On February 26, 2016, Terry Sanderson, an optometrist in his late 60s and an experienced skier, was skiing at Deer Valley Resort in Utah when he claims his life changed forever after Gwyneth Paltrow, an Academy Award-winning actress, crashed into him.  In the personal injury lawsuit he filed against Ms. Paltrow and the Deer Valley Resort Company (and which is on trial at the time of this broadcast), Mr. Sanderson is claiming to have suffered a traumatic brain injury, multiple broken ribs and economic loss as a result of the crash.
In this episode of The Blame Game, we try to answer the question of who, if anyone, is to blame for this skiing collision?  Is Ms. Paltrow legally responsible for the harm that Mr. Sanderson claims to have suffered as a result of her negligence?  And what about Deer Valley’s employees – do they bear any responsibility for what happened to Mr. Sanderson and his resulting injuries? 

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On October 2, 2022, a 13-year-old girl was walking home from school on Staten Island when she was suddenly and viciously attacked by a group of pit bulls which had escaped from an open window in their owners’ home.  The pit bulls also attacked a 2-year-old girl and a 19-year-old woman.  

Sadly, these types of attacks are not isolated incidents, either in New York City or elsewhere.  According to the insurance industry, there were almost 18,000 dog-bite claims filed in the United States in 2021, a small fraction of the 4.5 million dog bites that occur each year.  Between 2005 and 2020, dogs killed over 560 Americans, more than two-thirds of which were caused by pit bulls.  

In this episode of The Blame Game, we try to answer the question of, Who’s to Blame for these tragic events which can leave its victims with physical and emotional scars for life and are oftentimes fatal for the dog itself?  Who bears legal responsibility when a dog bites and injures someone?

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On the afternoon of May 14th, Payton Gendron, eighteen years old and a self-proclaimed white supremacist, arrived outside a Tops Supermarket located in Buffalo, New York.  Armed with an AR-15 type rifle, Gendron began firing off rounds in the parking lot, fatally shooting three shoppers.  He then entered the grocery store where his killing spree continued.  When all was said and done, Gendron had murdered 10 people and injured three others.  Almost all of the victims were African-American.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Gendron had purchased the assault rifle legally from dealers in New York and northern Pennsylvania.  Background checks came back negative.  Although he had undergone a psychiatric evaluation in 2021 after submitting a high school project in which he threatened to commit a murder-suicide at a high school, his actions did not trigger New York’s Red-Flag law which prevents anyone who shows signs of being a threat to themselves or others from purchasing a firearm. 

 In this Episode of The Blame Game, we try to answer the question of, who, if anyone, is to blame for this shooting and the resulting tragic loss of life?  Who, if anyone, is legally responsible for the murders that were committed inside the Tops supermarket? And to help us answer these questions, we turn to the Dunleavy in Kramer, Dunleavy & Ratchik, Denise Dunleavy.  In 1999, Ms. Dunleavy received the Trial Lawyer of the Year award from Trial Lawyers for Public Justice for her work against the gun industry.  In her precedent-setting victory in Hamilton v. Accu-Tek, she convinced a jury to hold gun manufacturers liable for negligently marketing and distributing handguns in the New York City area.

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In the late morning hours of Saturday, January 8, 2022, a five-alarm fire broke out in the Twin Parks North West apartment complex in the Tremont neighborhood of the Bronx.  Caused by a malfunctioning electric space heater, smoke from the fire spread throughout the 19-story high-rise after the door to the apartment in which the fire started was left open.  When all was said and done, nineteen residents lost their lives, including nine children, making this New York City’s deadliest fire in more than thirty (30) years. 

 In this episode of The Blame Game, we try to answer the question of who, if anyone, is to Blame for the tragic loss of life caused by this fire?  Who is legally responsible for the death of the tenants who suffocated in their apartments because they could not get out in time?  

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On October 21st, an acclaimed cinematographer, 42-year-old Halyna Hutchins, was fatally shot by Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin on the set of Rust.  Just prior to the shooting, the film’s assistant director, Dave Halls, grabbed the gun from among three that the film’s armorer had set up on a nearby tray.  After yelling “Cold Gun!”, film jargon which is supposed to mean that the gun did not contain any live ammunition, Mr. Halls handed the gun to Mr. Baldwin.  Mr. Baldwin was rehearsing a scene which involved “cross drawing” and pointing the gun towards the camera lens when it suddenly went off. 

In this episode of The Blame Game, we try to answer the question of Who’s to Blame for this tragic and admittedly accidental death?  Who, if anyone, is legally responsible for what happened to Ms. Hutchins?  And to help us answer these questions, we turn to attorney Danny Cevallos.  In addition to having his own criminal defense practice, Mr. Cevallos is of counsel to the law firm of Edelman & Edelman in New York where his focus is on cases involving wrongful conviction; and serves as a legal analyst and online columnist for MSNBC and NBC News.  

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On September 1, 2021, the remnants of Hurricane Ida, which had just pummeled Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane several days earlier, swept through New York City.  In a matter of hours, more than half a foot of rain inundated the five boroughs.  Easily overwhelming the City’s sewer system, Ida turned streets and subways into raging rivers and flooded homes throughout the region.  When all was said and done, more than forty people lost their lives in New York and New Jersey, including eleven victims in Queens.  Of the victims who lost their lives in Queens, most were tenants living in illegal basement apartments who got trapped in their flooded basement apartment and could not escape the rising waters.

In this episode of The Blame Game, we try to answer the question of who, if anyone, is to Blame for the tragic loss of life caused by Hurricane Ida?  Who is legally responsible for the death of tenants who got trapped in their flooded basement apartments and could not get out in time?  

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On the morning of June 24, 2021, Champlain Tower South, a 13-story oceanfront condominium in south Florida, collapsed.  So far, rescue crews working around the clock have recovered 97 bodies from the rubble.  At least a dozen residents still remain unaccounted for as recovery efforts continue.

In the last episode of The Blame Game, we spoke with an architect to discuss why this unspeakable tragedy occurred and who, if anyone, was to blame, such as the structural engineer who had found major structural damage in the building following an inspection two-and-half years ago, the architect who had designed the building, and even geotechnical issues which may have compromised the foundation of the building.  

In this episode of The Blame Game, we turn our attention to the condominium’s board of directors which had been warned about the building’s structural issues but never got around to making the necessary repairs. And to help us better understand the role of the condominium’s board of directors and its arguable culpability in the Champlin Tower building collapse, we turn to  Mark Foley of the Folson Group, financial consultants for residential condominiums and cooperatives.

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In the early morning of June 24, 2021, Champlain Towers South, a 13-story condominium in Surfside Florida, collapsed without warning.   For the past two weeks, rescue crews have been frantically searching through the rubble in search of survivors.  As of this broadcast, 46 residents have been confirmed dead with close to 100 still being reported as missing.

Significantly, years before the collapse, a structural engineer had warned the condominium's board that the building was suffering from “major structural damage” and that there was abundant cracking and crumbling of the columns, beams and walls of the parking garage underneath the building.  Despite this grim assessment, the necessary repairs were never performed.  It was only within the past few months, more than two-and-a-half years after the warning, that Champlain’s condo board finally secured a line of credit to pay for the multimillion dollar repair work.

In this episode of The Blame Game, we’ll try to answer the question of who’s to blame for the collapse of Champlain Towers South?  Who’s legally responsible for what happened and the resulting loss of life?  And to help us answer these questions, we turn to our guest, Michael Shilale, an architect with Michael Shilale Architects.

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