Handling Appeals

Often, work for our clients does not stop at the trial court level. Our lawyers are skilled at handling appeals, and a few examples of cases where we have successfully represented the interests of our clients follow:

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• Ex parte Gadsden Country Club, 14 So.3d 830 (Ala.2009): Our client had been fired by the country club, which then fought him trying to draw his unemployment compensation. The reason it gave in that fight was unsuccessful, and when we sued the club for having fired our client in retaliation for claiming workers’ compensation, the club tried to assert the same reason in the lawsuit as it had unsuccessfully raised in fighting the unemployment compensation claim. The trial court struck its defense, and the Supreme Court of Alabama, in an important ruling, agreed that the club could not have a second bite at the apple.

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• Ward v. Checks Into Cash of Alabama, 981 So.2d 434 (Ala.Civ.App.2007): Here, our client had been injured on the job, and her employer tried to keep her from making her job injury claim in court, citing the fact that she had signed an arbitration agreement requiring her claims be submitted to an arbitrator without the right of appeal. In a landmark ruling, a unanimous Court of Civil Appeals agreed with our position that her workers’ compensation claim had to be heard in a court of law, rather than through an arbitration process.

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• Locke v. Ozark City Bd. of Educ., 910 So.2d 1247 (Ala.2005): Our client was the umpire at a high school baseball game, viciously attacked by a fan from the stands. His claim against the school board for not providing the security required by the Alabama High School Athletic Association was dismissed by the trial court, but the Supreme Court of Alabama reversed that decision, granting our client his day in court – despite the school board having constitutional immunity from negligence claims – to seek adequate compensation for his injuries.

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• Mays v. Julian Lecraw & Co., 807 So.2d 551 (Ala.Civ.App.2001): A company who fired an injured worker refused to honor a settlement agreement, and the trial judge refused to enforce the settlement. We successfully prosecuted the appeal, and the settlement was enforced.

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• Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Goodman, 789 So.2d 166 (Ala.2000): A jury’s determination in our favor that Wal-Mart maliciously prosecuted a shoplifting suspect who had a receipt was upheld on appeal, as was the highest punitive damages net award ever rendered in Alabama against the world’s largest retailer. The jury’s total verdict was $3,200,000.00.

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• Ex parte Potmesil, 785 So.2d 340 (Ala.2000): We successfully argued that a trial judge gave legally incorrect instructions to a jury considering the liability of Dillard’s department store to a customer in her 80’s who tripped over a store display and broke her hip. After we prevailed on appeal, the case was settled without the need for a new trial.

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• Bleier v. Wellington Sears Company, 757 So.2d 1163 (Ala.2000) and McCrary v. REF Alabama, Inc., 757 So.2d 421 (Ala.2000): We persuaded the Supreme Court of Alabama to overrule several prior decisions that had held that workers fired after being injured on the job so badly that they were unable to return to work could still sue if they proved that they were fired merely because they sought workers’ compensation benefits. Badly injured workers now can sue if fired for that unlawful reason.

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• Hiatt v. Standard Furniture Mfg. Co., 741 So.2d 407 (Ala.Civ.App.1998): We successfully argued on appeal that an injured worker essentially tricked out of his job and fired by his employer could sue for intentional fraud and seek compensatory and punitive damages.

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• Barber v. Business Products Center, Inc., 677 So.2d 223 (Ala.1996): We successfully represented small businessmen whose efforts to repair equipment owned by the federal government were totally frustrated when electronics giants Canon and Panasonic refused to abide by their agreements with the government to supply parts to the businessmen.

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• Ex parte Martin, 703 So.2d 883 (Ala.1996): We successfully challenged an arbitration clause in a sales contract for a manufactured home on behalf of homeowners suing the manufacturer for fraud and breach of warranty. As a consequence, the Supreme Court of Alabama ruled that we could proceed to a trial by jury rather than have the claim resolved by the inadequate remedies provided by arbitration.

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• Jim Walter Resources, Inc. v. Ware, 644 So.2d 12 (Ala.Civ.App. 1994): After we successfully represented an injured worker through trial and successfully proved that his injuries left him permanently and totally disabled, his employer appealed the ruling. Our efforts on appeal resulted in the appellate court upholding the judgment in its entirety.

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