BUSINESS MEMO: 'A PLAINTIFF'S HAT TRICK'

The law firm of Thomasson, Gilbert, Cook and Maguire, L.S., scored a "Plaintiff's Hat Trick" recently, a first for a law firm in Missouri.

On Dec. 17:

-- At 10:30 a.m. a jury in Federal Court in St. Louis returned a verdict in the case of Katie and Esau Bonner vs. ISP Technologies Inc., involving an injury to Katie Bonner, from inhalation of and exposure to a chemical solvent at her job, resulting in symptoms similar to Parkinson's disease, with constant shaking and trembling. The case was tried by two of the firm's lawyers, Michael Ponder and Kathy Wolz, starting on Dec. 14. The defense offered $50,000, the verdict was for $900,000.

-- at 11:30 a.m., a jury in St. Louis City Circuit Court, across the street from the Bonner jury, returned a verdict in the case of Joyce McKinley vs. Pullen Brothers Inc. The total damages were assessed at $1.5 million, with 85 percent fault against the defendant and 15 percent against plaintiff, for net verdict of $1.275 million. The case involved a car and tractor-trailer accident in Mississippi County where dust and sand from a cultivated field was being blown across the roadway. The case was tried by John L. Cook and Donald P. Thomasson.

-- at 6:30 p.m., a verdict was rendered for the plaintiff in Cape Girardeau County, in a case tried by Jeffrey S. Maguire. The case, Tamra Carr vs. the City of Cape Girardeau, involved an accident involving Carr's car and a street sweeper. Maguire asked the jury for total damages of $126,044. The jury did assess that figure as total damages, but assessed 30 percent fault against the plaintiff, for a net verdict for the plaintiff of $88,000.

The firm's attorney, Paul Gilbert, was support man for the cases in trial.

It was a busy day for Gilbert and the Cape Girardeau law firm.