MIAMI– Nov. 20, 2015 – A team of Greenberg Traurig Litigation attorneys successfully obtained a defense verdict for their client, after an almost four-week trial in Monroe County Circuit Court. The team included Shareholder Michael G. Murphy and Associate Timothy A. Kolaya.
In the case, Rodriguez v. Florida Department of Transportation et al., Greenberg Traurig’s client was one of five defendants sued in connection with a 2010 accident that resulted in injuries to a motorcyclist who hit a concrete valve cover associated with a water transmission main in the median of the Overseas Highway in Key Largo, Florida. The client, a leading national engineering, architecture and construction company. had performed the construction engineering and inspection for the project.
The other defendants in the suit included the owner of the utility, the owner of the roadway, the contractor who built the transmission main and cover, and the asset management company who maintained the median.
Approximately 30 witnesses were called during the trial including both fact and experts related to the medical, engineering and construction issues in the case. After deliberating for approximately a half-hour, the jury returned a complete defense verdict for all defendants. The plaintiff’s demand at trial was approximately $14.5 million. Judge Luis Garcia, 16th Judicial Circuit, presided over the case.
Murphy and Kolaya are both engineers by education and worked in the construction industry for a number of years before practicing law. Based in the firm’s Orlando office, Murphy is a board certified construction lawyer who focuses his practice on construction litigation involving defects, design claims, delay, disruption and acceleration claims, and arbitration on behalf of owners, engineers and contractors. He advises clients in the construction industry on Occupational Safety and Health Administration compliance issues, workplace accident and fatality investigations, and contest of citations through trial.
Kolaya, an associate in the firm’s Miami office, concentrates his practice on commercial litigation in federal and state courts, as well as arbitration panels, with a primary focus on construction and real estate matters. He has experience representing clients in a wide array of disputes involving commercial transactions, contract disputes, construction defects, real estate transactions, business torts, fraud, deceptive and unfair trade practices, fiduciary relationships, insurance, products liability, and claims of personal injury and wrongful death.