Case Results

Medical Malpractice

Sowards v. Biotronik: After 3 weeks of trial the jury found the plaintiff proved their three theories of liability against Biotronik and/or Tague: 1) negligence; 2) negligent training, supervision, and retention; 3) and civil conspiracy to implant a pacemaker into Sowards that was not necessary or medically indicated. The plaintiff was awarded $67.3 million.

Wrongful Death

McConnell v. Allsup’s:  Garcia, a 26-year-old single mom, was in her fourth day at work and second night at Allsup’s Store No. 146 in Hobbs— one of 300 in the family-owned, Clovis-based chain— when she was abducted, raped and stabbed repeatedly in 2002. Allsup’s failed to implement methods to reduce robberies and enhance employee safety. The jury decided Allsup’s had willfully caused Store No. 146 to be unsafe and awarded the plaintiff $52,000,000.

Trucking Crash

Hein v. Utility Trailer Manufacturing Inc.: On November 13, 2015, a truck driver hauling a Utility Trailer 3000R refrigerated trailer collided with Riley Hein who was driving a Honda Civic. Because the semitruck did not have any side underride protection, Riley’s car got pinned under the trailer while the truck continued to drive. The car caught fire and Riley dies before anyone could get to him. Randi McGinn and her team picked up this case and took it to trial against Utility Trailer Manufacturing. After two weeks of litigation, the jury found Utility Trailer Manufacturing negligent and had contributed to Riley’s death. The verdict awarded the plaintiff $18.9 million.

Medical Malpractice

Baker v. Alta Vista et. al.: A San Miguel County jury found the three physicians —Misbah Zmily of Raton, Stephanie Hedstrom of Albuquerque and Lee Caruana of Raton — negligent in their handling of Bryanna Baker’s medical treatment. The eight-woman, four-man jury set compensatory damages at $9 million. “The most important part is that the jury verdict made things safer for the community,” Randi McGinn, one of Baker’s attorneys, said shortly after the settlement.

Wrongful Death

Torres v. Albuquerque Police Department: Our attorneys tried this case and won a verdict of more than $6 mil. against the APD on behalf of the family of Christopher Torres. Mr. Torres was shot in the back and killed by police officers while he was in the back yard of his own home, wearing his pajamas, playing with his dog. He lived with schizophrenia and had been assigned a Crisis Intervention Officer through APD who was supposed to intervene and reach out to the Torres family if he ever had a schizophrenic break-through that created a need for intervention. The Albuquerque Police Department has a long history of shooting people who have mental illnesses, and the officers who went to Mr. Torres house to investigate a traffic incident that had occurred 4 months earlier chose not to involve the trained Crisis Intervention Officer. Instead, they approached Mr. Torres in plain clothes, tore down his backyard fence and attacked him. We found a witness who internal affairs investigators had ignored, who witnessed the police beating Mr. Torres in his back yard. Our firm tried this case against APD not only to seek justice for the Torres family, but to also raise awareness of the need for implementation and enforcement of police policies that protect citizens living with mental health issues.

Wrongful death

Jason Wachocki v. Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department: The judged ruled that the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department shares blame for a fatal crash on the West Side because it didn’t enforce traffic laws, even when law enforcement officers were among the violators.

“When someone’s child is killed, it is never just about the money,” McGinn said. “All along, the most important thing for the Wachocki family has been trying to get the sheriff’s department to enforce the traffic laws on the roadways.”

Medical Device Defect

McDonald v. Zimmer: Medical device manufacturer Zimmer Inc. has been ordered to pay more than $2 million to a New Mexico man for a defective Zimmer hip implant with an “unreasonably dangerous design,” following a two-week bench trial.

Trucking Crash

The trucking company hauling a giant wind turbine blade with a semi-truck did not control traffic with its escort vehicles as was required, causing a fatal crash between the semi and the people inside a pickup truck.

Wrongful Death

Charles Holbrook was killed in 2017 during an active weapons training exercise on Holloman Air Force Base. His wife Belen Holbrook sued the United States through the U.S. Air Force for wrongful death shortly thereafter, on behalf of herself and the couple’s young daughter. A confidential settlement was awarded during a telephonic hearing on Oct. 14 by United States Magistrate Judge Stephan Vidmar.