NOTABLE CASES & SUCCESS STORIES

ALL METAL SALES, INC. vs. ALL METAL SOURCE, LLC

January 9, 2012

Location: Northern District, OH

Practice Area: Trademark

Plaintiff: All Metal Sales Inc

Outcome: Jury verdict in client’s favor following a trial

Description: Plaintiff sued Mr. Drain’s client for trademark infringement, claiming that his client’s name was too similar to its name. Both parties engaged in the metal brokerage business in the same city in Northeast Ohio. In his casework, Drain proved his client had no intention to confuse customers with the trade name, and the jury agreed. 

GARRETT V. CLEVELAND

April 21, 2005

Location: Cleveland, OH

Practice Area: State, Local & Municipal Law

Plaintiff (John’s party): Billy Garrett

Outcome: Trial court judgment reversed and remanded

Description according to this party: Plaintiff sued City of Cleveland because the city demolished a house he was rehabbing without engaging in the proper procedures to demolish same. The property was condemned two years before Plaintiff purchased it, but Plaintiff spent $35,000 to fix it up. City building inspectors went to the site and knew that the property had been substantially repaired. The trial court entered summary judgment in favor of the city. On appeal, the appellate court held that genuine issues of material fact existed and returned the case to the trial court.

GURICH V. JANSON

Oct. 27, 1998

Location: Ashtabula County, Ohio

Practice Area: Real estate

Plaintiffs: William and Marsha Gurich

Outcome: Judgment for Plaintiffs

Description according to this party: Father promised his daughter that she and her husband could own the dairy farm they had been working for years when the mortgage on the property was paid off. Daughter and her husband paid the mortgage payment as agreed, but Father reneged on his promise to convey the property to them. Daughter and husband sued Father for specific performance of his oral promise to convey the farm to them. Court ordered Father to sign the deed to the farm over to the daughter and her husband.

LEISTIKO V. STONE, SECRETARY OF THE ARMY

January 23, 1998

Location: Cincinnati, OH

Practice Area: Employment / Labor

Plaintiff (John’s party): Fred Leistiko

Outcome: Summary judgment affirmed

Description according to this party: Plaintiff was a federal employee working as a technician in the Ohio National Guard. After an incident in a plane in which the plaintiff suffered a period of hypoxia, his flight status was taken away, but he remained a rated aviator. Plaintiff sued, alleging that he was deprived of property, to wit, his employment, without due process of law. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the National Guard Technicians Act was trumped by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 in this case so as to deprive the plaintiff of a right to judicial review because his job was military in nature.

HIGGINS V. STUMPF DBA

January 19, 1989

Location: Cleveland, OH

Practice Area: Slip and Fall Accident

Plaintiff (John’s party): Lloyd E. Higgins

Outcome: Settled for $289,000

Description according to this party: Plaintiff was a customer in a restaurant who slipped and fell on the ceramic tile as he was exiting the restaurant. The tile was wet at the time. Plaintiff suffered an extensive brain injury as a result of the fall.

CANTY V. COAST GUARD

June 10, 1985

Location: Cleveland, OH

Practice Area: Discrimination

Plaintiff (John’s party): Bernard J. Canty

Outcome: Judgment for Plaintiff Description according to this party: Plaintiff was a merchant seaman who had his seaman’s card taken away because he failed to take his epilepsy medication and had a seizure. We proved that the Coast Guard regulation requiring him to be seizure-free for one year, when other seamen with medical disabilities were not so burdened, was unreasonable and discriminatory, so the court ordered the restoration of his seaman’s card.