Three Day Weekend

Today is July 4, and it falls on a Friday. The July 4 holiday was one where I used a calendar quirk some years ago to do some of the best lawyering I ever did.

I was hired in early June of that year by the mother of a 4 year old who was riding in her aunt's car, in the front seat under the sign that said, in effect, "Don't put your 4 year old niece in this seat --if there's a crash, the airbag will deploy and paralyze her."

Of course, the warning sign was much more brief, but that's exactly what happened. The aunt drove through a stop sign, collided with another car, the airbag deployed, and the 4 year old Ashley was rendered a quadriplegic.

My firm immediately had the case analyzed from a products liability standpoint --but several consulting engineers told me, in effect, that you can't get around the admitted stupidity of the aunt. The warning sign was even bilingual!

So, the only source of recovery was the auto policy the aunt carried, with liability limits of $10,000. That might have paid for one day in the ICU for the child.

My goal was to create a "bad faith " case. Florida law says that an insurance carrier must handle a claim against their insured, as a "reasonable man" would. I figured that if I were at fault for paralyzing a child, I'd want MY carrier to IMMEDIATELY bring the settlement check over to the plaintiff on a silver platter, and buy peace for me.

Well, I sat in my office and looked at the calendar. July 4 fell on a Tuesday. So, I applied common sense, something NEVER taught in law school, and concluded that the insurance adjuster, the person responsible for settling the claim, was very likely going to be out of the office on Monday July 3, so that he or she could enjoy a nice 4 day holiday!

I sent my demand for settlement, stating clearly that the $10,000.00 check was to be delivered to my office NO LATER THAN MONDAY July 3.

Of course, I took off the 4 days myself, going to the Biltmore in Coral Gables as I recall, and returned to my office on Wednesday July 5. Surprise! No check! My plan was working.

I immediately filed a lawsuit against the negligent aunt (she knew it was coming) and she turned it over to her auto insurer. I got an indignant phone call from Dan D, one of this carrier's long time lawyers. "I know what you're trying to do, Dave, but it won't work!" I feigned naivete, and soldiered on.

Well, a few months later, one of the company's heavyweight lawyers realized that what I had done WAS going to work --I was going to get a multimillion dollar verdict against the negligent aunt, and she was going to turn around and sue her insurance carrier for failing to meet my settlement demand of July 3, leaving her financially destitute. After all, July 3 wasn't a legal holiday, just, by quirk of calendar, a de facto one.

We went to mediation, and the carrier paid us $2 million.

We took our healthy attorney's fee, and the rest was put into a trust for the little girl. Her family had her house made handicap accessible, and bought a van that accomodated her wheelchair. Most importantly, the mother had money to hire qualified medical aids so the mother didn't have to be with this pathetic child around the clock.

The little girl mercifully passed away one year later. Ths story, like the vast majority of my cases, doesn't have a happy ending.

But, I've made my career as a legal Robin Hood --robbing the rich insurance companies and giving the proceeds to the poor (keeping 1/3 or 40% as my bounty), and this was one of the more enjoyable episodes.

Beware the quirks of the calendar.