Wood Smith Henning & Berman's New Jersey office secured a voluntary dismissal with prejudice of all claims against a fire protection company in an action seeking more than $1 million in damages. Partner Deborah Davison and Senior Associate Kevin Lenihan handled the defense, obtaining a complete resolution without any settlement payment from the client or its insurance carrier.
The plaintiff, a residential and commercial moving company, had retained the client for more than 20 years to inspect the fire suppression system at its facility. After learning in 2023 that the sprinkler system did not comply with applicable codes, the plaintiff replaced the entire system, overhauled its operations, and sued the client. Its allegations included breach of contract, fraud, intentional misrepresentation, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, unjust enrichment, and wanton and malicious conduct. The plaintiff sought compensatory, consequential, and punitive damages.
WSHB assumed the defense after the litigation was underway. The team focused on the scope of the services the plaintiff purchased. The client's contractual obligations were limited to functional testing of the fire suppression system; they did not encompass the broader code compliance evaluation on which the plaintiff's claims depended.
Establishing that distinction required extensive discovery into a business relationship spanning two decades. Lenihan served comprehensive discovery demands, reviewed hundreds of files containing thousands of pages, and pursued repeated motions to compel when the plaintiff's responses were insufficient. That work provided the foundation for the deposition of the plaintiff's vice president, during which Kevin secured an admission that the witness had virtually no facts supporting the claims against the client.
"The scope of the contracts was central to our defense," said Lenihan. "We examined two decades of records and pressed for the discovery needed to establish what our client had agreed to do. The testimony we obtained reinforced the lack of factual support for the plaintiff's claims."
With the discovery record developed, the defense served a frivolous litigation letter detailing the deficiencies in the plaintiff's claims and advising that the client would seek costs and attorney's fees if required to move for summary judgment. The plaintiff responded with a $100,000 offer of judgment, substantially reducing its demand.
The defense continued to press for dismissal. The plaintiff ultimately agreed to a voluntary stipulation dismissing all claims with prejudice, bringing the litigation to a close without payment from either the client or the carrier.
"Our client faced a demand exceeding $1 million, including punitive damages, for services it had not been retained to provide," said Davison. "Once we developed the record, we continued to press for dismissal. We are pleased to have resolved every claim with prejudice, without any payment from our client or its carrier."
The result reflected the team's sustained attention to the contractual record and the evidence supporting each allegation. By establishing the limits of the client's responsibilities and testing the factual basis for the plaintiff's claims through discovery, the WSHB team positioned the matter for a complete dismissal before summary judgment proceedings became necessary.
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