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On January 21, 2019, at approximately 8:30 p.m.,The Narragansett Electric Co. known to its customers as National Grid, in response to dangerously low pressure in its natural gas distribution pipelines, specifically, Newport and Middletown, shut down its natural gas distribution system on Aquidneck Island. This resulted in a gas service outage to approximately 7,000 customers and retail businesses in Newport and Middletown.
The gas service interruption, which caused a total loss of heat and hot water, persisted from two days to approximately one week, at which time the affected homes became legally habitable as gas service was restored. The events of January 21, 2019 occurred within a set of natural gas pipeline systems serving Rhode Island. The natural gas pipeline systems which serve Aquidneck Island consists of two types of systems. The first is the interstate pipeline system, which distributes natural gas from Massachusetts into Rhode Island that is operated and owned by Algonquin Gas Transmission, LLC, The second system is the intrastate local gas distribution system, which was owned and operated by National Grid who received gas in Portsmouth, from and then distributes the natural gas though its local transmission lines to its customers in Middletown and Newport.

The Plaintiffs asserted in their Complaints against National Grid and Algonquin that the low-pressure condition resulting in the interruption of gas service, commencing on the morning of January 21, 2019, was the result of the alleged negligence of the Defendants, which in turn were the precipitating factors leading directly to the outage.

After extensive discovery Brian Cunha from Brian Cunha & Associates settled the case at a mediation for $2,000,000.00, which was subsequently approved by the Federal Court in Providence RI.

The settlement was limited to loss of use of the premises due to the outage National Grid had previously paid more than $3,000,000.00 in aid its Newport customers for lodging, food and heating assistance.

In addition, more than $1,000,000 was given to aid persons in Newport and Middletown in need of heating assistance. Under the settlement Ninety percent (90%) is being donated to the low income home energy assistance program (“LIHEAP”) of the East Bay Community Action Program (“EBCAP”for the benefit of Newport and Middletown residents and ten percent (10%) to the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (“LISC”) for the benefit of businesses in Newport and Middletown RI.

The Plaintiff was waiting to safely merge onto Wampanoag Trail from County Road in Barrington, RI, when he was suddenly and without warning rear-ended by the Defendant whom was operating a van and transporting patients in the course of his employment.  The impact caused the Plaintiff to strike his head on the steering wheel. Later that same evening, the Plaintiff developed severe neck and back pain. The plaintiff had a long-standing history of neck and back pain prior to this accident, and his flare ups would usually resolve with an epidural steroid injection.  After this accident, the Plaintiff had to undergo a posterior discectomy at lumbar L4-5 and an anterior discectomy fusion at C4-6.

The defense argued that the Plaintiff’s injuries were pre-existing, and the surgeries were unrelated to the accident. The Plaintiff filed suit in Providence Superior Court and after a lengthy discovery phase, including taking the Plaintiff’s deposition and an independent medical review.  The parties then agreed to attend mediation and after several weeks of continuing negotiations, the case settled.

The Plaintiff was a deliver driver, in the course of his employment.  On the date of this incident, he was lawfully on the premises of a restaurant in Smithfield, RI to make a delivery.

Upon arrival at the restaurant, the Plaintiff drove the tractor trailer around back of the building where the delivery door was located, and turned the truck around, facing outward.  He then exited the truck and went inside the restaurant to initiate contact with a staff member of the restaurant to inquire where the delivery items should be brought.  This was Plaintiff’s first time delivering to this location.

The Plaintiff then went back out to the truck, opened the trailer and pulled the ramp out.  He then entered the trailer and loaded his dolly with product.  He then descended the ramp with the loaded dolly and when he got to the bottom of the ramp, he turned toward the right to make a wide right turn in the shape of an arc, toward the delivery door.

Due to the parking lot being a solid sheet of ice covered with a dusting of snow, his feet slipped out from under him, causing him to fall to the ground landing on his right elbow and side.

The Plaintiff suffered a massive rotator cuff tear which required two surgeries.  The Plaintiff collected Workers’ Compensation benefits for 62 weeks.  He then brought a claim against the third-party Defendant, the restaurant.  The claim was denied, causing the Plaintiff to file suit in Providence Superior Court.

The Plaintiff successfully proved that the parking lot was not level and therefore when there was any type of precipitation, a large portion of the lot would flood with water.  This water would then freeze and if snow accumulated, a person would be unable to detect the ice underneath.

The Plaintiff also proved that the Defendant should have been aware of this ongoing problem and failed to correct it, although it was foreseeable that a delivery person who utilized the rear lot could be injured by such a condition.

The case was settled during mediation.

As the Plaintiff approached the intersection with Metacom Avenue, he came to a complete stop at the marked STOP sign.  While stopped, the Defendant, attempted to take a right hand turn onto Mount Hope Avenue; however, she took the turn too wide and the front of her vehicle came into direct contact with the front driver’s side of Plaintiff’s vehicle.  The impact caused the airbags to deploy in the Plaintiff’s vehicle, striking him in the face. Both vehicles were towed from the scene due to the disabling damage sustained.

The Plaintiff suffered a collapsed lung, multiple rib fractures and a large pneumothorax on the left side which would require a chest tube placement and transfer to Rhode Island Hospital. He further suffered T2-T4,T7 and T11-12 compression fractures, multiple rib fractures and a sternal fracture.  Although the Plaintiff did not require surgery the Plaintiff’s expert opined the Plaintiff suffered a 19% whole person impairment.  Suit was filed in Providence Superior Court and thereafter Defendant offered their policy limits of $100,000.00. We then mad e a demand on the Plaintiff’s own policy for under-insurance coverage and we successfully negotiated an additional recovery of $75,000.00 for the Plaintiff.

The Plaintiff was attempting to enter Route 1 South via the off-ramp from Route 295 North; however, she was forced to stop at the end of the off-ramp due to oncoming traffic.  The Defendant whom was traveling directly behind the Plaintiff did not stop and struck the rear of Plaintiff’s vehicle.

The Plaintiff experienced pain in her teeth, tingling in her upper lip, and pain in the back of her head. She also had a band-like pain through the right side of her face down into her anterior neck, pain in her right knee and foot, low back, buttocks, and ringing in her ears. Plaintiff was diagnosed with a concussion without loss of consciousness and  bilateral tinnitus (ringing in her ears). The Plaintiff underwent extensive physical and concussion therapies for her injuries and continues to suffer from ongoing tinnitus.

Without litigation we successfully obtained the Defendant’s policy limits of 100,000.00. Thereafter, we were able to negotiate an additional $15,000.00 from Plaintiff’s under-insurance coverage.

On the morning of 02/14/19, the Plaintiff, Victoria, arrived at the Defendant’s premises for an appointment for her cat. She parked in the parking lot and was in the process of taking her cat out of the back seat of her car when she was caused to slip on black ice. As a result of her fall, she fractured her left proximal tibia and had a torn meniscus, both requiring surgery.

Suit was filed and the parties subsequently agreed to mediate the case. The Defendant’s maintained that there was no precipitation within 24 hours prior to the Plaintiffs fall and that the small patch of black ice was not only not visible to the Plaintiff but was unseen by the Defendant. The Defendant alleged that they acted reasonably under these circumstances. Plaintiff maintained that the Defendant failed to properly inspect the premises to ensure that the parking lot was safe for their customers to walk on to enter their facility. After several hours the mediator and the parties were able to settle the case.

The Plaintiff was waiting to safely merge onto Wampanoag Trail from County Road in Barrington, RI, when he was suddenly and without warning rear-ended by the Defendant whom was operating a van and transporting patients in the course of his employment.  The impact caused the Plaintiff to strike his head on the steering wheel. Later that same evening, the Plaintiff developed severe neck and back pain. The plaintiff had a long-standing history of neck and back pain prior to this accident, and his flare ups would usually resolve with an epidural steroid injection.  After this accident, the Plaintiff had to undergo a posterior discectomy at lumbar L4-5 and an anterior discectomy fusion at C4-6.

The defense argued that the Plaintiff’s injuries were pre-existing, and the surgeries were unrelated to the accident. The Plaintiff filed suit in Providence Superior Court and after a lengthy discovery phase, including taking the Plaintiff’s deposition and an independent medical review.  The parties then agreed to attend mediation and after several weeks of continuing negotiations, the case settled.

This case arose  as a result of an automobile accident that occurred on July 28, 2017 at approximately 11:38 a.m. southbound on Route 495 in Bellingham, Massachusetts.

Prior to the collision, the Plaintiff, 52, was traveling on 495 in the middle lane of three (3) travel lanes. The Defendant, was traveling to the right of the Plaintiff in the slow speed lane. At some point, the two vehicles, veered into each other causing the Plaintiff’s vehicle to spin approximately 270̊ clockwise and into the guardrail on the right side of the road, causing her to strike her head on the windshield. The Plaintiff’s air bags deployed as well. The plaintiff was transported to the hospital for her injuries, where she was diagnosed with  forehead and facial bruising and a concussion.

The Plaintiff subsequently filed suit and discovery ensued. The Plaintiff’s claim that the Defendant was at fault was strongly contested and complicated by the investigating State Police Officer, who found it likely that “both parties were inattentive and looking at each other and veered into each other” causing the accident. No citations were issued. Both parties retained accident re-constructionists who attributed the cause of the accident to the other side.

The Plaintiff initially sought treatment from Dr. Kney, her family doctor, who diagnosed her with a concussion, however, due to ongoing cognitive issues she was referred to Dr. Farrel Douglas, a neurologist in Fall River MA., who first examined the Plaintiff on September 29, 2017. At that visit, Dr. Douglas documented the Plaintiff’s had ongoing cognitive difficulties and imbalance since the car accident, consistent with a concussion. He noted that since the accident her balance was poor and she was having cognitive problems involving short-term memory  and impairments in sense of direction.
Dr. Douglas opined that because of her continuing complaints of cognitive issues due to the car accident and head injury, he scheduled two EEG’s that he reported as abnormal and consistent with a mild concussion.

In opposition, the Defendants’ two medical experts testified at their depositions that at most, the Plaintiff sustained a mild head injury that should have resolved within a year; that her signs and reported symptoms were wholly inconsistent with a temporal concussion and that the EEG’s tracings were normal.

After extensive negotiations and one mediation the case settled two weeks before trial for $460,000.00.

In addition, the Plaintiff, through the efforts of Brian Cunha & Associates was placed on workers compensation and as a result received a total of $516,000.00 in benefits, including a lump sum settlement of $325,000.00

The total settlements of both cases was $785,000.00

Right now, we are representing thousands of hernia mesh lawsuits pending in the Providence Rhode Island Superior Court .

The plaintiffs in these lawsuits are individuals who had a defective hernia mesh implanted during surgery causing them to suffer serious post-surgical complications and injuries.

The hernia mesh lawsuits involve multiple hernia mesh products made by four medical device companies who are now defendants in the litigation: Ethicon (a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary that has just reached a settlement in most of its lawsuits), C.R. Bard (now part of Beckton Dickinson), Covidien, and Atrium Medical Corp. The alleged defects and the product liability claims being asserted against all these defendants are similar enough to talk about them collectively.

August 29, 2022 Hernia Mesh Verdict Update:

On August 29, 2022, in the first state court trial in the country involving allegedly defective hernia mesh implants, the Providence R.I. State court jury returned a verdict of $4.8 million dollars for the plaintiff, Paul Trevino,

Yes, there are more hernia mesh class action lawsuits that do not involve Bard. The judge presiding over the new Covidien hernia mesh MDL in Massachusetts – Hon. Patti B. Saris –  held the first status conference with lawyers for both sides this week. Just two months after the Covidien hernia mesh cases were consolidated into a class action, there are now 90 cases pending in the MDL.

Judge Saris will be making appointments to the plaintiff leadership committee in the coming weeks, after which a plan for discovery and the selection of initial bellwether cases will be the next items on the MDL agenda.

August 24, 2022 – Hernia Mesh Class Action Update

Is a hernia mesh settlement finally on the horizon?  It may be.  A settlement mediator was appointed by the Bard mesh class action judge last week.

Importantly, the settlement mediator was appointed with the joint agreement of lawyers on both sides to facilitate negotiations on the global settlement of the C.R. Bard hernia mesh lawsuits.  If the Bard domino falls, other hernia mesh class actions might also fall into place.

This is a major step forward that could result in a negotiated settlement before the end of 2022. The MDL judge also scheduled two more bellwether trials for February – the long-awaited Stinson case that Bard wants to avoid – and another in May 2023.  So that gives Bard an extra incentive to offer reasonable settlement payouts for victims before that case goes to trial.

This matter involves a motor vehicle accident that occurred on Knotty Oak
Road in Coventry, RI at approximately 10:35 p.m.,on the evening of April 1, 2019. The
accident occurred when the Defendant, Christopher Lacolle (“Lacolle”), who was legally
intoxicated, operated his vehicle at a speed in excess of 100 m.p.h., lost control and
crossed into the Plaintiff, Katie Nichols’, lane of travel. As a result, Ms. Nichols sustained a fracture to her left femur which required surgery, several fractures and dislocation in her left foot, a fracture to her left arm and lower spine.

In addition to naming Lacolle as a Defendant in this action, suit was also brought against a bar and a tavern. These two establishments both served Lacolle numerous drinks prior to the motor vehicle accident. More specifically, while at the first bar, Lacolle was served nine (9) beers and three (3) Crown Royal Apple shots.
The second Tavern served Lacolle two (2) Jack Daniels Whiskey, a shot of Patron
Tequila and a shot of Crown Royal Whiskey.
The bartenders at both the bar and Tavern were TIPS certified. TIPS is
an acronym for “Training for Intervention Procedures” which, among other things, is a
training program to prevent intoxication; drunk driving; and underage drinking. Both
bartenders knew or should have known that serving such an excessive amount of alcohol would result in the intoxication of their customer. Given the amount of alcohol served, Lacolle would have been visibly intoxicated and signs of intoxication should have alerted the employees of both establishments to not only terminate bar
service to Lacolle but to also insure that he did not drive a motor vehicle. In fact, Lacolle
was charged with a DWI after he smelled of alcohol but refused a field sobriety test at the scene and later, blood tests at the hospital that evening revealed Lacolle Blood Alcohol Level (BAL) to be .132.

The case was complicated as the police that at the scene indicated in their report that the Plaintiff was at fault as she had crossed the center line into the defendants lane.

However, attorney Karen Alegria at Brian Cunha & Associate employed an accident re constructionist who convinced the insurers of all three Defendants  that the accident occurred in the Plaintiffs lane of travel and not the Defendants.

After an all day  mediation with Attorney Bill Poore the case settled for $900,000.00.