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Our Firm’s Results

Romero Law, APC, has realized a number of settlements and verdicts, and the following is a small sample that demonstrates the successful results that our experienced attorneys have achieved in various cases.

$1,000,00 Verdict

Jose Garza v. City of Parlier
Fresno Superior Court Case No. 21CECG09253

LINK TO COMPLAINT

ABC30 FRESNO NEW COVERAGE

On September 16, 2024 a Fresno Superior Court jury awarded former Parlier Police Department Chief Jose Garza $1,000,000 in his whistleblower retaliation lawsuit against his former employer, the City of Parlier. Chief Garza (presently the Chief of the Coalinga Police Department) was terminated due to his refusal to participate in the coverup of the felony embezzlement of public funds by a city employee, protected by Mayor Alma Beltran. The City Manager, controlled by Mayor Beltran, ordered Garza and an outside investigator to cease communicating with the Fresno County District Attorney about the embezzlement and to shut down the investigation. Chief Garza refused this illegal order, and the jury found that he was unlawfully fired as a direct result.

The verdict was a huge vindication for Chief Garza, and proved that he was illegally fired by a cabal of three members of the Parlier City Council who were under the total control of Mayor Beltran. Chief Garza stated that his reputation earned from 40 years of unblemished law enforcement experience was completely shattered by Mayor Beltran and the City of Parlier. It is hoped that this verdict will serve as an inflection point not in Chief Garza’s life, but in the political future of the City of Parlier.

$6 Million Settlement

Zack Martinsek v. Dave, Inc.
Los Angeles Superior Court Case No. 19STCV42195

Plaintiff was a founder of fintech startup Dave, Inc., and developed a proprietary algorithm that became the basis of Dave’s entire business model. Plaintiff exercised stock options prior to leaving the company, but Dave, Inc. later claimed that those shares had been rescinded. After years of litigation, and the startup achieving a billion dollar “unicorn” market capitalization, the firm was successful in establishing Plaintiff’s ownership rights in 676,874 common shares in Dave, Inc., resulting in this historic settlement vindicating the rights of this startup founder against the company that he helped establish.

$1.1 Million Settlement

Confidential v. Confidential
Los Angeles Superior Court

Age and disability discrimination in violation of the Fair Employment and Housing Act against a large, national employer.

$8.1 Million Jury Verdict

Andrew Rodriguez v. County of Los Angeles (Sheriff’s Department)
Los Angeles Superior Court Case No. BC680213

A Los Angeles jury was unanimous in its findings that the LA Sheriff’s Department engaged in unlawful retaliation and harassment against Deputy Rodriguez, who had complained about unlawful race-based police stops at City of Industry Station in 2014.

The jury also unanimously found true the allegations that now-Undersheriff Timothy Murakami began a campaign of harassment and retaliation against Deputy Rodriguez, which ranged from launching multiple Internal Affairs investigations against him, harassing him at his home off of work hours, and falsely accusing Deputy Rodriguez of pulling out his gun and threatening to kill an unarmed suspect.

$10 Million Result

Anchor Bay Entertainment, LLC v. John Yuka & Giulia Family Trust, et al.
Los Angeles Superior Court Case No. BC496060
Cancellation of Fraudulent Transfer Documents and Trust Deeds for $10MM Property

After the entry of a judgment for fraud as against a tortfeasor, the individual was found by the Court to have engaged in the fraudulent transfer of a certain piece of real property valued at time of trial in the range of $10 million. After extensive discovery and numerous pre-trial disputes related to expert witness testimony, the firm obtained total vindication at trial, with a finding that the transferor engaged in a fraudulent transfer in order to avoid creditors, and that an additional $3 million trust deed recorded as against the property was a fraudulent artifice.

Both the fraudulent Quitclaim Deed and Trust Deed were cancelled by the Court after an exhaustive trial, the firm having dismantled the fraudulent scheme after years of abusive litigation and discovery practices intended to further the fraudulent scheme in question.

$3 Million Jury Verdict

STARZ Home Entertainment, LLC v. Lindsay Dunlap and Ember Entertainment
Los Angeles Superior Court Case No. BC373707

After persevering in the face of over three years of “scorched earth” litigation tactics by the Defendants, the firm obtained a $3,054,694.45 jury verdict in a television chain-of-title fraud action on behalf of its client, STARZ Home Entertainment, LLC. This amount included amounts for breach of contract, fraud, as well as substantial punitive damages against the Defendants, jointly and severally. Further, the firm was able to pierce the corporate veil based on extensive forensic accounting work distilled from tens of thousands of produced documents which  provided overwhelming evidence that the corporate entity Defendant existed only as an alter ego created for the sole purpose of facilitating the fraud perpetrated by the individual, alter ego defendant.

Successful Appeal Defense

Lindsay Dunlap v. STARZ Home Entertainment, LLC
Second District Court of Appeals Case No. B230069
Jury Verdict for Intentional Misrepresentation (Fraud) Upheld

Defendant appealed an adverse jury verdict against her and her alter ego at time of trial. The 2nd District Court of appeals affirmed the jury verdict for intentional misrepresentation (fraud) after more than two years of briefings, supplemental briefings, motions, and oral argument pertaining to a complex legal dispute related to a contractual forum selection clause that was determined to be legally ineffectual on appeal.

$1.5 Million Settlement

Rebecca Bolanos v. Darbun Enterprises, Inc., Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, et al.
Los Angeles Superior Court Case No. BC354361

The Plaintiff was one year old when she underwent surgery to remove a benign cystic hygroma from her neck. As a result of post-surgical care that was alleged to be below the standard of care, the Plaintiff suffered a severe brain injury as the result of a sustained anoxic insult. The Plaintiff was rendered catastrophically and permanently brain damaged as a result, necessitating round-the-clock medical care for the remainder of her life. The ensuing litigation proved as complex as the injury itself, and the matter was fully and finally resolved after nearly four years of litigation and a major shift in California resulting from a published appellate decision.

Increased Medical Compensation

Rebecca Bolanos v. Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles
169 Cal.App.4th 744, 87 Cal.Rptr.3d 174
Petition for Writ of Mandate granted.

An ancillary action to Bolanos v. Darbun, this appeal in the California Court of Appeal for the Second District sought to have the Court compel the Director of the California Department of Health Services to abide by the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Arkansas Dept. of Health and Human Servs. V. Ahlborn (2006) 547 U.S. 268 and Welfare & Institutions Code $14124.72(d) in calculating the amount of reimbursable expenses claimed by the Department in cases where medical care was provided to injured minors by and through the Medi-Cal program. The Court differentiated between past and future medical expenses in the calculation of the appropriate reimbursement amount in cases involving injured minors such as in this instance, utilizing a ratio between the settlement amount and the total claim asserted in order to ascertain the Medi-Cal lien amount. The matter was remanded to the trial court to determine the appropriate lien amount, which resulted in a substantially larger recovery amount on behalf of the minor client and a reversal of then-existing California law.

$1.5 Million Judgment

Alejandra Bolanos, et al. v. Miguel A. Bolanos
Los Angeles Superior Court Case No. BC509791

Defendant put into motion a scheme by which he engaged in an international kidnapping of the Plaintiff, then a minor.  Despite the difficulties of effectuating service on an international fugitive residing outside of the United States, judgment was entered and said judgment was executed as against frozen assets of the Defendant which had been interpled into the Court.

$20 Million Result

Confidential v. Confidential
Dissolution Proceedings
Marital settlement resulting in an estimated savings of $7 million to client.

Realized a marital settlement which resulted the client-spouse a savings in excess of $7 million in a matter which involved highly complex accounting and Federal law issues.

$1.6 Million Result

Confidential v. Confidential
Dissolution Proceedings
Marital settlement resulting in an estimated savings of $1,600,000 to client.

Obtained a highly favorable result for a family law client which resulted in a net savings to the client in excess of $1.6 million. This result was obtained in light of the widespread use of highly abusive litigation tactics by opposing counsel, to no avail.

Action for fraud and breach of written contract related to a series of securities investments in a now-defunct NASDAQ-listed medical technology concern. Judgment in favor of Plaintiff coupled with a successful execution upon real property owned by Defendants.