Landmark Cases
KNIGHT V. REDWING CARRIERS
In 1997, Robert Duffy and Bob Shearouse obtained a jury verdict of $475,000.00 in the case of Knight v. Redwing Carriers. The Plaintiff had been sprayed with hot asphalt when the carrier hose that was unloading hot asphalt burst and sprayed on the Plaintiff. At he time it was the largest verdict in the history of Chatham County.
WEATHERWOOD SUBDIVISION
In the summer of 1991 the clients of Dwight Feemster discovered that their home was settling a lot more than normal. In fact the rafters in the attic had snapped. They and their neighbors eventually discovered that their entire neighborhood, Weatherwood Subdivision, had been built over an old, un-permitted, construction dump. The case made international news.
As the construction debris was decomposing, the homes were literally sinking into the void in the earth left by the decaying debris. To make matters worse, the decaying debris was generating methane gas, which was accumulating in the homes and creating a potential for an explosion.
Dwight Feemster along with Ronald Barry and Alex Zipper successfully represented 30+ homeowners in forcing Chatham County (who allowed the subdivision to be built on an old construction dump and then ordered the home vacated due to methane gas) to purchase the clients' homes at fair market value and compensate them for the moving expenses and other damages.
SAFFOLD V. BOARD OF EDUCATION
In 1993 after a 3-year battle Dwight Feemster obtained a $1.9 million verdict for Joe Saffold against the Chatham County Board of Education in an eminent domain proceeding. The property at issue was a 20-acre tract of property located on Whitmarsh Island, Savannah, Georgia. The Board of Education had condemned the property to build a new school. The board had sought to acquire the property for $600,000.00.
FRED WILLIAMS V. HUSSEY, GAY, AND BELL
In 1992, Dwight Feemster along with Ronald Barry obtained a verdict of $249,000.00 for Fred Williams, a real estate developer, against his engineers, Hussey Gay, and Bell. The engineers had failed to recognize the potential for methane gas to build up at a construction site that had some construction debris buried at the site.
The development had been halted due to the Weatherwood Subdivision issue mentioned previously. The stop work order cost the developer delays and added to the cost of his project.
DUFFY V. THE LANDING ASSOCIATION ET. AL.
In 1997, The Landing Association, Inc. the homeowners association for the Landings on Skidaway Island, illegally amended their restrictive convents to require that a 1% transfer fee be paid on every real estate transaction in the subdivision to the Association's new real estate company, The Landings Company, Inc., for marketing expenses. Matthew Bush and Dwight Feemster represented Robert Duffy in a challenge to the legality of the transfer fee. Robert Duffy was eventually successful in his challenge and the courts held that the transfer fee was illegal. However, the Landings Company, Inc., collected $3 million dollars in illegal transfer fees.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA V. WILLIAM BULLARD ET. AL.
In 2002, Dwight Feemster represented William Bullard in defense of bid rigging charges leveled against him by the U.S. Justice Department. Mr. Bullard had been a petition contractor for General Services Administration in the Savannah, Georgia, District. A 17-count indictment alleged that Bullard and two others had conspired to rig bids so Bullard and his associates would obtain all of the construction repair work for the General Services Administration in the Savannah District.
After a two-week jury trial, the jury returned a not guilty verdict on all 17 counts of the indictment. Alex Zipper and Tom Weathers of Savannah, Georgia, represented the two co-defendants.
Jet Ski Case
In 1999, Dwight Feemster had represented an individual who had been injured when a jet ski exploded. The jet ski was being displayed at a celebrity golf tournament as a hole-in-one prize. It was sitting by the tee box on a par three. The client sat on the jet ski, and as he was sitting on the jet ski, it exploded, throwing him up in the air. He suffered a serious back injury requiring surgery. Of some interest, all of the witnesses were professional football players.
After two days of jury trial, the case settled. The amount of the settlement was confidential.
Pickup V. Beer Tractor
In January 2001, a 29-year-old male was operating his pick up truck on his way to work. At the same time the driver of a beer truck for a local beer distributing company was attempting to pull into traffic on a four-lane road with a median. The truck driver was able to clear the two lanes in the eastbound part of the highway but could not clear the median due to the volume of traffic in the westbound lanes. The trailer on the beer truck was black and it was dark and extremely foggy.
The individual operating the pick up truck was unable to ascertain the presence of the beer truck trailer straddling his roadway until it was too late. He slid underneath the beer tractor-trailer. The type of accident is referred to as an under ride case and normally decapitates the individual in the pickup. Amazingly this individual survived; however he had serious head injury. Duffy & Feemster, LLC represented this individual in his claim against the beer truck distributor, which was settled on an extremely favorable basis in mediation.