Around The Firm
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William L. Cameron won summary judgment of dismissal of Richard v. Trendwest, a federal racial-discrimination action. Plaintiffs alleged that management at Trendwest’s furniture plant in Tacoma was slow to act on misconduct of some employees, including a failure to remove racist graffiti from the men’s room. Bill argued that plaintiffs’ declaration testimony to that effect was not enough to show a genuine issue for trial. The federal court agreed and dismissed the action. … Stacy D. Heard won summary judgment in Kirtley v. Stowell, a legal-malpractice action. In the underlying child-custody case, the child’s grandmother had had custody of the child for several years but lost it to the mother. The grandmother then sued her own lawyer, as well as the opposing lawyer, whom Stacy defended, and other professionals, alleging that they conspired to deprive her of her due-process rights. The court dismissed the claim against Stacy’s client and awarded attorney fees.

Jennifer M. Ilenstine won the trial of English v. Hendren. Jennifer’s clients, the Hendrens, had rented a Budget truck to move from Camano to Bainbridge Island. Mr. Hendren’s friend was driving the truck and parked it at the top of a hill. Later, without warning, it rolled downhill while friends were loading it, crashing into plaintiff’s garage and hitting a car. The Hendrens later learned that Budget routinely loosened emergency brakes to make them easy to set, and usually provided chocks but failed to do so for this truck. The judge agreed with Jennifer that even though the truck would not have rolled absent negligence, Mr. Hendren was not the negligent party since he had never driven the truck, was not responsible for securing it, and had no reason to suspect that the truck would roll. … Michelle A. Corsi won the trial of Nielsen v. Solid Trading v. Sun Mark Realty. Sun Mark acted as dual real estate agent in Solid’s sale of 40 acres to Nielsen, a logging company. Nielsen sued Solid for failing to return closing papers in time for closing, as the purchase and sale agreement required. Solid then sued Sun Mark, claiming that it had breached fiduciary duties by failing to inform Solid of pending logging regulations that would affect the amount of timber that Nielsen could harvest. The court dismissed the claims against Sun Mark, finding that it had nothing to do with Solid’s failure to return the closing papers, and awarded Michelle’s clients $50,000 in attorney fees pursuant to the purchase and sale agreement.

The Lee Smart Quarterly is a publication of the law offices of Lee, Smart, Cook, Martin & Patterson, P.S., Inc. for clients and others. It is intended as general information only and is not to be construed as legal advice. You should consult an attorney if you have any specific legal questions.

Editor: Jeffrey P. Downer	Eml: jpd@leesmart.com
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