SETTLEMENTS:
$2,300,000.00 - Recovery for a minor child and his family in a products and premise liability case against Simmons, a crib manufacturer, and Albert Einstein Medical Center, the health care provider who continued to use an allegedly defective crib.
$2,200,000.00 -Recovery for a KYW news editor in a premise liability claim against AT&T with regard to allegedly negligent revovations occurring in their news room.
$775,000.00 - Recovery for a union steel worker who was injured when he fell due to alleged unsafe construction practices from the platform of a Valero oil refinery production module onto it's concrete foundation.
$450,000.00 - Recovery for a Courier Post newspaper delivery person in a premise liability slip and fall action.
CASE LAW:
Bedell vs. St Joseph's Carpenter Society, 367 N.J. Super. 225 (2004)
Mr. Jakobowski recently broke new legal ground in a case of first impression decided by the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court. In that case, the plaintiff was seriously injured as the result of a trip and fall over a tree stump on the grassy strip between the cement sidewalk and curb in front of a commercial premises. The trial court dismissed the Complaint, which was then appealed to the court's Appellate Division. As a matter of first impression, the Appellate Division reversed the trial court and decided that the abutting commercial property owner was responsible to pedestrians for proper maintenance of the grassy strip between the sidewalk and curb.
Mastrando v. Beckett Country Club & County of Gloucester, 157 N.J. 642 (1999)
In another case of first impression, Mr. Jakobowski represented the driver of an automobile that encountered a flooded roadway adjacent to a golf course. When the plaintiff's car hit the puddle, it hydroplaned across the center line and into a tree, causing serious injuries to the driver and his passenger. The case was dismissed initially at the trial level. The dismissal was upheld at the appellate level, but on appeal to the Supreme Court, Mr. Jakobowski was able to have the decision overturned by arguing that the alterations to the adjoining property, specifically by constructing a raised golf green, resulted in changes to the drainage and ultimate water ponding onto the road surface, thereby creating a hazard for unsuspecting motorists for which the property owner could be responsible.
Barrett v. Fredavid Builders & Safegaurd Roofing Systems, 454 Pa.Super. 162 (1996)
In a case which dealt with the legal concepts of assumption of the risk and comparative negligence, Mr. Jakobowski was able to achieve a significant recovery on behalf of an insulation mechanic who sustained injuries when he slipped on discarded construction debris in an unfinished residential home. The plaintiff was installing insulation while standing on two foot high stilts, and his case was initially dismissed by the trial judge on the theory that the plaintiff had assumed the risk of his own injury by working in a cluttered work area while on stilts. Mr. Jakobowski was able to have the decision overturned on appeal by arguing that each party had a duty of care, including the siding contractor who failed to clear the work area for the next contractor on the worksite.
