JANUARY NEWSLETTER

Last month the Dayton Business Journal published its list of the Largest Dayton Area Law Firms (ranked by number of full-time local attorneys). FG&I was ranked fourth in size. FG&I first made its appearance on the list as number 20, when the list began to be published 7 or 8 years ago.

FG&I learned recently that on November 30, 2000, Judge Langer of the Montgomery Common Pleas Court ruled, in a case tried by FG&I's Ann Wightman and Don Burton for the firm's client, Amcast Industrial Corporation, that Amcast was entitled to over $1.6 million in damages from CIGNA. Amcast claimed CIGNA breached insurance agreements that gave Amcast "excess workers' compensation" coverage; the policies at issue dated from the 1960s and '70s. The insurer argued late notice, but the court ruled that there was coverage under Ohio law because CIGNA suffered no discernible prejudice from the late notice.

In December, Charlie Faruki was a speaker at two CLE programs sponsored by the Dayton Bar Association, covering topics in recent developments in federal practice and procedure. At the first program, Charlie's topic was "Recent Developments in Federal Courts' Treatment of Expert Reports and Expert Testimony." In addition to recent caselaw developments in these areas, Charlie's class focused on the interrelationship of the Daubert case and its progeny, and a recent U.S. Supreme Court case (Weisgram v. Marley Co.), concerning the issue of whether expert testimony held to be inadmissible on appeal should result in the entry of judgment against the plaintiff proffering that testimony when, shorn of the erroneously admitted expert testimony, the evidence of record is insufficient to justify a plaintiff's verdict. In other words, the Weisgram issue is whether plaintiff gets another bite at the apple, on remand to the trial court.

Charlie's topic for the second program was Discovery in Civil Actions, including the subjects of limitations on discovery, devices for presuit discovery, the interrelationship of the discovery rules with the Ohio and Federal Rules of Evidence on expert testimony, and approaches to deposing expert witnesses after recent rules amendments and recent caselaw developments.

FG&I associate Kelly Savage is a member of the Dayton Bar Association Bankruptcy and Commercial Law Committee. The December, 2000 edition of the Dayton Bar Briefs (the monthly publication of the Dayton Bar Association) features an article by Kelly entitled, "Can You Save Your Client From U.S. EPA Overfiling?" As Kelly's article explains, "overfiling" occurs when the USEPA commences litigation for violations of federal environmental laws concurrently with a formal state enforcement action directed at identical violations or after the state enforcement action concludes for those same violations. FG&I regularly handles environmental matters for its clients both in Ohio as well as other jurisdictions throughout the United States.