Edward J. Murphy is a partner with over 35 jury verdicts in civil cases. His practice is concentrated in the areas of products liability, large fire losses, insurance coverage, commercial disputes and class actions. He has defended manufacturers and distributors of farm implements, earth moving equipment, forklift trucks, power presses, tractors, gross mowing equipment, children's products, toys, aircraft engines and industrial and consumer power saws. In fire and explosion cases, he has represented building owners, product manufacturers, installers of automatic fire protection systems, and security companies (building evacuation).
Additional Bar Admissions:
U.S. District Court Northern District of Illinois
U.S. District Court Southern District of Illinois
U.S. District Court Central District of Illinois
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit
Publications:
"The Economic Loss Doctrine - An Impediment to Recovery in Y2K Lawsuits, Claims Magazine, November, 1999.
"Illinois Robbery Statute Construed - The Introduction of a Specific Intent Element (People v. White), 27 DePaul Law Review, 837, 1978.
Representative Cases:
Estate of Smith v. Midco, Shelby County, Illinois. Products liability/earth scraper. Client: Midco Sales & Service Co. Wrongful death of a 38 year old woman operating an earth scraper. Verdict for defendant.
Stone v. Clarklift of Chicago North, Inc., Cook County, Illinois. Products liability/forklift. Client: Clarklift of Chicago North, Inc. Verdict for defendant (reversed on appeal, remanded for new trial with another verdict for defendant after second trial).
Rogers v. Material Handling Services, et al., Circuit Court of Lee County, Illinois. Products liability/forklift. Clients: Material Handling Services, distributor of a forklift truck. The estate of the deceased forklift driver brought suit against Material Handling alleging negligence for failure to notify Rogers' employer, the owner of the forklift, of the availability of a universal safety seat developed 20 years after original sale. The plaintiff claimed that the defendant had assumed a post-sale duty to warn/retrofit. The defendant's motion for summary judgment was granted and affirmed on appeal. Rogers v. Clark Equipment Company, 318 Ill.App.3d 1128, 744 N.E.2d 364 (2nd Dist. 2001).
Sedler v. Hobart Corporation, U.S.D.C., District of Maryland. Products liability/commercial meat saw. The plaintiff, a meat cutter, sustained finger amputations while operating a Hobart Model 5701 Slant Saw. The plaintiff brought an action against the manufacturer seeking compensatory and punitive damages. The defendant moved for summary judgment on the basis that the plaintiff could not prove a causal relationship between his injury and the alleged product design defect, a saw blade inclined at 15 degrees from the vertical. The defendant's motion for summary judgment was granted. No appeal was taken.
Foley v. Louis Vacarella and White Metal Rolling & Stamping Corp., Cook County, Illinois. Client: Louis Vacarella. Products liability/ladder. Verdict for defendant.
Hartford Insurance Company v. LaBodega Ltd., et al, Cook County, Illinois. Declaratory judgment/insurance coverage. Clients: LaBodega Ltd., a wholesale grocery company, and one of its employees, Pedro Macias. The court held that Hartford was obligated to defend and indemnify the defendants, LaBodega and Macias, up to the $2.5 million policy limits of two Hartford policies for a wrongful death claim. Hartford had refused to defend LaBodega and Macias in the wrongful death case and sought a declaration that they owed no coverage on the basis of late notice and their assertion that Macias was not an employee of LaBodega.
Estate of Phillipart v. Archer Daniels Midland, Sangamon County, Illinois. Nuisance/vehicular traffic. Client: defendant Archer Daniels Midland Company. Wrongful death/personal injury of 18 year old French foreign exchange student who survived in a coma for 1-1/2 years after the accident. Verdict for plaintiff for $550,000. Reversed by Illinois Supreme Court with judgment entered for defendant without remand; First Springfield Bank & Trust v. Galmon, 188 Ill.2d 252, 720 N.E.2d 1068 (1999).
Meckley v. TruGreen ChemLawn, Duvall County, Florida. Client: TruGreen ChemLawn. Vehicular traffic, personal injury. Negligence was admitted. Plaintiff claimed past and future economic damages in excess of $500,000, present cash value. Verdict for plaintiff for $5,000. Jury found plaintiff's injuries were not permanent, thereby precluding any award for general damages under Florida law.
Renee Heiderman and Joseph Heiderman v. Mark Peppin, Cook County, Illinois. Vehicular traffic/personal injury. Client: defendant Mark Peppin. Negligence was admitted. Verdict for plaintiffs, $67,912. The defendant's settlement offer of $70,000 was made three years prior to trial.
Estate of Mary Wade, Deceased, and J.W. Wade v. Kevin Coleman, Cook County, Illinois. Vehicular traffic case. Client: defendant Kevin Coleman. Wrongful death of single mother of three children and personal injury to adverse driver J. W. Wade. Result: J.W. Wade - verdict for defendant; Estate of Mary Wade, Deceased - Verdict for plaintiff, $178,493.
Barber v. Kansas Propane of Topeka, Inc., et al, Tribal District Court of the Potawatomi Nation, Mayetta, Kansas. Products liability/propane explosion. Represented Kansas Propane of Topeka, a retailer distributor of LP gas. Plaintiffs were seriously burned in a residential home propane gas explosion on the Potawatomi reservation. The suit sought special, general, and punitive damages based on theories of negligence, strict liability, and breach of implied warranty. Case involved significant choice of law issues. Case was settled at mediation.
Estate of Lichaw, et al v. 69 West Washington Management Company LLC, et al, Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois. Office building fire (22 wrongful death and personal injury cases consolidated for discovery). Represented defendants Aargus Security Systems Inc. and BGK Security Services Inc. This fire occurred on a Friday afternoon in a high rise office building in downtown Chicago . Multiple governmental investigations followed including one by an ad-hoc commission appointed by the Cook County Board which conducted public hearings. Six building occupants were killed. Sixteen others sustained personal injuries. Twenty-two suits were filed against the security companies, the building management company, several contractors, the City of Chicago, and the County of Cook. Over 200 depositions were taken. The cases were settled on the eve of trial.
ChemRep, et al v. Dickinson Associates, et al., Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois. Warehouse fire. (12 consolidated suits for property damage and business interruption and other economic losses) by 36 individual and corporate plaintiffs. Represented Dickinson Associates, the owner of a large warehouse building built in 1914. The fire started on the fourth floor of the warehouse in the engine compartment of a propane fueled forklift truck. The propane cylinder on the forklift exploded spreading fire to nearby cardboard cartons. The warehouse was fitted with a sprinkler system in 1914 as it was initially constructed to store grain. The sprinkler system had fallen into disrepair over the years and was not operating at the time of the fire. The plaintiff's, building tenants who stored personal property in the warehouse, claimed losses exceeding $14 million in suits against the building owner and several other defendants. Settled shortly before trial.
Jewel Foods v. Trailwood Transportation, et al, Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois. Warehouse fire . Represented Trailwood Transportation, the owner and operator of a tractor trailer rig. This fire allegedly started on or near a dock pad/seal on the loading dock of the refrigerated food warehouse. The cause of the fire was alleged to be heat from the plastic lens of a marker light affixed to the rear of the Trailwood trailer. The lights had been left "ON" by the Trailwood driver when the vehicle was backed up against the dock seal. The fire spread rapidly throughout the building due to the high flammability of insulation material (polystyrene foam) used in converting the warehouse for storage of refrigerated foods and a non-functioning sprinkler system (deluge valves failed to open allegedly due to poor maintenance and/or a design defect in the valves). Jewel Foods, a grocery retailer and the lessor of the warehouse, sued Trailwood as well as the manufacturers of the trailer, the marker lights, and the deluge valves seeking $30 million for property damage and lost profits/business interruption. Settled shortly before trial.
Arlington Park-Washington Park Race Track Corporation, et al v. F.E. Moran Inc., Fire Protection, et al, Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois . Racetrack fire. Represented defendant F.E. Moran, Inc., Fire Protection, a sprinkler installation contractor. This fire allegedly started in a fluorescent light fixture located in the ceiling of a portion of the racetrack/grandstand structure (originally erected in 1926) known as the Horseman's Lounge. This portion of the structure was not sprinklered. Moran had installed the (retrofit) sprinkler system in the adjacent wooden grandstand structure. It was alleged that Moran negligently failed to install sprinklers in certain concealed spaces throughout the grandstand. No sprinklers were installed in the Horseman's Lounge because the governing state regulations required sprinklers only in the portions of the racetrack which were open to the general public. The fire spread from the unsprinklered area to the sprinklered grandstand eventually destroying the entire structure. The plaintiffs, the owner of the facility and owners of other physical property kept in the building, claimed damages in excess of $100 million. Settled shortly before trial.
Boulevard Bank, et al v. Acorn Electric, Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois. Industrial building fire. Represented defendant Acorn Electric. Owner and tenant of an industrial building sued an electrical contractor for damages exceeding $1 million alleging negligence in the course of a re-wiring project on the premises two years before the fire. The defendants' motion for summary judgment was granted and affirmed on appeal.
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