Case Results

On June 15, 2017, the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit affirmed a jury verdict and judgment from the United States District Court in the amount of $14,528,208.86 on an insurance bad faith case which Mr. Binder obtained with co-counsel Arash Homampour in November 2015.

Plane crash resulting in wrongful death. Decedent traveled to the east coast to evaluate a plane for purchase. During the test flight, the plane sustained a catastrophic engine failure. Witnesses on the ground observed the plane at about 3500 to 3000 feet without any engine power. The plane circled for several minutes, without power and out of control, ultimately striking several trees prior to impacting the ground and exploding. Investigation revealed that the Torque meter Gear shaft assembly failed, resulting in a complete loss of power to the engine. The part in question had only 25 hours of service.

On Feb. 22, 2012, at 3:15 p.m., at a bus terminal located at the junction of the I-110 and I-105 freeways, a group of people was standing on a platform about to board a Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus. A 2009 Honda, driven by defendant Roe Driver, struck the awaiting passengers.Among the plaintiffs were brothers John Doe 1 and John Doe 2.

$3,270,000.00 settlement not including an additional $2,000,000.00 structured settlement in a wrongful death action arising out of a construction site accident. Plaintiffs’ decedent, an independent business owner and trucking contractor, was killed when he was physically run over by his own dump truck which was rammed from the rear by one of the defendants who was operating a bulldozer. At that time, plaintiff’s decedent was underneath his truck inspecting lose wires. The decedents wife and two children sued a number of contractors and sub-contractors, whose defense was that the decedent had been instructed to not exit his truck while in the construction zone. Binder Law Group, PLC meticulously reviewed thousands of pages of documents and found the smoking gun which led to the settlement.

Jury verdict for a medical malpractice/wrongful death action involving the misdiagnosis of ovarian cancer. The case went on appeal and was later settled for a confidential sum. In October of 1997, Glori Black found a small lump in her abdomen. To rule out cancer, she underwent an operation. Glori’s surgeon removed a huge ovarian mass. He sent the tumor to the lab for diagnosis to determine how he should proceed with the surgery. Defendant, the chief pathologist of the Ventura hospital, carelessly tested the mass and incorrectly diagnosed it to be dysgerminoma. About 5 months later, in 1998, Glori felt pain in her abdomen again. Within a month, an ultrasound showed another large abdominal mass. Glori was referred to Cedars-Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Center. The doctors at Cedars discovered that Glori Black did not have dysgerminoma. Instead, she had a very aggressive form of cancer that had spread throughout her abdomen. At twenty-two years old, Glori died in December 1998, about 8 months after she was correctly diagnosed. Glori was survived by her husband and son who was five years old. Binder Law Group, PLC assembled a terrific team of medical experts to testify at trial, and prevailed despite the fact that at least one of the defendant’s experts was supposedly world-renowned from Harvard.

Medical malpractice case involving delayed diagnosis of meningococcemia on 10-year-old boy resulting in quadruple amputation. Plaintiff brought a civil action to recover for the damages caused to the plaintiff by defendants’ medical malpractice when the plaintiff presented to an Emergency Room. The ER staff and doctor failed to provide the plaintiff with essentially any care that he desperately needed to survive his bout of meningitis. Finally recognizing his critical condition, the hospital transferred the plaintiff to another hospital. Despite magnificent efforts by the other hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit, they could not undo the damage done by the delay plaintiff suffered from the defendants’ failure to care for him. Thanks to the second hospital’s doctors, the then 10-year-old plaintiff survived. Had he received fluids and medicines as he should have at the previous hospital, however, he would have had a much different result. He likely would have suffered no amputations at all, or only lost fingers, or toes, or even a hand or foot. But because of the inexcusable delay in treatment at the first hospital, the second doctors were forced to amputate all of the plaintiff’s arms and legs.

At the time of her death, the daughter lived with her parents. She was seventeen, (17), years old and preparing to enter her senior year of high school. Prior to her death, the decedent was riding as a passenger in defendants vehicle while their daughter and a co-defendant was driving. While on their way to a friend’s house, the co-defendant struck a parked moving van, which was owned by other defendants and illegally parked on a highway overpass. As a result of the impact with the moving van, decedent suffered a traumatic injury which knocked her unconscious. She never regained consciousness. She was in a coma with life support which was thereafter discontinued.

Medical malpractice following lumbar laminectomy.

A solo vehicular accident resulting in wrongful death. Case was based upon highway design defect. On May 25, 1999, plaintiffs’ decedent, Kenneth Diekmann, Sr., drove an armored van southbound on the Antelope Valley 14 Freeway to deliver money to “ATMs” in the area. En route to his last stop of the day, Mr. Diekmann entered a construction area where defendant Caltrans was adding carpool lanes just south of the Escondido Canyon on-ramp, in the rural area of Agua Dulce. Mr. Diekmann’s van failed to negotiate a curve and left the freeway at a place where the State had failed to place guard rails. Guard rails were sorely needed – Mr. Diekmann’s van went over the lip of a steep slope, sailed through the air for about 75 feet, and hit a dirt embankment head-on. The front of Mr. Diekmann’s van crushed to about 11 inches wide; of course, he died at impact.

On the afternoon of December 27, 2020, the plaintiff’s decedent, an 85-year-old who was a loving wife, mother, and grandmother was crossing the street in the marked pedestrian crosswalk at the intersection of Lankershim Boulevard and Moorpark Street in North Hollywood. While attempting to initiate a left turn from Moorpark Street onto Lankershim Boulevard, the defendant’s vehicle struck the plaintiff’s decedent. The case settled for the $250,000.00 third-party liability policy limits and $1,000,000.00 umbrella coverage policy limits.

A solo accident on an All-Terrain Vehicle resulting in serious personal injuries. The plaintiff was a firefighter and was participating in a non-company sponsored off-road event between firemen and policemen. Plaintiff’s ATV crashed, and even though the plaintiff was wearing a helmet, he sustained a serious brain injury and paraplegia. Plaintiff sued, among other defendants, the helmet manufacturer located in Italy.

Wrongful death of a 17-year-old girl who was struck by bakery truck on highway. Plaintiff, WENDY APODACA, and her 3 daughters, Cassandra age 17, Carissa age 10, and Callista age 3, were all involved in this terrible accident. On the night of August 16, 2003, the Apodaca family and their friends were traveling on Interstate 15 from their homes in Las Vegas, to San Diego. The purpose of the trip was a vacation. Among other vehicles within the caravan, was a Dodge Ram truck with an attached 5^th wheel trailer. When noticing that the trailer had sustained a flat tire, the friend driving the trailer pulled to the shoulder of the interstate and out of the lane of travel. Callista was seated in the Dodge, and Wendy and Cassandra were standing to the right of the trailer talking with the friend while he was fixing the flat, and checking on the other kids. Suddenly, and without warning, a bakery truck driven by the defendant veered off of the highway and slammed into the rear of the trailer causing it to lunge and strike Cassandra. Regretfully, Cassandra suffered fatal injuries and died at the scene. This case settled for policy limits.

A truck vs. auto accident resulting in a closed head injury to a neonatal nurse. Plaintiff was traveling on westbound I-10 freeway about 55 MPH in the slow lane preparing to exit at next off-ramp, which was Tippecanoe when her vehicle was hit on the driver’s side, then hit again, causing her vehicle to flip over. landing and staying upside down. This case settled for policy limits

Medical malpractice involving hypoperfusion to 5-year-old girl during cardiothoracic surgery. Plaintiff was born with a congenital heart defect. While an infant, she underwent a surgical procedure to repair her heart which required a follow-up procedure to be performed several years later. During the follow-up procedure, the plaintiff suffered hypoxia or lack of oxygen to the brain. The defendants were the members of the surgical team during the surgery. The injury to the plaintiff’s brain caused her to have significant neurological problems. This case settled for policy limits.