Matt prosecutes individual and class action claims on behalf of consumers, policyholders, elders, and others harmed by corporate overreaching.

For example,

GM ADMITS IT WRONGFULLY DENIED COUPLE’S WARRANTY CLAIM

Feb. 2023. Roy and Sherri Gosney bought a new Callaway Corvette from Ron Tonkin in 2013.  The salespeople assured them that the Callaway supercharger wouldn’t void or negatively affect the GM warranty.  When the engine broke down in 2016 due to GM’s catalytic converters, however, GM blamed the supercharger and denied warranty coverage.  After fighting their customer for five years, GM finally accepted the truth and confessed judgment for $20,000.  In February 2023, a Judge ordered GM to pay the Gosneys’ $113,150.51 in fees and $1,285.67 in costs.  She applied a 1.25 fee multiplier because “the essence of the claims in this case involved consumer protection, an area where there is a high need for skilled attorneys for consumers who cannot afford to pay an attorney’s hourly rate” and “to deter Defendant and others similarly situated from objectively unreasonable denials of valid warranty claims in the first instance.”

November 2022. Expert witness in fee hearing where court awarded fees to tenant at attorneys’ full hourly rates and applied 2.0 multiplier to promote access to justice. Multnomah County Circuit Court (MCCC) Case No. 22CV25379.

November 2022. Confidential settlement of medical malpractice claims against Robison Health & Rehabilitation Center. MCCC Case No. 20CV13377.

October 2022. Expert witness in fee hearing where court awarded tenant attorney fees and applied 1.5 multiplier to promote representation of tenants with small-dollar claims. MCCC Case No. 21CV09001.

August 2022. Confidential settlement of wrongful death/medical malpractice claims against Providence and OHSU. MCCC Case No. 19CV52647.

COUPLE FIGHTS THEIR INSURANCE COMPANY FOR COVERAGE

July 2022. Together with Robert Le, I finished a week-long jury trial July 11-15, 2022, against USAA for delay and denial of insurance benefits. John was driving his wife, Jaime, on Highway 82 in northeast Oregon, high above the Minam River. An oncoming car crossed the centerline and smashed into them at high speed. Their car hit the guardrail, rolled several times, and skidded to a stop upside down in the middle of the road. Both were injured but the Jaime suffered significant, long-term back, neck, head, shoulder, arm, leg, waist, and hip injuries and needed surgeries. Years later she still could not do the intense outdoor sports that were central to her health and enjoyment of life. Yet five years later, USAA had made no payment for their underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage. The jury returned a $600,000 verdict against USAA, plus attorney fees. MCCC Case No. 19CV16005.

July 2022. Plaintiff’s verdict in two-day jury trial of personal injury claims, defended by Farmers Insurance. Linn County Case No. 21CV12727.

MAN DIES AT OREGON ZOO
WHILE ATTENDING GEORGE CLINTON CONCERT

June 2022. Carl and his friend went to the George Clinton Parliament Funkadelic concert at the Oregon Zoo on a Saturday night in August 2019. There was an intense rainstorm. Carl’s friend went to dance in front of the stage. When Carl did not return to their seats after the concert, his friend got worried. He reported Carl missing to several Zoo security, staff, and volunteers. They did not search for him. On the other side of AfriCafe from the Concert Lawn was a Lease Crutcher Lewis construction site. It was rebuilding the rhinoceros exhibit. Along the north edge of the rhino exhibit was a sheer 9-foot drop-off from the Middle Service Road into the rhino pit. There was no adequate barrier between the Concert Lawn and the rhino pit. They found Mr. Ross’s body two days later in the rhino building. He had six broken ribs, a deep shin laceration, fractured ankle, many cuts and bruises, and one eye swollen shut. The coroner claimed his death was natural and the result of chronic alcohol abuse even though he couldn’t say that Carl would have died that weekend if he hadn’t fallen into the rhino pit. I tried this case with Robert Le, Michael Fuller, and Kelly Jones. After a two-week trial, the jury found Mr. Ross 62.5% at fault and the Oregon Zoo 37.5% at fault for his death. The verdict is currently on appeal. MCCC Case No. 19CV45945. Read more about the case from Koin 6.

May 2022. Oral argument before Oregon Court of Appeals on financial elder abuse claims against Ron Tonkin Chevrolet. Case No. A175691.

MOVING COMPANY HOLDS ELDERLY WOMAN’S BELONGINGS HOSTAGE

March 2022. In March 2019, Dianna needed to move from her studio apartment in Portland to a new place in Salem. She got three bids and went with a $410 bid from All My Sons Moving & Storage. She was on a fixed social security income and told them that was all the money she could pay for the move. She liked the friendly staff and that it said it was a local family-owned business. In fact, All My Sons is a Texas holding-company-owned business, one of dozens of “local” All My Sons across the country. And, All My Sons did not give her ODOT’s Information Bulletin for Moving as Oregon law required, which would have informed Dianna that bids had to be in writing and were not binding. It also would have told her that—if a mover’s bid is off by more than10%—the customer only has to pay an extra 10% on the day of the move in order to get all of their belongings back.

Instead, All My Sons unloaded half of Dianna’s belongings then almost tripled the price (to $1,059) and said it would lock the truck and take the rest of her belongings to storage (including her daily prescription medications) unless she paid the entire amount then and there. It did not tell her that the law said she only had to pay an extra $41 that day to get all her belongings back.

Attorney Chris Mertens and I filed Dianna’s UTPA, conversion, financial elder abuse, and intentional infliction of emotional distress claims against All My Sons, but they still kept her remaining belongings for almost a year and a half. Later, when we went to inspect the storage facility where they had taken her things, we expected to see a few other people’s things being stored off to one side of All My Sons’ garage. Instead, we saw this: