 of the 600,000 rental car tags across the state were replaced by April 6. It wasn't until April 16 that the Florida Department of Transport authorized a full scale changeover of license plates on rental cars. The Schells rented an Alamo car on March 3 in Orlando at the start of a two-week vacation to South Florida and the Keys. The car had a Y license plate as well as stickers and a plate on the front identifying it as an Alamo car, the lawsuit states.
"It takes very little effort to remove tags or stickers," Fournaris said. "My client feels she had a target board placed on her back."
By Sonja Schell's account, the assailants spotted the rental car as it was returning to the Days Inn. Because the car was easily identifiable as a rental the couple was followed to the parking lot.
"The hotel parking lot was extremely dark. There was no direct lighting, and this is not the first time in Dade County that a Days Inn customer has been shot and killed," Fournaris said.
The two murder suspects have been apprehended. If Schell wins the case, it could set a precedent for the family members of other tourists injured or killed while vacationing in South Florida to take similar actions.
"I'm hoping that if we prevail it will energize the tourist industry to take a stronger, harder look as it pertains to protecting tourists while they are here," Fournaris said.
Meanwhile, Bradley says Alamo is working around the clock to place generic license plates on all its cars.
"We are certainly doing everything possible to warn customers," she said.
Fournaris hopes to have a trial date by the fall of this year. - by Alison Turner
(This article appeared on 4/23/1993 in the South Florida Business Journal)
Jury Gives $504,645 to Man Injured In Rear-Ender
Miami-Dade Circuit Court - A jury awarded $504,645 to a man who was injured in a highway rear-ender that totaled both cars.
Jason Jimenez, a 25-year-old massage therapist, claimed two cervical herniations that may require surgery. Jimenez testified that while he was able to work, he was in constant daily pain. He claimed that he wakes up in pain and by the end of the day it’s significantly worse.
The defense argued that he only had bulges that were caused by normal degenerative conditions that pre-existed the accident.
Case: Jimenez v. Reilly
Case no.: 05-17258 CA 11
Plaintiff lawyer: Theodore J. Fournaris, Fournaris & Sanet, Coral Gables, FL
Defense lawyer: Michael W. Carroll, Law Offices of Beth-Ann Tansey, Fort Lauderdale, FL
(This article appeared 10/02/2006 in the Daily Business Review)