Hon. Norman P. Tarle, Ret.

Construction Breach Of Contract

• A contractor with a license to pour concrete allegedly partially constructed a pool which requires a different licensing category.

Breach of Contract

• In an Employment dispute after termination, Plaintiff alleged that he failed to receive override commissions and an ownership interest that were due based on his contract. The case involved the confluence of employment law, title insurance process, contract law, and competing valuations of the company and its stock.
• Case wherein a CEO was fired in a title insurance company and included failure to pay shares and override bonus payments.

Wrongful Termination

• Wrongful termination of a teacher of 30 years. The students were failing in her class, and she was warned to improve their scores.

Medical Malpractice

• Plaintiff's claimed that the decedent died due to negligence upon undergoing abdominoplasty.
• Negligent medical care. Plaintiff alleged the defendant was negligent in performing a hysterectomy and that said surgery resulted in injury and damage to her ureter.
• Medical negligence: acupuncture. Plaintiff went into the defendant's massage shop, was upsold, and tried acupuncture for the first time. Plaintiff alleged a puncture of her right lung by an acupuncture needle inserted through her back - later rushed to ER with a 70% collapsed lung.
• Alleged dental malpractice and fraud. Defendant placed dental implant into plaintiff's sinuses, causing facial pain and headaches.
• Plaintiff alleged wrongful death; medical malpractice. The decedent underwent bilateral patella tendon surgery and died 28 days after the operation due to negligent care.

Breach Of Contract

• A commercial lease existed between the defendant and the city. The city wanted to redevelop the property and gave the defendant a 60-day notice as required by the lease. The negotiations were prompted by a lawsuit that demanded back rent, liquidated damages, and attorney's fees.
• Breach of contract regarding home improvement. The complaint alleged contractor took an unlawful deposit. The deposit wasn't returned, and the plaintiff alleged the contractor never intended to return monies.
• Mediated a landlord/tenant dispute concerning a commercial lease. The tenant claims they were constructively evicted because of the strong odor of cannabis emanating from the marijuana dispensary next door.

Landlord/Tenant

• The tenant in a commercial lease found problems with utilities that were undisclosed, terminated the lease and demanded repayment of rent plus attorney's fees. The landlord stated that there was no problem with utilities and wants future rent for 5 years of the lease.

Neighbor Dispute

• Property line dispute. Developer cut down shrubs/trees that each side claims were on their property.
• A fence with the neighbor was not on the property but a few inches over, due to the position of trees and other property features. The dispute was as to moving the fence or paying for a license and not moving the fence and involved great animosity between neighbors.

Real Property

• Jury trial of nonpayment of rent.
• Month-to-month tenant failed to pay rent.
• Mortgage Foreclosure Eviction Jury Trial. Plaintiff tried to re-fi and lost the house to foreclosure.
• Plaintiff purchased a commercial building as an investment after inheriting her grandfather's property. After purchasing the building, she sued the seller claiming that measurements for determining square footage were misapplied and she overpaid for the building.
• Nuisance Eviction. The defendant was allegedly drunk and stumbling around the apartment building, walking his dog with a gun holstered in the back of his sweatpants. The tenants called the police, and the building was evacuated. It took 45 minutes for the defendant to respond to Sheriff's loudspeaker (chopper deployed) and surrender. The sheriff then found 70 guns in the apartment. The defendant had a gun dealer license and bought most of his guns from a gun dealer.
• Property line dispute involving easements. The mediation was conducted at the location.

Warranty of Habitability

• Handled over a hundred jury and bench trials, as well as settlement conferences regarding unlawful detainers; Most of those Unlawful Detainer cases involved Habitability.
• Volunteered to be the master calendar judge for Unlawful Detainer cases, handling hundreds of Unlawful Detainer and Habitability cases.
• As a Los Angeles Deputy County Attorney, investigated and prosecuted slum housing as one of the first to work in their Housing Unit, and understands the Unlawful Detainer /Habitability cases from both perspectives.

Catastrophic Injury

• Mediated a case where the plaintiff was injured taking their car through the carwash, resulting in a spinal surgery.

General Negligence

• A dog off-leash in a private dog run bit an elderly dog owner on the wrist as she was attempting to protect her own pet. The plaintiff had surgery for her wrist and had a pre-existing medical condition that complicated her treatment.
• Mediated a case involving a landlord and tenant dispute regarding potable water and e-coli contamination.

Personal Injury

• A building inspector was hit by a 50-pound form. The form was to be used for pouring concrete and it was left standing without being secured. A breeze caused it to fall over and hit the plaintiff who had her back to the item. Plaintiff had a spinal fusion and claimed a need for long-term care.
• Plaintiff trips on a moving handicap ramp trying to board a public bus.
• Trip and fall case with a broken heel in a condominium complex on a construction site. Major contractors in this case have no insurance coverage. One contractor may file for bankruptcy.
• Mediated a case involving a slip and fall in a laundromat that has since gone out of business.

PI Auto

• Significant collision. The insurance arbitrator disagreed with the police traffic report as to fault. The crash caused vehicles to careen into 2 other vehicles that were stopped. Plaintiff claims constant pain.
• Failure to yield left turn crash. Liability contested and degree of injury contested. Plaintiff will need future back surgery.
• Defendant making a left turn collides nearly head-on with the plaintiff. Plaintiff has had a history of back and neck trouble with a lot of pain caused by a previous collision and falls.
• Auto collision at an intersection with the traffic signal not working due to a power outage.
• Auto collision where defendant turned unexpectedly in front of the plaintiff.
• Rear-end crash with the plaintiff as a passenger. Defendant hits the plaintiff's vehicle while attempting to make a lane change.
• Flight attendant injury in an airport shuttle collision. Workers Comp lien complicates settlement.
• Plaintiff made a left turn and was T-Boned by the speeding defendant.
• Rear end accident with soft tissue injuries. Defense estimates speed at impact was very slow, but the frame of the plaintiff's car is bent.
• Rear-end case with Uninsured Motorist. This was 3rd case by the same plaintiff with the same carrier for UM.
• A car on the freeway was hit by the first car in a rear-ender, then another car hit the first car which hit the plaintiffs' car. The issue was that two cars' drivers and their carriers' were defendants. Four people in the plaintiffs' car sued. Each plaintiff had been in prior multiple accidents. The case involved out-of-state medicals and out-of-state plaintiffs and California plaintiffs.
• A ride-share services driver was rear-ended with passengers in the vehicle. The motorist was uninsured.
• A golf cart flips as the plaintiff is using it. The contract with the country club included a liability waiver and indemnification clause that the plaintiff signed. This complicated the negotiations as both sides demanded payment. Plaintiff, due to his severe injuries and Defense, due to the indemnification clause.
• A case involving a left turn by an uber driver with a severe foot injury on UIM. Questionable liability.
• A case involving a traffic accident between two large trucks. The plaintiff claimed ongoing disability. A sub rosa video told a different story.
• A tree falls on the plaintiff while bicycling. The issue is the extent of injury due to this incident as opposed to other spine problems.
• Mediated a case in which the plaintiff's car was t-bone and there was serious injury. Liability was in favor of the defense.
• Mediated a case involving a light collision with a parked car. Paint transfer was the result. Worked through causation to resolve the case.
• Mediated a case involving a three car pile-up. The rear driver blamed the front vehicle and hitting the breaks. The rear driver's attorney claimed no liability.

Policy Distribution

• Distribution of Insurance policy proceeds.
• Four claimants in a head-on collision. The arbitrator was asked to determine an equitable distribution of the insurance proceeds where there were insufficient funds to make the claimants whole.

Premises Liability

• Plaintiff tripped in a pothole in a parking lot. A major portion of injury is due to having had a recent double mastectomy. Bleeding and fluid needed to be drained. Pain but little med cost. Delayed use of chemotherapy due to fall.
• Plaintiff interfered with home depot employees, in an effort to help, as they were loading a truck with lumber. Plaintiff's hand was severely injured, but liability was questionable. Plaintiff began with a demand in the six-figure range and the case settled in the five-figure range.
• Plaintiff slips on water in the garden area in front of a warning sign at a large home improvement retailer. Liability is questionable. Little injury, although knee has constant pain.
• Plaintiff was hit in the head by a falling metal drain at a large home improvement retailer store with a claim of brain injury.
• The pregnant plaintiff slips on liquid next to a trash bin. Defendant has a warning sign placed but failed to follow their clean-up protocol.
• A young child flipped a table in a restaurant, crushed his finger, and required 3 surgeries and a skin graft. Both sides had major problems giving ground and neither thought the case would settle until the very end.
• A plaintiff, who has had dozens of surgeries, slips on sand in a store. The issue is unwinding damage from prior events with current harm.
• A wooden board falls on the plaintiff's toe and fractures his bone at the knuckle causing a permanent injury that freezes the joint.
• An elderly plaintiff was hit by falling plywood in a store. The injury causes pain in the lower back and leg.
• A young mother slips on wet paint in a parking lot falling on her toddler child.
• A couple was at an appliance store when a metal sign falls on the plaintiff's wrist as he opens a refrigerator. The couple had newborn twins shortly after and hired a nighttime nurse to care for the kids since the caregiver could not pick up both children with an injured wrist.
• A toddler was playing with an appliance dolly while his parents shopped for a refrigerator. The dolly fell and gashed his forehead.
• Plaintiff moves aside as a forklift comes her way and trips on the wet floor in a wholesale food market.
• A case involving a slip and fall in a wholesale market, resulting in a knee injury. The plaintiff got arthroscopic surgery.
• A case involving a slip and fall at a cash register. Liability was a closed issue since the video seemed to indicate plaintiff caught her feet on her sandals.
• An industrial accident during maintenance review of mining equipment. A contracted worker with a subcontractor was injured when a part under pressure was shot from a machine. The case implicated workers' compensation exclusivity issues, liability of subcontractors, and liability for maintaining defective equipment in the workplace.
• Mediated a slip-and-fall case in a market with a good video on causation. The question was whether the store had notice.
• Plaintiff injured by forklift. Plaintiff is elderly with some contributory negligence. Complex case with mental and physical deterioration after accident.
• Plaintiff was severely injured in the parking lot of a large wholesaler when her handbag was stolen. The issue presented was whether this event was foreseeable. If it was, the question was whether there was a failure to protect the public. Causation was the central issue.
• Mediated a case involving a slip and fall down the stairs with significant insurance coverage issues.

Product Liability

• The toe of a two-year-old child was severed from her foot by the sharp edge of a stool. The toe could not be re-attached and the issue was the past and future non-economic damages.
• A case in which a child's toe is amputated on the sharp edge of a chair when she falls off of the chair.

Wrongful Death

• Mediated a case involving a wrongful death allegedly due to the misplacement of a transfusion line.
• The plaintiff alleged the defendant employee caused the mother to fall and break her hip. There were no other witnesses. The decedent died of COVID in the rehabilitation center and was uncertain whether a family member or the facility was the transmitter. The liability and causation are being contested.