Landlords, employers, utilities, elevator companies, mass transit authorities. They can all be responsible for injuries on property or equipment they operate. Each year, people are injured in accidents that occur when premises are not properly maintained and managed.
Injuries can range from broken limbs to more severe brain injuries and spinal cord injuries, even death. Kline & Specter handles premises liability lawsuits involving serious injuries or death.
The law firm has successfully litigated many major cases. In one, Shanin Specter won a $109 million verdict in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court for the family of a woman who died after she was shocked and burned by a fallen high-voltage power line. The Goretzka Case settled for $105 million.
Specter also won verdicts totaling $46.5 million – $8.02 million compensatory and $38.5 million punitive – against a security company for the families of two women who were shot to death by a disgruntled former worker at the Kraft Foods plant in Northeast Philadelphia. (Brown/Wilson)
In another case, Kline & Specter achieved a $35 million settlement in 2008 with 16 defendants in the Bridgeport Fire case. The firm represented more than 100 businesses and individuals in the class action for losses suffered in the massive fire that ravaged the Continental Business Center in Bridgeport, Pa. in 2001. (See Bridgeport)
Tom Kline in 2013 won one of the largest settlements for an undocumented worker in obtaining a $5 million award for a man crushed to death by a collapsing excavation site. (See Arana)
“An amazing job”
"We very much want to take a moment to thank our entire Kline & Specter team. Over a stressful number of months, they took time to understand our issues, counsel and educated us through the legal process. During this special relationship we quickly gained a new respect and appreciation for their knowledge and dedication and that of the total organization. Again, thank you for taking a difficult and dark time of our lives through to a hopeful and brighter future."
-Trachelle Brown (pictured second from left) of Philadelphia
Daughter of LaTonya Brown, who was killed by a former fellow employee at the Kraft Foods plant in Northeast Philadelphia. Shanin Specter, Dominic Guerrini and Patrick Fitzgerald obtained $46.5 million in total compensatory and punitive damages over two trials in 2015 for the Browns and the family of Tanya Wilson, also killed in the 2010 incident.
One of the firm's most notable premises liability cases arose from an incident that occurred on Nov. 27, 1996 when five-year-old Shareif Hall and his mother rode the escalator at a subway station in North Philadelphia. Shareif’s foot was torn off in the escalator. Kline & Specter attorneys reached a settlement with the escalator manufacturer and won a $51 million verdict against the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. (Hall v. SEPTA). The firm has also won settlements and verdicts in cases involving a train mishap (Harris), drownings and swimming pool accidents (Weightman, Slaughter) and various landlords ( Shapiro, Village Green) ranging from $1 million to $40.5 million. A 2003 case involving a construction worker killed at a Delaware oil refinery (Davis/Motiva) resulted in the largest-ever reported settlement of its kind – $36.4 million.
Kline & Specter in January 2004 announced a $29.6 million settlement stemming from the collapse of Pier 34 in which three young women were killed. More than three dozen people were sent sprawling into the chilly Delaware River in the May 18, 2000 mishap.
In an earlier case, the firm, Sparber v. DuPont, won a Delaware-record $19.9 million verdict against a hospital after a 15-year-old patient was accosted by a visitor, the attack resulting in catastrophic nerve damage.
Premises Liability Lawyers
Kline & Specter represents victims and families of those injured or killed in premises liability lawsuits in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Please call us at 800-243-1100 to speak with an experienced premises liability attorney.
