Conal Doyle

$7.5 Million Settlement in Premises Liability Sexual Assault case

Conal Doyle obtained a $1,950,000 settlement in Castaneda v. U.S., 538 F.Supp.2d 1279 (C.D. Cal 2008), affirmed, Castaneda v. U.S., 546 F.3d 682 (9th Cir. 2008), reversed, Castaneda v. Hui,130 S.Ct. 1845 (2010), which is an action by an immigration detainee who suffered a penile amputation and subsequently died due to the United States’ failure to timely diagnose and treat penile cancer.

Castaneda v. United States is a companion case to Castaneda v. State, and the settlement with the United States is in addition to the $1.73 million dollar verdict obtained against the State. This settlement is almost eight times the $250,000 medical malpractice cap that the United States argued applied to the case.  The Firm spent more than $180,000 in case costs prosecuting the Castaneda cases.

The case has received extensive international media coverage, with numerous stories published by the San Francisco Chronicle, L.A. Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Canadian News Press, British Broadcasting Company (BBC), Daily Journal, Univision, Telemundo, numerous other international media outlets, and 60 Minutes.

The San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association honored Conal Doyle with the 2011 Civil Justice Award for his unprecedented work on behalf of the Castaneda family.  And the National Law Journal recognized him as its national “Appellate Lawyer of the Week” for his argument before the U.S. Supreme Court in Hui v. Castaneda.

Conal Doyle obtained a $1,735,557 jury verdict on November 10, 2010 on behalf of the family of Francisco Castaneda, a state prisoner who died because the State of California refused to provide him a biopsy to rule out penile cancer during his four month detention. The suit was brought by Mr. Castaneda’s 17 year old daughter, Vanessa Castaneda. Prior to trial, the State offered $10,000 to settle the claim, and disputed liability, causation, and damages. During trial, Mr. Doyle asked the jury to return a verdict of $1,500,000 in non-economic damages and $235,557 for past medical bills.

After deliberating for less than four hours, the jury returned a verdict for the exact amount requested, which was 170 times the pre-trial defense offer. The amount of the verdict was not reduced due to comparative fault and is not subject to California’s medical malpractice tort reform act (“MICRA”), and is 100% collectible.

The Daily Journal, California’s daily legal newspaper, recognized Castaneda v. State of California as one of California’s Top 10 most impactful verdicts of 2010.  The Castaneda verdict was ranked third in impact, behind only the verdicts striking down the U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and Proposition 8, the California ban on gay marriage.  The Castaneda verdict was recognized for its impact on improving the medical care system for immigration detainees.  The Consumer Attorneys of California have named Conal a Finalist for its 2011 Consumer Atttorney of the Year Award.

Conal Doyle obtained a $2.4 million recovery on behalf of a 33 year old man who broke his leg playing baseball and had it amputated at the knee two weeks later due to the defendants’ failure to timely diagnose and treat Compartment Syndrome.   Conal Doyle was lead counsel on this Georgia case, which resolved three weeks prior to trial after almost two years of litigation, which included more than forty depositions.  The value of the case was constrained by the two million dollar insurance policy limits of the target defendant and a conservative jurisdiction.  The firm spent more than $100,000 in case costs in prosecuting this case.

Conal Doyle and Jody Moore, Law Offices of Jody Moore, obtained a $2.175 million recovery on behalf of a 61 year old woman whose leg was amputated below the knee due to medical negligence and products liability. The plaintiff consented to amputation of her leg because she was erroneously told she had cancer due to an error in the hospital information technology system. Plaintiff brought both medical negligence and products liability claims, and obtained pre-trial rulings that MICRA’s cap on damages did not apply to the hospital defendants. The plaintiff had no claim for future lost wages. Mr. Doyle was retained to act as trial counsel after the case was originally brought and worked up by Ms. Moore.

Conal Doyle obtained a $2.17 million settlement against various defendants in a complex civil rights/medical malpractice action.  The plaintff was an immigration detainee who suffered a significant brain injury due to receiving inadequate medical care while detained by the United States and Los Angeles County.  The case was litigated for four years and settled on the eve of trial.

Conal Doyle was lead trial counsel in McKnight v. Johnson, et. al., a landmark medical negligence case resulting in a $26.8 million
jury verdict.  The verdict is believed to be the largest medical negligence verdict in Kern County, California, history. The case involved a spinal surgery gone wrong resulting in the paralysis of Ms. McKnight.  Ms. McKnight sued two neurodiagnostic technicians for negligent monitoring of her surgery.  She obtained a significant pre-trial legal ruling that MICRA, California's medical malpractice tort reform statute, did not apply to the case.  This was significant because it meant that there was no cap on general non-economic damages.  The verdict was rendered on December 2, 2013.  The case settled on appeal, and the total actual recovery for Ms. McKnight was $17 million, one of the largest recoveries for a medical malpractice plaintiff in California history.

In March 2014, Conal Doyle obtained a $3.8 million jury verdict against Jack In The Box, Inc., where the highest pre-trial settlement offer was $200,000.   The plaintiff was struck in the foot by a 5 pound metal panel that fell off a fountain drink dispenser.  She suffered a superficial laceration and bruise that subsequently developed into Complex Regional Pain Syndrome ("CRPS").  The non-economic damages award of $3,100,000 is one of the highest awards of its type in Kern County, California, history.