News Highlights 2010 and 2011
Gordon & Simmons Represents Partnership Involved In $72M Sale of Shopping Center
• Gordon & Simmons, LLC represents a Maryland Partnership which recently sold a Shopping Center in Potomac, Maryland. The sale price of $72M is believed to be the highest price per square foot realized for a commercial property sale in Maryland.
| 2011 |
Gordon & Simmons Represents Seller of Frederick SportsPlex
• Gordon & Simmons, LLC represents the seller of the Frederick SportsPlex, located at 1845 Brookfield Court, Frederick, Maryland. The terms of the sale are currently subject to confidentiality provisions, however, the seller is extremely pleased with the legal representation provided to it by Gordon & Simmons.
| Fall 2011 |
Sale and Development of 400+ Acres in Jefferson County, West Virginia Underway
• Gordon & Simmons represents a West Virginia company which is in the process of striking a deal to sell and/or develop over 400 acres of land in Jefferson County, West Virginia.
| Fall 2011 |
Two Medical Malpractice Cases Initiated
• Gordon & Simmons, LLC represents clients in two separate cases of potential medical malpractice. As alleged in the Complaint, one of those clients had an acoustic neuroma which, despite presenting symptoms consistent with acoustic neuroma, went undiagnosed for years, resulting in greater harm to the client than if the tumor had been properly detected and treated years earlier. In the other case, the client was 4 months pregnant when she presented with severe pain and a fever of 102 degrees. It is alleged that the doctor’s office would not schedule the client for an emergency appointment and instead the doctor told the client that she likely just pulled a muscle and to take Tylenol and stay off her feet. Based upon existing medical records, it is believed that approximately one week later the client experienced Preterm Premature Rupture of the Membrane (PPROM) resulting in the premature birth and subsequent death of the child. It is also alleged that the delivering doctor and attending nurses told the client that she indeed had been suffering from an infection, which is what caused the PPROM to occur, and that the PPROM could have been avoided had the infection been properly treated with antibiotics.
| 2011 |
Gordon & Simmons Obtains a Negotiated Settlement for Montgomery County Attorney to Collect Unpaid Legal Fees.
• Gordon & Simmons undertook a long negotiation for a Montgomery County attorney who was attempting to collect unpaid legal fees for legal services performed by the attorney on behalf of his former client. Through reasonableness and diligence, Mr. Weddle collected the entire amount of the fee due without filing suit.
| June 2011 |
Gordon & Simmons Enters the International Arena representing Warren E. Halle in a case in Greenbelt, Maryland against Lurssen Yacht Builders.
• Lurssen sued Mr.Warren E. Halle in London, England, claiming a multi million dollar commission for a yacht sale. A claim on an even larger implied contract theory was filed by Mr. Halle against Lurssen in Federal Court in Greenbelt, Maryland by Roger Simmons of Gordon & Simmons this summer. The first hearing in late November 2010 (on a motion to dismiss by Lurssen) in Greenbelt went well for Mr. Halle with Lurssen’s lead counsel getting disqualified and the Court opening up the case for jurisdictional discovery on Lurssen’s assertion of no contacts.
• Immediately after Mr. Halle began jurisdictional discovery on Lurssen’s contacts with the State of Maryland, the parties reached a settlement favorable to Mr. Halle.
| June 2011 |
Los Angeles Rental Car Pioneer Scores Victory Against National “Rent A Wreck” Franchisors
• Gordon & Simmons represented David Schwartz, a pioneer in the rental car industry, the creator of the “Rent-A-Wreck” name and founder of the “Rent-A-Wreck” used car rental franchise. They scored a victory this past spring against the national “Rent-A-Wreck” franchisors, owned by local automobile mogul, Jack Fitzgerald. In the early 1970s, Mr. Schwartz began to rent very used cars to individual customers and movie sets in Los Angeles, California under the “Rent-A-Wreck” banner. The name was an instant and sustained success.
• In January 2006, an entity owned by Mr. Fitzgerald purchased the national “Rent-A-Wreck” franchisor with full knowledge of the history of Mr. Schwartz’s Los Angeles-based rental car business. In June 2007, despite the more than 30-year relationship between Mr. Schwartz and the national company (a company which he founded ), the national “Rent-A-Wreck” franchisor told Mr. Schwartz that he could no longer rent cars under the “Rent-A-Wreck” name, and removed Mr. Schwartz’s business listing from the national website. Mr. Schwartz and his business filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland asking the Court to declare that he and his business had the right to use the “Rent-A-Wreck” name (as they had done for more than 30-years with RAWA’s knowledge and without objection), and to reinstate his business listing on the national Rent-A-Wreck website. In response, the national franchisor, controlled by Mr. Fitzgerald, filed a $7.5 million counterclaim seeking damages from Mr. Schwartz and his business for their purported unauthorized use of the “Rent-A-Wreck” name.
• After more than three years of vigorous litigation, a two-week jury trial and a round of post-trial motions, the Maryland jury and/or the Court ruled that Mr. Schwartz and his business had the right to use the “Rent-A-Wreck” name in their exclusive territory, without the payment of fees to the national franchisor, all the while receiving the advertising same benefits as other franchisees. The national franchisor’s counterclaim was wholly unsuccessful – the jury refused to award it one penny of the millions claimed. Further, the Court found that the national franchisor must close its two affiliated Priceless rental car outlets in Mr. Schwartz’s and his business’s exclusive territory, or else post a $500,000 bond.
• Unhappy with the Court’s ruling, the national franchisors, Rent A Wreck of America, Inc. and Bundy American, LLC, all controlled by Mr. Fitzgerald, have appealed the Court’s decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Briefing is scheduled for early 2011.
• In March 2011, Mr. Schwartz moved the District Court of Maryland to sanction Rent A Wreck of America, Inc. and Bundy American, LLC for refusing to provide Mr. Schwartz’s business with its own separate webpage on the national Rent A Wreck website, and for purposefully advertizing Mr. Schwartz’s competitors (who had received poor reviews) on Schwartz’s Rent A Wreck webpage. While the District Court decided that Rent A Wreck of America, Inc.’s and Bundy American, LLC’s conduct did not rise to the level of contempt, the Court ordered each to give Mr. Schwartz’s business additional exposure on the national website. Unhappy with the Court’s ruling, the national franchisors, all controlled by Mr. Fitzgerald, have again appealed the Court’s decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Briefing is expected to begin in the summer of 2011.
| June 2011 |
Gordon & Simmons won a summary judgment motion on an Integrity Coal Sales, Inc. case in Virginia
• In the spring of 2011, attorneys Gordon & Simmons won dismissal on jurisdictional grounds for two out of three companies that were sued in northern Virginia for breach of a $6 million coal contract. On December 16, 2011, Gordon & Simmons won dismissal of the third defendant in that group of defendants via a successful summary judgment motion that was granted by the Honorable Judge Lee speaking for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Virginia.
| Spring 2011 |
Gordon & Simmons Represents Major Employer In Employment-Related Matters
• Gordon & Simmons, LLC regularly represents HMSHost Corporation in various employment-related cases across the country. HMS provides food, beverage and retail services at major airports and motorways in the United States and around the globe. HMS employs approximately 34,000 people and generates annual revenue of approximately $2.7 billion.
| December 2010 |
Gordon & Simmons Successfully Stops Foreclosure By Major Bank Against $5.9M Estate Located in Northern Virginia
• On July 28, 2010, Gordon & Simmons, LLC succeeded in staying the foreclosure of a $5.9M estate located in Clarke County, Virginia which had been scheduled to take place the next day, July 29, 2010.
| July 2010 |
Gordon & Simmons Represents Lender In Action Against Appraiser and Appraiser’s Insurer for Negligently-Performed Appraisals Which Resulted In Buy Back Loses to Lender
• Gordon & Simmons, LLC represents Landmark Funding, LLC in a negligence action pending in the U.S. District Court of Maryland against Virginia appraiser Defendant Van A. Perrault (which includes a claim for coverage against Defendant Perrault’s insurance carrier). Pending before the Court is a Motion for Judgment, which if and when granted will result in a judgment in Landmark Funding’s favor of approximately $300,000 against Defendant Perrault.
| December 2010 |
Gordon & Simmons Enters the International Arena representing Warren E. Halle in a case in Greenbelt, Maryland against Lurssen Yacht Builders.
• Lurssen has sued Mr.Warren E. Halle in London, England, claiming a multi-million dollar commission for a yacht sale. A claim on an even larger implied contract theory was filed by Mr. Halle against Lurssen in Federal Court in Greenbelt, Maryland by Gordon & Simmons this summer. The first hearing in late November (on a motion to dismiss by Lurssen) in Greenbelt went well for Mr. Halle with Lurssen’s lead counsel getting disqualified and the Court opening up the case for jurisdictional discovery on Lurssen’s assertion of no contacts. Gordon & Simmons is also assisting Mr. Halle’s barristers and solicitors in the London case.
| Summer 2010 |
Gordon & Simmons Obtains Reversal of District Court’s Dismissal of Title VII Claim in Fourth Circuit Published Opinion
• On December 20, 2010, in a published opinion, the Fourth Circuit reversed the District Court’s grant of summary judgment to the City of Hagerstown on plaintiff’s gender-based discrimination claim under Title VII. The Case caption is Tiffany Mosby-Grant v. City of Hagerstown, Appeal No. 09-2161. Gordon & Simmons, LLC represents Ms. Mosby-Grant.
| December 2010 |
Gordon & Simmons Obtains a Favorable Settlement in a Land Dispute in the Greencastle, Pennsylvania area.
• During the early spring and summer months of 2010, Gordon & Simmons navigated a Hagerstown client through a complex commercial real estate arbitration and made nearly a quarter of a million dollar recovery for the client in a negotiated settlement.
| December 2010 |
Gordon & Simmons Obtains a Negotiated Settlement for a Client Whose Personal, Private Pictures Were Opened and Accessed Without her Knowledge or Permission by a Cell Phone Provider.
• Jodi (Foss) Anderson undertook a complex negotiation for a Gordon & Simmons client who was deeply disturbed to find that her cell phone company had accessed her personal pictures and was using them to harass her. Ms. Foss (recently clerked for Maryland Circuit Judge Silkworth and, while carrying a full case load, last year completed an LLM in litigation at Temple) researched the facts and developed the case on her own to achieve a highly favorable settlement before the case had to be filed.
| December 2010 |
Gordon & Simmons Aids Leading Bio-Energy Firm in Clearing Title to its Technology
• In the Spring of 2010, Gordon & Simmons was instrumental in assisting a leading innovator in bioenergy technology in obtaining clear title to certain proprietary technology it had developed. Key patents developed and held by the company had been claimed by its creditors. Gordon & Simmons drafted litigation seeking damages for the alleged wrongful taking. Shortly thereafter, a favorable resolution was obtained paving the way for the company to embark on several ambitious projects already in the works.
| Spring 2010 |
Gordon & Simmons Successfully Mediates Legal Malpractice Claim
• The firm began 2010 by obtaining a successful resolution to a legal malpractice claim involving a prominent attorney and his former legal counsel. Roger Simmons and Jodi (Foss) Anderson achieved a negotiated settlement favorable to the firm’s client. Terms of the settlement are, by agreement of the parties, confidential, but the firm’s client was tremendously pleased with the results and with Gordon & Simmons’ handling of his claim.
| January 2010 |
