Archives: Verdict

Zohar prevails with jury in $105 Million real estate dispute

In a hard-fought battle against one of Los Angeles’ largest law firms, a three week jury trial over $105 Million in real estate ended with a verdict in favor of Zohar Law Firm clients, Tal Hassid, Avraham Hassid, Alona Hassid, and ETO Doors Corporation.

The gist of the case centered on claims by the Plaintiff that he was a 25% business partner with the Hassids and was entitled to 25% of their vast business and real estate holdings. The jury disagreed and awarded him nothing. Zohar counter-sued the Plaintiff and obtained a jury verdict finding that Plaintiff had committed fraud and must therefore pay compensatory and punitive damages, as well as attorneys’ fees.

ZLF gets claims against Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs thrown out

A former member of this union sued ALADS, claiming that the union violated its bylaws and failed to provide an assortment of services to him, including adequate legal representation in responding to claims of domestic abuse by his former girlfriend.  The Zohar Law Firm was able to get the entire case thrown out in the early stages of litigation.

Zohar secures large fee award for former ad executive

A former owner of an advertising production company in New York was sued by the large entertainment payroll firm that had purchased her company.  They claimed that her company had violated numerous SAG payroll rules, resulting in liability against the new owner.  After a full court trial in Los Angeles, the ad executive was completely exonerated.  Zohar then obtained for his client an award of nearly $250,000 in attorney’s fees and costs.

ZLF successfully defends Molded Devices, Inc. against investment bankers

Molded Devices, Inc. (MDI) is a nation-wide manufacturer.  Over the last twenty years, MDI has undergone tremendous growth due to a number of strategic acquisitions.  In 2015, MDI was working with an investment banker, but terminated the arrangement for lack of results.  Within a year, another investment banker secured significant financing for MDI and negotiated two acquisitions.  The new investment banker was paid a success fee for their work.  However, the previously terminated investment banker, who admitted to performing no work on any of these three transactions, sought over $800,000 in fees from MDI.  MDI offered to settle the matter for $50,000 in order to avoid the expense of trial.  The plaintiff refused, and after a jury trial in Orange County, CA, the jury rendered a verdict of only $18,000 – less than the amount of MDI’s settlement offer.

Zohar wins $250 million award against State Farm

Todd Foreman and Daniel Zohar once again led the efforts to prevent illegal statewide rate hikes.  This time, the culprit was State Farm – the largest insurance company in California and the United States.  After litigating what is believed to be the longest rate hearing in the history of the California Department of Insurance, the Zohar Law firm secured yet another victory, saving consumers over $250 Million in annual homeowner’s insurance premiums, which included an order for over $100 Million in refunds to be given to over 1.7 million policy holders.

Click here for the LA Times article

Premium reductions for Mercury policyholders statewide

(THE FOLLOWING IS A PRESS RELEASE ISSUED BY THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF INSURANCE.  THE ORDER ISSUED BY THE COMMISSIONER ADOPTED A DECISION BY AN ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGE AFTER WEEKS OF EVIDENTIARY HEARINGS.   DANIEL Y. ZOHAR PRESENTED THE CASE ON BEHALF OF THE SEVERAL HUNDRED THOUSAND POLICYHOLDERS WITH MERCURY, AND THE DECISION AND ORDER LARGELY ADOPTED THE FACTUAL AND LEGAL CONTENTIONS ARGUED BY ZOHAR, SAVING CONSUMERS MILLIONS OF DOLLARS PER YEAR IN REDUCED PREMIUMS.)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, May 8, 2013 (#037)

SACRAMENTO – The Sacramento Superior Court has denied Mercury Casualty Company’s petition for a stay to delay implementation of Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones’ order directing Mercury Casualty to reduce its excessive homeowner insurance rates.

“This is a significant legal victory in our fight to ensure insurance rates are not excessive,” said Commissioner Jones. “The 8.18 percent rate reduction in my original order provides much-needed financial relief for homeowners and helps consumers keep more of their hard-earned dollars in today’s tight economy.”

This most recent court order is the latest event in an ongoing legal effort by Mercury Casualty to challenge the insurance commissioner’s authority to regulate rates. Mercury Casualty originally requested a rate increase of 3.91 percent in its rate application, but amended that to a 7.35 percent increase during the administrative law judge’s hearing on Mercury’s homeowner rate application.

Commissioner Jones ordered Mercury to reduce its maximum homeowners’ rates, approving a decision recommended to him by an administrative law judge following an extensive public hearing on Mercury’s original request for a rate increase. The reduced rates will benefit approximately 270,000 homeowners in California and save Mercury’s California customers more than $16.5 million.

“We vigorously opposed Mercury’s effort to deny consumers the benefit of a rate reduction while Mercury continues its meritless effort to challenge the insurance commissioner’s established authority to reject excessive rate hikes,” said Commissioner Jones. “The Court made the right decision in rejecting Mercury’s petition to stay the rate reduction. We will continue to fight against Mercury and the insurance industry associations’ efforts to challenge the long settled consumer protections in Proposition 103.”

Arbitration ruling for oppressed minority shareholder of software company

Zohar Law Firm was hired by one of the founders of a successful computer software company. He owned a third of the company, but the two other founders joined together to improperly squeeze him out.

The case required legal battles on three fronts, in both Northern and Southern California, as well as New Jersey. The main aspect of the case went to arbitration, where a panel rendered a valuation of $7.5 million, more than 10 times the amount submitted by the defense. The rest of the issues at stake were resolved after that by mutual settlement.

Present value of over $10 million in lifetime payments to family of Belize bus driver in wrongful death action

Stephen Ysaguirre was a young, hard working entrepreneur in his early twenties living in Belize, Central America. During a business trip to California in 1999, his life was tragically ended while driving on the I-5 interstate in rural Williams, California, north of Sacramento, when a careless truck driver crashed into his vehicle. Stephen left behind an infant daughter whose mother was unemployed.

The defense admitted liability, but claimed that Stephen’s wages over his lifetime would have been minimal since his past earnings were low, and that his daughter’s future needs should be discounted due to the low cost of living in Belize. Extensive discovery was performed, including depositions in Central California, Los Angeles, and Belize.

A comprehensive mock trial was performed near Williams, revealing a very conservative jury pool. However, despite these obstacles, and shortly before trial, the case was settled in 2001 for payments worth over $10 Million during the lifetime of Stephen’s daughter.

Jury verdict on behalf of fired CEO who had been verbally promised stock options

1.92 Million jury verdict on behalf of fired CEO who had been verbally promised stock options

In this case, Daniel Y. Zohar represented the nephew of Rupert Murdoch, David Calvert-Jones. Calvert-Jones had been hired as the CEO of a transportation and media business in Los Angeles, and at the time he was hired, was verbally promised stock options in the company, which was struggling financially.

After turning the company around, Calvert-Jones was abruptly terminated. When he asked to cash out his stock options, the company denied having ever made such a promise. There were no written agreements ever drawn up or signed regarding the stock options.

The defense contended that there was never a binding agreement, and even if there were, the options were worth no more than $88,000.

The Zohar Law Firm was hired to present the case at trial to a jury in downtown Los Angeles during the height of the recession. After a two week trial, a unanimous jury rendered a verdict in favor of Calvert-Jones for $1.92 Million.

Arbitration award on behalf of advertising executive

Zohar obtains $1.52 Million arbitration award for advertising executive

Lisa Arie is a successful entrepreneur who left a big advertising agency to start her own advertising production company in New York. She grew the company over the years, expanded into offices nationwide, and made it into a very successful business. After experiencing severe health problems, she decided it was time to sell the business. A suitor emerged in TEAM Acquisition Corp., a large entertainment payroll concern based in Burbank, CA.

An agreement was reached to purchase the company, keep Ms. Arie on for two years as President, and to pay her a $1 million bonus if the newly-acquired company hit certain profit goals.

After two years, the company’s revenue had increased dramatically. Ms. Arie requested her bonus, but TEAM refused to pay, claiming that according to their own accounting records, the company had actually lost money during the two year span. TEAM also contended that Ms. Arie had shirked her responsibilities as President and accused her of poor performance.

Daniel Y. Zohar was hired to recover the money owed to Ms. Arie and filed claims in private arbitration, as required by the contract. After many months of resisting, TEAM eventually disclosed financial records for the company that enabled Zohar to evaluate TEAM’s claims. After reviewing the records provided, Zohar determined that TEAM had essentially “cooked the books” by adding hundreds of thousands of dollars of false expenses to the records, covering up what had been significant profits more than sufficient to trigger the profit bonus.

After a full arbitration on the merits before the Hon. Lourdes Baird (ret.), Mr. Zohar obtained for Ms. Arie an award of $1.52 million.