Susan M. Bourque named "Massachusetts Rising Star" by Publishers of Boston Magazine and Law & Politics Magazine
Parker Scheer associate, Susan M. Bourque, has been named a "Massachusetts Rising Star" by the publishers of Boston Magazine and Law and Politics Magaine. The distinction, awarded to less than three (3%) percent of all Massachusetts lawyers, was based on ballots cast by Massachusetts attorneys, asking them to identify the best lawyers, under the age of 40, whom they had personally observed in action. In November, 2004, Parker Scheer LLP co-founders, Eric J. Parker and Barry S. Scheer were named Massachusetts Super Lawyers, and appeared in the November 2004 edition of Boston Magazine.

Motor Vehicle Negligence.
Fractured Fibula and Tibia
$250,000
On Oct. 9, 2003, the plaintiff was lawfully crossing Route 1A North at Paradise Road in Swampscott, Massachusetts, within a marked crosswalk. At the same time, the defendant was traveling north on Route 1A and struck the plaintiff as he lawfully crossed the roadway. The force of the impact caused the plaintiff to be thrown over the hood of the defendant’s car, before coming to rest on the roadway several yards from the point of impact.

As a result of the impact, the plaintiff suffered a comminuted fracture of his mid-fibular shaft, with medial displacement, and a comminuted fracture of his mid-tibial shaft.

Although the defendant initially blamed the accident on his inability to see the plaintiff in the crosswalk due to the glare of the setting sun, the plaintiff was ultimately able to demonstrate that at the time of the incident, the sun was actually setting behind the defendant, and was not a factor contributing to the cause of the accident.

At the time of the incident, the plaintiff was an unemployed computer database engineer, who was unable to accept employment opportunities during his recovery.

Premises Liability
Automated Car Wash; Failure to Monitor Exiting Cars.
$100,000
On April 27, 2003, the plaintiff was a lawful visitor to the defendant’s automated car wash. After turning his vehicle over to the attendants, he began his walk toward the end of the car wash to await the reappearance of his car from within the car wash “tunnel.” As the plaintiff stood at the exit of the car wash tunnel, he noticed his vehicle emerge, unattended by even a single employee of the car wash. The plaintiff then observed his vehicle slowly roll forward, in the direction of an incline, leading directly toward a major roadway. The plaintiff called out for help, but nobody from the carwash responded. Believing that his car would continue to roll down the hill and into the busy roadway below, the plaintiff ran toward his vehicle and attempted to open the driver’s door, in order to seat himself, and bring his vehicle to a safe stop. In the process of opening the driver’s door and gaining control of his vehicle, the plaintiff sustained a sudden rupture of his quadriceps tendon, leaving him in enormous pain and without the ability to use his leg. The injury required open surgical repair, followed by a long and painful rehabilitation period of approximately one year.

Plaintiff’s liability case was based on the defendant’s failure to have one or more attendants positioned at the exit from the car wash tunnel, as was their customary practice, so as to safely retrieve and control exiting vehicles. The plaintiff had also considered a potential product liability claim against the designers and/or installers of the car wash system, based on the apparent capacity of the system to disengage an exiting vehicle from the system’s chain drive, despite the absence of a car wash attendant. Plaintiff’s counsel elected to forgo the product liability case and proceed on a theory of straight negligence due to the apparent age of the mechanism and concerns that technical standards at the time the system was originally designed and built were significantly more primitive than current designs.

At the time of the incident, the plaintiff was a 68-year-old tenured professor of electrical engineering at a leading university. Total medical bills incurred by the plaintiff in connection with the event were approximately $19,000.

Wrongful Death
Motor Vehicle Neglegence.
$850,000
On June 16, 2003, the plaintiff, a 57-year-old retired firefighter, who had recently taken a job as a part-time auto parts delivery man to supplement his retirement income, was struck from behind while stopped in traffic waiting to make a left turn. The defendant, a commercial trucker operating a large gravel truck, apparently never saw the plaintiff and slammed into the rear of the plaintiff’s pick-up truck, at full speed, forcing the plaintiff’s vehicle forward and into a nearby tree. The force of the impact resulted in mechanical asphyxia due to compression of the chest caused by the impact. The deceased was entrapped in the wreckage in a position that severely compromised chest wall movement, leading to cardiac arrest.

State and local police investigations into the incident revealed that the defendant simply never saw the plaintiff’s vehicle prior to impact. And accident reconstruction experts reported no evidence of braking prior to impact.

The plaintiff left behind a wife, four adult children, and five grandchildren.

Dog Bite to Face.
$220,000
On Nov. 15, 2002, the plaintiff, a Massachusetts licensed physician, and her husband, arrived at the home of the plaintiff’s sister to meet the defendant’s newly adopted dog, a Dalmatian. The plaintiff entered her sister’s home and greeted the dog. When the plaintiff bent down to hand the dog a play toy, the dog suddenly, and without warning, lunged toward the plaintiff’s face, biting-off a portion of the plaintiff’s nose. The plaintiff originally believed that the dog’s head had simply struck her nose, but when she and her husband went into the bathroom to examine her face, the plaintiff was horrified to learn that the dog had amputated a portion of her left nostril.

The plaintiff began to feel extremely light-headed and fainted in the bathroom. While waiting for the ambulance to arrive, the plaintiff’s sister placed the amputated tissue into a jar of tap water, believing that this would best preserve the rescued tissue. Unfortunately, tap water (unlike saline, or simple ice-packing) caused the tissue to swell, further complicating the grafting process.

Following the initial surgery, which resulted in the re-attachment of the severed tissue to the plaintiff’s nose, the plaintiff underwent a number of supplemental surgical procedures, including painful scar-revision surgeries designed to improve the visual appearance of her nose and improve nasal breathing.

Plaintiff’s claims included physical pain and suffering, along with significant emotional trauma, lost wages, and some permanent disfigurement.

Motor Vehicle Neglegence
Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD) of lower extremities.
$100,000
On Aug. 19, 2003, while assisting a stranded motorist, the plaintiff, a 39-year-old husband and father of two teenage daughters, suffered serious injuries after being struck by a heavily intoxicated Massachusetts state employee, who was operating a personal vehicle on a day off. The injuries left the plaintiff confined to a wheelchair, with a diagnosis of Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (R.S.D.). Despite implantation of a spinal cord simulator, the plaintiff continues to experience debilitating pain and is not expected to walk again.

The case was settled prior to litigation for the limits of the defendant’s bodily-injury coverage. The plaintiff had no additional underinsurance coverage.