Two months ago, an Oakland County jury returned a verdict, after a mere 30 minutes of deliberation, awarding Security Police and Fire Professionals of America (SPFPA) more than $500,000 in damages, including nearly $400,000 in attorney’s fees, concluding 2-½ years of litigation by SPFPA against a disgruntled former employee.
Farmington Hills-based Young, Garcia, & Quadrozzi represented SPFPA, an international union of some 27,000 private police, security, and fire professionals. The case involved numerous breaches of a prior settlement agreement between SPFPA and its former member Steven Maritas, primarily related to repeated use of SPFPA’s trademarked name and acronym in hundreds of internet posts. Prior to trial, the firm successfully obtained a ruling from Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Martha Anderson that the agreement was valid and had been breached. As a result, the jury’s role was to determine SPFPA’s damages and attorney’s fees.
“We are very pleased with the jury’s verdict and the outcome of the case,” said David Garcia, a shareholder in the firm and lead trial counsel in the case. “SPFPA retained the firm to aggressively prosecute this case, after two prior lawsuits against Maritas that resulted in settlement agreements that Maritas habitually disregarded.
“The jury’s verdict, which awarded to SPFPA 100 percent of the damages and fees sought, was an unmistakable statement as to the magnitude and malice of Maritas’ online statements against the union.”
Young, Garcia, & Quadrozzi, is a compact litigation boutique that focuses on complex business litigation. For nearly 30 years, the firm has represented a diverse array of clients across a broad range of industries.
- Posted January 25, 2022
- Tweet This | Share on Facebook
Area law firm announces trial victory in union case
headlines Oakland County
- Meet the Judges
- Phishing and Smishing and Skimming and Shimming: Nessel encourages public to watch out for common scams during NFL Draft
- 56 years later, bias case is closed: Hamtramck completes new housing
- Attorneys to explain new U.S. DOL rules
- Michigan employers, local partners spotlight Gov. Whitmer’s budget recommendations and benefits for Going PRO Talent Fund
headlines National
- New Legalese: You may have heard a deepfake, but what about ‘Twiqbal’?
- From Intake to Outcome: An in-house lawyer’s guide to matter management solutions
- 2 BigLaw firms in merger talks that could produce 1,600-lawyer firm with top 50 revenue
- Send in the paralegals
- Lawyer reprimanded after mistakenly emailing opposing counsel with plan to avoid judge’s call
- ‘I don’t play well’ judge who threatened to track down, jail misbehaving litigant gets tossed from case