Although we concentrate on Personal Injury matters, we are not limited to working exclusively in this area of law. Sometimes civil cases simply do not fit into a convenient category. Over the years we have brought civil litigation cases, sometimes unique ones, that have expanded the rights of an injured party to sue and collect damages. Some of our cases have even involved celebrity clients in high-profile cases (see this Daily News Article),

If you are faced with a civil litigation matter, our White Plains civil litigation and appellate attorneys are aggressive advocates who will fight for your rights and interests. Contact a Westchester County trial and appeals attorney today.

Gelman & Bass v. Westview Construction Co., et al., Index No.: 16177/88 (West. Co.), for example, was an unusual property damage case which KK&S accepted. We recovered $300,000 for the plaintiffs whose 30 trees were wrongfully taken down by neighbors to clear his view of Lake Mahopac. The cost to replace the trees and remove the stumps was about $100,000. Under the New York Statute, Real Property Actions & Proceedings Law § 861, a person who removes trees in that fashion is responsible for treble (3X) the damages proven if the cutting was "willful". The verdict was in excess of $300,000, but the plaintiffs settled for the full amount of defendant's insurance policy.

Another rather unique case, Vicky Sama & Nikolai Daniltchenko v. Institute of Allied Professions, Carolyn Jacobs and Mikhail Chikvashvili, Index No. (West. Co.). We argued, among other things, that the defendant Institute's lack of certification and accreditation by New York State for the course study they offered provided educational "credits" that were not and are not transferable to any New York State accredited institution, rendering attendance and completion of their one-year course in Magnetic Resonance Imaging by the plaintiffs we represented to be without value.

Accordingly, we argued that the value of defendants' educational services and training was grossly disproportionate to the substantial financial cost to the plaintiffs; and the defendants knew, and/or should have known, that the intrinsic and/or market value of the educational services and training as offered, was grossly disproportionate to the market value and financial cost of similar services offered by other accredited educational institutions. We sought the return of everything that plaintiffs had spent in attending the school, including the cost of borrowing money to attend. Our theory of recovery was that the conduct, acts, and/or omissions of the defendants constituted deceptive acts or practices within the meaning of and in violation of General Business Law §349. We sought and received the return of the monies that our clients had spent in attending the Institute.

Recently, we were hired as trial counsel in an excessive force case against an Officer of the Village of Sleepy Hollow that resulted in a combined jury verdict of a million dollars for the injuries suffered by Maria Gomez and his wife. For more information on this matter, please click here and here

And in Weather v. City of Mount Vernon, No. 08 CIV. 192 RPP, 2011 WL 1046165 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 22, 2011) aff'd, 474 F. App'x 821 (2d Cir. 2012), KK&S was retained as appellate counsel to sustain an excessive force verdict award against the offending officer and the City of Mount Vernon. We successfully preserved the verdict in all respects.