Rossman Baumberger In the News
Howard Spier elected treasurer of national rail lawyers group
RBRS named designated counsel of IBEW
RBRS wins $2.5 million from VA over failure to diagnose
Chuck Baumberger receives top award from Academy
Steve Rossman named Secretary of Easter Seals National Board
Five RBRS members honored in South Florida Legal Guide
Family awarded $5.2 million in medical malpractice case
All four RBRS name partners "Florida Super Lawyers"
Chuck Baumberger voted by peers among 'Legal Elite' In Florida Trend magazine
Developer sued in fatal Bal Harbour condo tragedy
Miami Herald editorial on condo death
Chuck Baumberger named FLABOTA Trial Lawyer of the Year"
Howard Spier elected Treasurer
of national rail lawyers group
April 30, 2007 - Howard A. Spier of Plantation, Fl., a partner in the Miami plaintiff’s trial law firm Rossman, Baumberger, Reboso & Spier, has been elected treasurer of the Academy of Rail Labor Attorneys (ARLA).
ARLA is a professional association of plaintiffs' attorneys, based in Washington, D.C. Eligibility for membership in ARLA is available to attorneys whose practice includes representation of injured railroad employees in cases filed under the Federal Employers' Liability Act.
Mr. Spier has concentrated on representing railroad employees and people injured in rail accidents throughout the Southeastern United States for more than 25 years. Mr. Spier and partner Charles Baumberger have represented victims of the January 2005 Graniteville, S.C., rail disaster, the April 2002 Amtrak derailment near Crescent City, Fl., and the fatal November 2004 train collision in Pasco County, among many other cases.
Rossman Baumberger is the only designated counsel in South Florida of the United Transportation Union and the Transportation Communications Union.
Mr. Spier lives with his family in Plantation. He has been ranked by his peers among the region's top lawyers in the South Florida Legal Guide and Florida SuperLawyers.
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RBRS named designated counsel for IBEW
April 30, 2007 - Rossman, Baumberger, Reboso & Spier, has been chosen designated counsel for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW).
The firm, which includes a practice representing railroad employees and people injured in rail accidents, is already the only designated counsel in South Florida for the United Transportation Union and Transportation Communications Union. Partners Charles Baumberger and Howard Spier have more than a half century’s experience between them representing injured railroad employees and people injured in rail accidents throughout the Southeastern United States.
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VA awards $2.5 million to Air Force veteran
over failure to diagnose stroke
April 27, 2007 - The Veterans Administration has awarded $2.5 million to an Air Force veteran for failure to diagnose a stroke.
Between September 2002 and January 2003, Pedro Lassus, an Air Force veteran then working as a security guard, went to the Miami Veterans Administration Medical Center, seeking medical treatment.
During these visits, he exhibited symptoms indicating an impending stroke. By the time of his second-to-last visit on Friday, Jan. 10, 2003, his symptoms included occipital headaches, dizziness, double vision and elevated blood pressure. Despite these symptoms, he was sent home with instructions to return to the neurology clinic the following Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2003.
When he went to the neurology clinic for his appointment, his symptoms had worsened, but the staff said there was no record of an appointment and sent him home again.
Three days later, he suffered a massive stroke, resulting in weakness on one side of his body (hemiplegia) and personality changes.
He sued the U.S. government in federal court pursuant to the Federal Tort Claims Act. The Justice Department approved a $2.5 million settlement with the Lassus family in February 2007.
Manuel A. “Alex” Reboso and Peter S. Baumberger of the Miami plaintiff’s trial law firm Rossman, Baumberger, Reboso & Spier, P.A., represented Mr. Lassus, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Maureen Donlan represented the U.S. Government.
Lassus v. United States of America, 05-22593-CIV, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King
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Chuck Baumberger of Miami receives top award from lawyers' Academy
Nov. 29, 2006 - Chuck Baumberger, co-founding partner of the Miami plaintiff's trial law firm Rossman, Baumberger, Reboso & Spier, has received the Jon Krupnick Award from the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers.
The Academy presents the Krupnick Award annually for lawyers who display perseverance and relentless pursuit of justice on behalf of their clients.
Mr. Baumberger, a native Miamian who lives in Pinecrest, won the award for his 15-year representation of Tracey Taibl. Her father, Stacey Norman Taibl, a stevedore superintendent at the Port of Miami, died from carbon monoxide poisoning in 1988 while trying to rescue a seaman trapped in a 30-foot ballast tank. Tracey was 18 at the time. By the time the case was successfully resolved in 2003, it had gone through two trials, seven courts, eight appeals and 27 judges and justices.
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Steve Rossman named Secretary of Easter Seals National Board;
Former Miami chair also serving on executive committee
Nov. 8, 2006 - Steve Rossman, founding partner of the Miami trial law firm Rossman Baumberger Reboso & Spier, P.A., has been elected Secretary of the National Board of Easter Seals. As a result, he also became a member of the Board's executive committee. He was elected at the organization's October Board meeting in Las Vegas.
Two years ago, Mr. Rossman became the first Miamian ever to serve on the organization's national board.
Mr. Rossman, who lives in Coral Gables, is serving a three-year term on the 15-member board. In early 2004, he was appointed to the Membership and Organizational Structure Committee for Easter Seals nationwide. For the last two years, he has served on the Finance Committee.
He has served as chair of Easter Seals Miami-Dade - where he has been a member of the board for more than 15 years. He has also represented Easter Seals Miami-Dade as a member of Easter Seals National House of Delegates since 1997. Recently he served on a committee that facilitated the merger of Easter Seals Miami-Dade and Easter Seals Broward into Easter Seals South Florida. He continues to serve Easter Seals South Florida as a member of its Executive Committee and as Chairman of its President's Council.
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Five Rossman Baumberger lawyers named top lawyers
In South Florida Legal Guide
November 2006 - All four name partners at the law firm Rossman, Baumberger, Reboso & Spier were voted by their peers as South Florida's top lawyers in the 2007 edition of the South Florida Legal Guide. Firm member Peter Baumberger was named a top "Up and Comer." The publication is issued every fall by South Florida CEO Magazine. Its website is www.southfloridaceo.com
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Jury awards $5.2 million to family in medical malpractice case
July 17, 2006 - A Broward Circuit Court jury awarded $5.2 million to the survivors of a man who dropped dead of arrhythmia in 1996, two days after he was discharged from a Broward County, Fl., hospital.
The jury reached its decision after 3 ½ hours of deliberations and a 4 1/2-week trial. The family was represented by Charles Baumberger and Lincoln Connolly of the Miami plaintiff trial law firm Rossman, Baumberger, Reboso & Spier.
On April 27, 1996, Anthony Pile, then a 58-year-old Coral Springs telemarketer, suffered what he thought was indigestion.. Early on April 28, he went to the emergency room at Coral Springs Medical Center where he was diagnosed as having suffered a heart attack. Around noon the next day, Pile was transferred to the Florida Medical Center in Lauderdale Lakes, where was treated by Dr. Carr. Carr performed tests and determined that both sides of Pile’s heart suffered failure.
According to Baumberger, Carr left for a long weekend on May 2, and put Pile in the care of one of his colleagues, Dr. Ghitis., who discharged Pile from the hospital on May 4. Two days later, Pile dropped dead from arrhythmia while his wife was at work and his children were at school.
In 1998, his wife, Lucille, and their two minor sons filed suit for malpractice and wrongful death against doctors, including Carr and Pile’s primary care doctor, Hector Felipe Fernandez, as well as their medical groups and the hospital. During the eight years before the case went to trial, a number of the defendants either settled or were voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiffs. The case went to trial June 19, 2006.
Baumberger said that if Pile had remained in the hospital under observation, he would have survived because his irregular heart rhythms would have been noticed and treated. The attorney said there were several medical warning signs that were apparent before Pile was discharged, but that Dr. Ghitis either didn’t notice them or didn’t appreciate their significance. These included arrhythmia.
Judge Thomas Lynch granted a directed verdict in favor of Dr. Carr July 17, leaving only Dr. Ghitis for the jury. After deliberating for 3 1/2 hours, the jury found Dr. Ghitis 92.5 percent responsible for Pile’s death and Dr. Fernandez 7.5 percent responsible. The jurors awarded the Pile family a total of $5.2 million. Fernandez was named in the initial complaint but his case didn’t come to trial. Baumberger declined to say whether Fernandez settled. Because of comparative negligence, Ghitis will be responsible for paying $4.8 million of the verdict.
The estate of Anthony Oliver Pile, Lucille Pile, surviving wife, Jason Pile, surviving son, and Travis Pile, surviving son v. Matthew L. Carr, M.D., P.A., and Arnold Ghitis, M.D. Case no.: 98-4657, Broward Circuit Court
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All four Rossman Baumberger name partners
Named as "Florida Super Lawyers"
July 2006 - All four name partners at the Miami trial law firm Rossman, Baumberger, Reboso & Spier have been named as among Florida's top lawyers in Florida Super Lawyers magazine.
The honor - the result of ballots sent to 44,000 lawyers with more than five years' experience - is accorded to 5 percent of Florida's 58,000 lawyers.
The publication is published by the Law & Politics in Minneapolis. Its web site is www.superlawyers.com
Partners Stephen Rossman and Charles Baumberger, who founded the law firm in 1974, Manuel "Alex" Reboso and Howard Spier were all listed.
Rossman and Reboso were listed among the top lawyers in the field of products liability, Baumberger in medical malpractice and Spier in transportation/maritime.
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Chuck Baumberger voted among 'Legal Elite'
In Florida Trend magazine
July 2006 - Charles Baumberger, partner and co-founder of the Miami trial law firm Rossman, Baumberger, Reboso & Spier, has been named among the state's top lawyers in Florida Trend magazine's "Legal Elite."
Mr. Baumberger was among 1,031 attorneys chosen statewide, and was among the leading lawyers in the "civil trial" category.
Rossman, Baumberger, Reboso & Spier, has represented plaintiffs in catastrophic personal injury cases since Baumberger and co-founder Steve Rossman founded the firm together in 1974. Mr. Baumberger lives in Pinecrest.
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Developer sued in fatal Bal Harbour condo tragedy;
lawyers say accident underscores greater problems
May 22, 2006 – Attorneys for the family of one of three workers killed in a May 6 accident on a Bal Harbour, Florida, high-rise building sued the developer in Miami on Monday.
The family of Menes Daniel, 48, of North Miami Beach - who was buried alive in concrete in the accident – sued WCI Communities for negligence. They are represented by the Miami law firm Rossman, Baumberger Reboso & Spier. the
Daniel and three other workers – Cornelio Ruiz, Torivio Acevedo and Endy Guirland were working on the 26th floor of One Bal Harbour at 10295 Collins Avenue, when a structural support above them collapsed, trapping them in quick-dry concrete and debris. Ruiz was injured, the others killed.
(SOLANGE DANIEL and WILNITE DANIEL v. WCI COMMUNITIES, INC., Case No. 06-09841 CA 24, 11th Judicial Circuit, Miami-Dade Circuit Court. Suit attached.)
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Miami Herald editorial: May 30, 2006
Compassion due
OUR OPINION: GIVE THE DANIEL FAMILY VISAS TO ATTEND FATHER'S FUNERAL
Preventing Menes Daniel's family from attending his funeral will only add to the pain and tragedy of his death for family members. Mr. Daniel died in a horrible construction mishap. He and two co-workers were buried under rubble and quick-drying cement four weeks ago. But his widow and two children in Haiti won't be able to grieve among loved ones. That's because the U.S. Consulate in Port-au-Prince has denied them visas to come to the funeral set for Saturday.
This heartless decision will deprive mourners of the chance to offer their respects to a father who came here to provide for his family. Mr. Daniel, a U.S. legal resident, worked six days a week to send money to his common-law wife, Saint-Rose Guerrier, his daughter Bedline, 24, and his son Bedlin, 17, in Haiti. He lived with his sister, Solange Daniel, and her five children in North Miami Beach.
Solange Daniel, a U.S. citizen, pledged to provide for her sister-in-law, niece and nephew during their visit and to see that they return to Haiti. Mr. Daniel's employer offered to pay their airfare, she said.
Mr. Daniel's death was cruel enough. The cold response to the visa request piles on insult to injury. Unfortunately, Ms. Guerrier and her children have no property or steady jobs -- like the vast majority of Haitians. Thus, they couldn't ''prove'' to the satisfaction of the consular office that they would return home. In short, they are guilty of being poor and Haitian, two categories that the United States has long tried to stop from coming here.
Sen. Bill Nelson has been pressing for the Daniels' visas. So, too, should other South Florida lawmakers. This case is not about immigration. It is about a family that has suffered a terrible loss that demands compassion. The State Department should find room for humanitarian discretion.
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Chuck Baumberger named Florida's Trial Lawyer of the Year by FLABOTA
July 2005 - The Florida Chapters of the American Board of Trial Advocates have named Charles H. (Chuck) Baumberger recipient of FLABOTA's 2005 Trial Lawyer of the Year.
Mr. Baumberger, a Pinecrest resident and founding partner with the South Florida plaintiff's trial law firm Rossman, Baumberger, Reboso & Spier, P.A., was recognized for his "superb reputation of high ethics and fair play and his distinguished legal career as an outstanding member of the plaintiffs' bar."
"Chuck Baumberger personifies everything that is great about the legal profession: courage, compassion, integrity, trial excellence," said 2005 FLABOTA President Herman Russomanno in giving the award to Mr. Baumberger at a special dinner at The Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables July 15. "He is a mentor and teacher and has trained lawyers throughout the country."
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