Big Deals // Verdicts // Settlements

The Chicago Skyway was privatized with the help of Mayer Brown.

Deals

Mayer Brown is advising the state of Pennsylvania in a $12.8 billion deal to privatize the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The deal is a 75-year lease for Abertis Infraestructuras to repair roads and bridges in Pennsylvania, and to support 73 public transit agencies. Abertis, a Spanish company based in Barcelona, is one of the world’s largest private toll road operators. It directly manages more than 2,000 miles of toll roads and, indirectly, another 3,000 miles in 10 countries on four continents, including the Orlando Sanford Airport, Concourse E of the Atlanta International Airport, the Burbank Airport, as well as the Teodoro Moscoso Toll Bridge in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The consortium of investors includes Citi Infrastructure Investors and Criteria CaixaCorp, a major shareholder of Abertis.

Partner John R. Schmidt led the Mayer Brown team, which included partners David Narefsky and Joseph Seliga on deal arrangements; partner Robert Kelman on tax advice, and associates Bruce Bedwell and Jeromy Cannon.

Mayer Brown, and Schmidt, in particular, have been involved in several privatization deals of public infrastructure facilities. Schmidt was the lead lawyer in for the City of Chicago in the privatization of the Chicago Skyway, a $1.83 billion deal, and represented the State of Indiana in the $3.8 billion privatization of the Indiana Toll Road.

”This is one of more interesting things to come along,” Schmidt said. ”People haven’t done it. It’s new, and it’s complicated. The documentation is entirely new. We had to create a structure that would work to give the public assurances that the road would be maintained we had to develop operating standards, we worked with engineering firms to do that. These transactions had been done around the world, in Europe and Australia, but until we did the Chicago Skyway three years ago, no one here had done it.

”Here, the mayor asked me to represent the city in the leasing of the skyway. I told him, ‘I don’t know anything about it,’ and he said, ‘Neither does anybody else.’

”It’s a different sort of thing for a public entity to do; it’s not a traditional governmental process it really follows the corporate m&a auction model. We’re working with Morgan Stanley in Pennsylvania.

”You have to structure the process of determining the qualified bidders, the documentation. It cuts across areas leasing and sales, financial, there’s the governmental and the political element, the tax issues are novel long-term leases are treated as ownership transfers for federal tax purposes, though it’s only a lease; these are interesting tax issues.

”The value of these transactions for the governments is that it gives the government the ability to recover the public capital represented by that asset and use it for other purposes, so it gets more out of the asset than it was getting,” he said. ”The skyway brought the city $1.83 billion, and $500 million of that went into a permanent reserve fund. The interest on that fund is more than the city was getting out of the skyway. So, the city replaced the skyway revenue and had a billion left. The city ended up with a higher bond rating it made Chicago probably the strongest U.S. city from a financial perspective.”

Verdicts

A Cook County jury awarded more than $4.5 million to a woman whose stomach cancer spread aggressively after a pathologist misinterpreted test results.

Paula Gaulin, 44, underwent an upper gastrointestinal biopsy in 2003 at Hinsdale Hospital; a pathologist incorrectly interpreted a cancerous condition as normal. In fact, a tumor had grown in her stomach wall. In 2004, Gaulin underwent a partial gastrectomy with the removal of 10 stomach lymph nodes. A plaintiff’s expert testified that if Gaulin had been correctly diagnosed earlier, the cancer likely would not have spread to her lymph nodes and she would have been at a lower stage with an 80 percent cure rate. By the time of her surgery, the expert stated that the cancer was at a heightened stage and had a 20 percent cure rate. According to the expert, Gaulin, who is married with two children, has a 56 percent chance of a fatal recurrence by 2014.

Gaulin was represented by Timothy Richardson and Richard B. Rogich of Rogich & Richardson. The pathologist was represented by David C. Burther and Daniel Hronek of Cunningham Meyer & Vedrine. The hospital, which settled for $25,000 before trial, was represented by Mark D. Johnson of Johnson & Bell.

Settlements

The mother of a child who suffered a brain injury during birth agreed to a $15.35 million medical malpractice settlement, the largest settlement ever in DeKalb County, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyers.

In October 2001, 19-year-old Vanessa Jenkins of Aurora, was admitted to Valley West Community Hospital in Sandwich, for the delivery of her son, Cody Smithey. Jenkins’ labor proceeded uneventfully until one of the defendants, Dr. Martin Brauweiler, chose to use a vacuum extractor device to assist in the delivery of the minor plaintiff. Over the next 50 minutes, Brauweiler used the vacuum extraction device 18 times without success. Another doctor was finally called in to perform an emergency c-section after Cody’s fetal heart tones demonstrated distress. Cody, now 6 years old, suffered brain injuries as a result of the physician’s alleged negligence in using the Kiwi vacuum extractor device.

The plaintiffs alleged four areas of negligence: (1) that Brauweiler, a family practitioner, was not competent in the use of the vacuum extractor device; (2) that he negligently failed to discontinue using the vacuum extractor device after the first couple of attempts were unsuccessful; (3) the nursing staff negligently failed to advocate for the mother by insisting that Brauweiler stop using the vacuum when it was obvious he could not deliver the child using this device; and (4) that the hospital failed to exercise reasonable care in evaluating the physician’s competency and fitness to perform vacuum deliveries.

The plaintiffs were represented by Michael P. Schostok and Matthew L. Williams of Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard. The defendants Martin Brauweiler, M.D., and Sandwich Medical Clinic were represented by John G. Langhenry III and Melissa Gordon of Langhenry, Gillen, Lundquist & Johnson; Valley West Community Hospital by David C. Burtker and Peter Strauss of Cunningham Meyer & Vedrine; Peggy Wilson, R.N., and Medical Staffing Network by Diane M. Baron of Clausen Miller, and Joseph A. Farchione of Sutter, O’Connell & Farchione (Cleveland, Ohio).

The family of a 6-year-old boy who suffered brain damage because he wasn’t properly monitored after being treated for a heart condition settled for $12 million.

Jaylen Whitney was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in 2001 to undergo treatments for myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart. The treatment was conducted properly, but, because his heart stopped during the procedure, he was given a pacemaker and was placed on a ventilator. Hospital staff had to resuscitate the boy after he was found with dilated eyes and was unresponsive. According to the plaintiff’s attorney, apparently the heart monitors were picking up the pacemaker but his heart was not beating, and the boy was without oxygen for a long period of time. Jaylen suffered irreparable brain damage and requires constant care.

The plaintiff’s attorney was Geoffrey L. Gifford of Pavalon, Gifford & Laatsch. The hospital was represented by in-house counsel Jane A. McAtree and Joseph A. Camarra and Sara F. Marzullo of Cassiday Schade. The doctor and hospital staff were not named in the lawsuit.

The estate of a 43-year-old man who was killed in a car accident involving a drunk driver has settled its suit against the driver for $2.9 million.

At the time of the accident, the defendant was traveling in the wrong direction while speeding. The victim was married and had two adult children.

The plaintiff was represented by Jeffrey J. Kroll of the Law Offices of Jeffrey J. Kroll and Robert A. Clifford of Clifford Law Offices. The defendant was represented by Thomas W. Starck of Meachum & Trafman.

Two people who were injured after falling four stories from a porch have settled their lawsuit against the insurers of the apartment building for $2.15 million.

Allison Gwin and Cem Karsan were standing on a back porch in the 400 block of W. Webster Ave. in 2005 when the railing detached from the porch frame and they fell four stories to the ground. Gwin suffered spinal, pelvic, and rib fractures, a lung and abdominal injury, a broken shoulder, and a concussion. Karsan suffered a broken leg. Gwin’s case settled for $1.5 million and Karsan’s for $1 million.

The plaintiffs were represented by Francis Patrick Murphy of Corboy & Demetrio. The defendants were represented by Dennis A. Marks of Querrey & Harrow.

A truck driver who was injured in a rollover accident in Utica settled his lawsuit against a trucking company for $2 million, a record for vehicle accidents in Peoria County, according to John L. Kirkton, editor of the Jury Verdict Reporter.

Texas resident Charles Geiman, 50, suffered compression fractures to his back and a partially paralyzed diaphragm, resulting in dependency on an oxygen tank, and, according to his attorney, also suffered a traumatic brain injury.

Geiman was represented by Jeffrey A. Green of the Janssen Law Center in Peoria. The defendants were represented by Jonathan M. Lively and Kathleen M. McDonough of Segal McCambridge Singer & Mahoney.

A 55-year-old woman who claimed she was not promptly diagnosed or treated for a spinal epidural abscess has settled her suit against the hospital for $1.9 million.

Barbara Miner went to the University of Chicago Hospitals emergency room in 2006, complaining of pain between her shoulders and paralysis from the neck down. She waited three hours to be seen by a neurologist, and 30 hours for an MRI. Between her esophagus and spinal cord, the hospital staff found a spinal epidural abscess that was pushing on her spine. Emergency neurosurgery was performed about 34 hours after she arrived at the emergency room. Miner can walk and run, but suffers from chronic pain and some loss of feeling below her waist.

Miner was represented by David R. Barry, Jr. of Corboy & Demetrio. The hospital was represented by Joseph A. Camarra of Cassiday Schade.