The team of Cy Goldberg, Richard Castagna and Matthew Moroney tried a fraud and civil RICO claim against an ex-judge and a medical office. In State Farm v. Snyder, jury returned a verdict of almost $1.5 million dollars against Bernard Snyder, Esq., Hav Moeung and Philly Family Practice, Inc. The final judgment is expected to exceed $2 million dollars after the Court assesses attorneys fees and costs. Before trial, confidential settlement agreements were reached with several other defendants.
State Farm alleged that Mr. Snyder, who was formerly a judge on the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, conspired with Hav Moeung and others to run a medical office to maximize the value of personal injury claims. As part of the scheme, the office created reports listing false and exaggerated injuries, which were used by Mr. Snyder to prosecute personal injury claims on behalf of his clients. Mr. Snyder represented a large portion of the medical office’s patients. Many of the reports prepared by the medical office also listed treatments the patients never received. The jury’s verdict included $400,000 in punitive damages against Mr. Snyder personally.
This latest victory marks the firm’s third multi-million dollar win at trial. In 2009, the team of Mr. Goldberg, Mr. Castagna and Mr. Moroney won a $15.4 million dollar jury verdict in State Farm v. Lincow. In that claim, State Farm alleged that Arnold Lincow, D.O., Lawrence Forman, D.O., Richard Mintz, D.O., Stephen Hennessey, D.C., Richard Butow, D.C. along with Steven Hirsh, a pharmacist, operated a scheme that involved placing all patients on the same treatment plan, which included numerous diagnostic tests at the defendants’ testing facility and medication dispensed at the in-house pharmacy. The conspiracy also included documenting fraudulent injuries in the doctors’ reports, which were used by attorneys in personal injury claims. The defendants countersued State Farm for hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid bills, but the jury found against them.
In 2006, the team secured a verdict of over $7 million dollars against Simon Fishman, Ronald Nestel, Frank Solomon, D.C., Midtown Medical Center, Inc., Physicians Practice Management Company, Inc. and Tabor Chiropractic Center, P.C. In that case, State Farm v. Midtown Medical Center, State Farm alleged that Mr. Fishman and Mr. Nestel, who were in the used car sales business, set up a chiropractic business to bilk insurance companies for services never rendered and as a means to supply Mr. Fishman’s son, who is an attorney, with clients. The office then created documentation in the staff chiropractor’s name identifying false injuries for those personal injury claims.
