Craig L. Winterman and Gary S. Yates, along with Les Williams of Herzfeld & Rubin PC, successfully defended a products liability suit brought against Bentley Motors, Inc. and Bentley Motors, Ltd.  Plaintiff, Fredric Ascari, a 40-year old attorney who was rendered a quadriplegic, contended that the seat in the 1990 Bentley Turbo R that he was driving was defectively and negligently designed.  Mr. Ascari lost control of the Bentley as he was driving on the McArthur Blvd. on-ramp for the northbound SR 73 freeway.  The Bentley collided with the metal guardrail that was adjacent to the on-ramp.  Mr. Ascari argued that his seat collapsed when the rear of the Bentley struck the guardrail.  As a result, Mr. Ascari ramped up the seat back striking his head into the rear window.   Mr. Ascari sustained fractures to his C -5 and C-6 vertebral bodies and a 50 cm scalp avulsion.  Plaintiff was represented by Gerry Spence’s former partners, Ed Moriarty, Brad Booke and Shandor Badaruddian, and San Diego attorney, Mary Downey.   They asked the jury to return a $70,000,000 verdict.  After a five-week trial, an Orange County Superior Court jury rendered a unanimous defense verdict after only 2 hours of deliberations.  This was the first products liability trial in the United States involving a Bentley automobile.

This case involved the claimed lengthy delay in the diagnosis of ovarian cancer resulting in the death of a 32-year-old wife and mother of a one-year-old child.  Dr. Bier was a radiologist who read and interpreted a pelvic ultrasound in order to determine the status of an ovarian mass, which had been previously diagnosed and was being monitored by plaintiff’s OB/GYN (also a defendant), her perinatologist, (also a defendant) and her primary care physician (also a defendant).  The allegations against Dr. Bier were that he failed to appreciate the nature of the abnormally enlarged ovaries and failed to adequately report the abnormality because he failed to obtain the appropriate diagnostic studies to define the ovarian masses.  Plaintiffs contended while the mass had been appreciated earlier by other physicians and had been monitored, Dr. Bier had the “last clear chance” to provide information sufficient to allow the other physicians to obtain a definitive diagnosis and perform curative surgery, which had at least a 70% to 80% success rate as of the time Dr. Bier performed his study.

Defense of Dr. Bier was able to establish that the ultrasound reading was appropriate, within the standard of care, and contained all information requested by the clinicians and all information needed to allow them to make a diagnosis and recommend a treatment regimen immediately.  Furthermore, Dr. Bier was able to establish that his study was both adequate and sufficient to define the nature and extent of the ovarian masses.

The jury returned a defense verdict on behalf of Dr. Bier and found the perinatologist negligent but not responsible for the death of plaintiffs’ decedent.  The OB/GYN and PCP were found negligent, and their negligence was responsible for the death of plaintiffs’ decedent.  The jury awarded $4,000,000 in damages.