Result: Verdict, $2,500,000
Helicopter crash/legal malpractice
Los Angeles Superior Court
May 23, 1989
Kevin Doll, age 35, was piloting a Bell 214B helicopter during logging operations when it crashed near Quincy, Oregon, killing Mr. Doll. After the crash, Mr. Doll's widow retained defendant attorney Harold Sullivan to represent her in a suit against Bell Helicopter, the aircraft's manufacturer.
Although Sullivan represented to her that he was an experienced aviation lawyer, he was not. Because of that, and because he neglected Doll's case in favor of others in his office, he failed to conduct discovery. As a result, Sullivan's experts were misinformed as to the angle of impact, so when deposed they offered explanations for the crash that were physically impossible. Certain of the attorney's other experts believed they could prove that the crash was Bell's fault if they were allowed to conduct additional tests; Sullivan refused to allow these experts to proceed because he thought the tests would be too expensive.
Ultimately, Sullivan negotiated a settlement of $40,000 against Bell, and the case was dismissed. When Doll learned that her case had been settled without her consent, she retained The O'Reilly Law Firm.
In order for Doll to recover damages from her former attorney, The O'Reilly Law Firm needed to prove that a competent attorney would have prevailed against Bell had the case been taken to trial. Unfortunately, by the time Doll contacted The O'Reilly Law Firm, most of the evidence from the crash had been destroyed. Nonetheless, The O'Reilly Law Firm located the former Bell employee who designed the actuator control system, the critical part of the helicopter believed to have failed. His testimony concerning the system, along with the few remaining photographs of the actuator, was enough to convince the jury that had Doll's case been handled properly, and had she gone to trial against Bell, she would have won.
The jury ruled that Sullivan was liable for botching the case and awarded Mrs. Doll $2,500,000.
