Partner Vik Nagpal and Senior Attorney Kristina Pfeifer of our Encinitas office, recently prevailed on a Motion for Summary Judgment! This matter involved a serious motor vehicle accident involving two Plaintiffs that alleged well-over $1 million in damages. Plaintiffs sued Bremer Whyte Brown & O’Meara’s client as the employer of the defendant driver. After much aggressive discovery and investigation, BWBO was able to obtain sufficient evidence to support that its client could not be held liable under the theory of respondeat superior because there was no evidence to support that BWBO’s client, whose principals own multiple businesses, employed the defendant driver.
BWBO anticipated Plaintiffs would request more time for discovery in their Opposition so that they could later present evidence that BWBO’s client could be held liable under alter ego and agency theories through its ownership of other business that may have employed the defendant driver. Recognizing this potential, BWBO presented evidence and legal authority in its moving papers that Plaintiffs could not prevail on those theories under the facts or law. The Court agreed that BWBO had established that there was no triable issue of material fact as to BWBO’s client’s lack of liability, and that Plaintiffs should not be given more time to pursue alternate theories of liability thereby granting BWBO’s Motion for Summary Judgment, dismissing its client from the case.