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Dar Al-Salam Foundation v. Ihab Fathy El-Kady, Second Judicial District Court, Bernalillo County Case No. D-202-CV-2017-00181
Brian represented the Dar Al-Salam Foundation in its equitable claims against the Defendant El-Kady and defended the Foundation against the counterclaims asserted by El-Kady. After a two-day bench trial in May 2021, the Honorable Denise Barela-Shepherd entered a verdict for the Foundation as both Plaintiff and Counterdefendant.
Gurule v. The Board of Education of the Los Lunas Public School District, et al - New Mexico Court of Appeals A-1-CA-35146
Brian was hired to work with trial attorneys David Chavez and Lauren Zabicki on a case where a high school wrestler was injured. The jury was not allowed to see evidence during its deliberations as a result entered a defense verdict. Brian worked with David and Lauren and appealed the case to the New Mexico Court of Appeals, who agreed with the arguments he made and remanded the case for a new trial.
Muncey v. Eyeglass World, 2012-NMCA-120
Brian had the pleasure of trying this case with Chris Bauman in June 2009 before the Honorable William F. Lang in the Second Judicial District Court, Bernalillo County, New Mexico. After a 3-day trial, the jury awarded the Plaintiff $300,000.00 in compensatory damages and another $2,000,001.00 in punitive damages, just as Mr. Bauman asked them to do in his compelling closing argument. The jury's verdict was upheld on appeal.
Miller v. Monumental Life Ins. Co., 502 F.3d 1245 (10th Cir. 2007), and 376 Fed. Appx. 871 (10th Cir. 2010).
As a third year law student and in the first few years of his law career, Brian worked extensively with his good friend attorney James Rawley to overturn a denial of long term disability benefits to his client. After extensive briefing and oral argument, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit overturned the decision of the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico denying long term disability benefits, despite the fact they he paid for them and expected them when he suffered a serious and debilitating injury. Since it was issued in 2007, this decision has developed into one of the most-cited and most important-decisions favoring a disabled Plaintiff in the area of the federal ERISA law, which is notoriously weighted heavily in favor of insurance companies and gives them almost carte blanche to deny the valid claims of disabled individuals for any reason that can come up with.
Gonzalez v. Performance Painting, 2013-NMSC-021
Many hard-working men and women that were injured on the job were not getting the workers compensation benefits they were entitled to simply because they were undocumented immigrants. Brian once again worked with his good friend James Rawley to put a stop to it, as the Supreme Court of New Mexico agreed with our position, holding that employers who cannot demonstrate good faith compliance with federal law in the hiring process cannot use their workers' undocumented status as a defense to deny continued payment of modifier benefits under the Workers' Compensation Act.
Astante at Cabezon Homeowner's Association vs. Le, D-1329-CV-2009-01437 (Sandoval County)
In this case, Brian represented the homeowner, who was just one of countless people sued by his rogue Homeowner's Association over the years. This case started because of a dispute over a small amount of overdue fees, which were related to a special-needs 4-year old and her lessened access to the park. Instead of working with the homeowner to resolve the dispute in a respectful manner, the HOA and their attorney tried to ruin his life and tried to have him lose his job and career. Brian put a stop to that, pointing out to the Court all of the malfeasance by the HOA and its attorney. The HOA was sanctioned and awarded less than 10% of what it claimed it was owed. As a side note, Brian called the HOA "a bunch of East German Kommissars" in open court, one of the proudest moments of his career.