Representative Cases

Kiernan Trebach LLP’s growth has been fueled by the satisfaction of its clients.The Firm is justifiably proud of its long list matters handled for corporate and insurance clients who first learned of the Firm’s unique commitment to client service from an unimpeachable source: our other clients.

Sensitive to the needs and concerns of our clients, we do not publicly list cases handled. Instead, we provide below a list of redacted matters that illustrate the nature and breadth of our trial defense work.

■ Kiernan Trebach has been serving as lead defense counsel for numerous restaurants and food distributors in cases claiming foodborne illness from E. coli 0157:H7, such as the 2006 Taco Bell E.coli outbreak. The Firm is also playing a key role in the defense of a national restaurant chain involved in food-allergen litigation filed in various states across the country.

■ The firm has been representing a national environmental remediation contractor in litigation against a government research facility operator claiming breach of express contract, breach of implied-in-fact contract, tortious breach of contract and fraud. The Firm brought the matter to resolution on favorable terms after extensive electronic-document discovery and a mediated mini-trial of key claims.

■ Kiernan Trebach is representing a Fortune 500 healthcare provider in cases alleging that the company knew or should have known its lifesaving services could injure patients. Over three dozen individual lawsuits were filed in one court, but the Firm obtained dismissal of half of the cases and transfers of most other cases, which are now proceeding in different U.S. District Courts around the country.

■ We have represented a modular home manufacturer in a variety of lawsuits filed throughout the northeast United States, obtaining outright dismissals or other favorable resolutions of claims for breach of contract, breach of express and implied warranties, negligence, misrepresentation, fraud, and alleged Consumer Protection Act violations.

■ The firm has represented a blood-banking facility against a claim of medical negligence by a patient who suffered anaphylactic shock, obtaining a defense verdict in a record 25 minutes of deliberation by a District of Columbia jury.

■ The firm recently obtained a defense verdict on behalf of a physician being sued for wrongfull death in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City.  The decedent died from a pulmonary embolism.

■ Kiernan Trebach successfully defended a regional mass transit carrier and its prime contractor in a suit by a subcontractor’s employee for injury from a construction site accident, obtaining favorable procedural rulings from the D.C. Court of Appeals and a substantive ruling by the Court of Appeals of Maryland upholding the carrier’s exclusive-remedy defense under the Maryland workers compensation statute.

■ Kiernan Trebach successfully defended an American secondary school in a European capital from discrimination and breach-of-contract claims by establishing that the District of Columbia federal court did not have personal jurisdiction over the school.

■ The firm won summary judgment for a nationwide real estate enterprise against a section 42 low-income tenant alleging housing discrimination and violation of privacy in connection with annual tenant recertification compliance requirements.

■ Kiernan Trebach successfully defended the owner and builders of a major convention center from a claim that a murder adjacent to the construction site resulted from negligence in maintaining site security, establishing on appeal that the plaintiff failed to prove the violation of any nationally accepted standard of care for providing site security.

■ We successfully defended a major rail carrier from a claim that the plaintiff’s worn shoulder was a workplace injury resulting from negligent assignment in violation of the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, establishing on appeal the that the plaintiff failed to prove the violation of any nationally accepted standard of care for worker-task assignment.

■ The firm won an insurance coverage dispute concerning claims of negligence against a restaurant and its employees, establishing on appeal in the Connecticut Supreme Court that the insurance policy’s assault-and-battery exclusion barred coverage.

■ Kiernan Trebach won summary judgment for a general liability insurer whose policyholder faced construction-defect claims, by establishing that claims for replacement of defective materials and workmanship do not involve an “occurrence” under the insurance policy terms.

■ Kiernan Trebach successfully defended an insurer from a demand for advertising-injury coverage, obtaining a summary judgment that coverage for claims of breach of franchise contracts and previous settlement agreements and for defamation were barred by policy exclusions for breach of contract and knowledge of falsity.

■ The firm successfully defended a medical-malpractice insurer against a policyholder’s breach-of-contract and bad-faith claims, winning a decision upon rehearing on appeal that a Florida policyholder could not base a bad-faith claim on an insurer’s discretionary decision to settle claims within policy limits without the policyholder’s consent.

■ Kiernan Trebach successfully won judgment for a general liability insurer, establishing on appeal that a firearms manufacturer did not have coverage for private-nuisance claims because of an exclusion for claims arising from products and completed operations.