Last year there was much to-do in the papers about a Muslim man and orthodox Jewish (Hasidic) woman going into business together in two Dunkin’ Donuts franchises. Both have spouses and four young children.

Essam "Sam" Habib and Hindy "Cindy" Gluck met while she was a real estate broker showing him store locations. They decided to pool their life savings and, in 2005, opened a Dunkin’ Donuts franchise on Church Avenue at East 17th Street in Flatbush, Brooklyn. In 2006 they opened another Dunkin’ Donuts franchise, on Flatbush Avenue and Sixth Avenue, in Brooklyn.

Habib is the majority shareholder and Gluck owns less than 50% of the business. He goes to his mosque to pray on Fridays and she takes off on Saturdays to observe the Jewish Sabbath, leaving him in charge.

The doughnuts are brought in from a kosher bakery. On Jewish holidays, Ms. Gluck transfers her share of the business to Mr. Habib, because she is not allowed to earn money on those holy days.

Neither Habib or Gluck take any money from the profits made from selling pork products, such as bacon, sausage and ham. They give away the sales proceeds from those items.

The New York Times noted last year that because of a contract dispute, Mr. Habib and Ms. Gluck were selling their stores back to Dunkin’ Donuts. But the truth is nastier. A fight broke out because Gluck tried to sell a small part of her portion of the business to two employees.

Now, Dunkin’ Donuts has an interest in controlling who runs its franchised restaurants. Dunkin’ makes certain that the owners and operators of its restaurants are qualified to run a first-class operation, so that they will do nothing to tarnish the Dunkin’ Donuts name – a very valuable name and trademark, indeed. Because of this, almost every business franchise agreement in the world, and certainly the Dunkin’ Donuts franchise agreement, provides that Dunkin’ Donuts headquarters must approve any sale or transfer of ownership interest.

The point is this. While Gluck tried to sell part of her ownership interest to her employees, she could not legally do so without the approval of Dunkin’ Donuts headquarters. So that any sale she made without that approval – as was the case here – was and is null and void. Being reasonable people, you and I would say that, there being no injury here, "No harm, no foul." But Dunkin’ Donuts h.q. felt differently and sued to terminate Habib and Gluck’s franchise for violation of their franchise agreement. Why would Dunkin’ Donuts do that?

The owners allege, essentially, that Dunkin’ is trying to rip them off. On March 23, 2008 the New York Post reported that Dunkin' Donuts offered Habib and Gluck "a munchkin-sized buyout of $400,000 for the two stores they opened - stores they could resell for $700,000 or $800,000 each. And when the partners solicited offers elsewhere, Dunkin' Donuts nixed the deals - even though the potential buyers came from a corporate-approved list . . . ".

Habib and Gluck memorialized their claim in their legal response to Dunkin’ Donuts’ lawsuit against them (called an Answer), a lawsuit started by Dunkin’ in Brooklyn Federal court, by alleging that:

(1) Dunkin’ has a "scheme . . . to sell franchises to persons seeking to better themselves in the business world";

(2) Dunkin’ Donuts’ franchise agreement is "one-sided, unilateral and non-negotiable";

(3) Dunkin’ seeks "to find a technical violation of the franchise agreement," which is one that "does not affect the operation of the franchise or the integrity or honesty of the franchisee or the funds that [Dunkin gets]";

(4) Dunkin’ deliberately looks to create a default of the franchise agreement to force franchisees to pay penalties or sell their stores, "all of which enriches [Dunkin’ Donuts’] bottom line";

(5) Dunkin Donuts’ conduct "is unconscionable" and violates the law and "constitutes a fraud."

What do you think, Dear Readers?

Commentary: You can’t know the whole story just from newspaper accounts and reviewing court papers, but in my opinion it seems that Dunkin’ is (what we used to call as kids) "dirty-fighting."

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

A few minutes after midnight this past Sunday morning, Khalid Hussain, age 63, of Brooklyn, was struck by a police car while crossing the street. He died from his injuries. The accident occurred at Coney Island Avenue between Avenue C and Cortelyou Road, in Brooklyn.

Police say that Hussain "lurched" into the marked police car. Other reports say that he stepped out in the middle of the street, while looking away from the direction from which the police car was coming.

The police officers were not on an emergency call, and did not have on their emergency lights and siren. The officers passed mandatory Breathalyzer tests.

Hussain was pronounced dead at Lutheran Hospital.

Commentary: In an emergency situation, the police can not be held liable for simple negligence, under New York’s Vehicle and Traffic Law Section 1104. The City of New York may be required to respond in damages for personal injury only if the officer's conduct demonstrates a reckless disregard for the safety of others, which is defined as "the conscience or intentional doing of an act of an unreasonable character in disregard of a known or obvious risk so great as to make it highly probable that harm would follow and done with conscience indifference to the outcome." In plain English, it’s near impossible to sue police fire or ambulance for a motor vehicle accident. Such cases are routinely thrown out of court.  Note thast this case presents a non-emergency, an entirely different circumstance.

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

A 91-year-old woman is fighting for her life after her legs were cut off in a hit-and-run accident at about 10:30 A.M. in the Bronx. A truck hit her and kept going; there are also reports that a car may have struck her after the truck and also taken off.

The gruesome occurrence took place at E. Gun Hill Road and DeKalb Avenue, while Anna Rogovin was crossing the street. Rogovin, who walked very slowly and used a cane, was likely going to the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center, which serves lunch and has programs for senior citizens.

She served as a U.S. Navy WAVE (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) in World War II.

Rogovin was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital after the accident and was in critical condition from her injury.

Commentary: What can you say about a driver who would run down a senior citizen and leave her lying in the street?

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

FROM A PRESS RELEASE:

Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau announced today the indictment of 11 persons for operating a fraudulent "medical mill" that bilked insurance companies of more than $6.2 million. Among the defendants, charged in an 84-count indictment with Enterprise Corruption and other criminal offenses, are three medical doctors, a chiropractor, two acupuncturists, and 10 corporations. Two other people who assisted in the criminal affairs of the enterprise have been charged in separate indictments.

The enterprise charged in the indictment used so-called "runners" to stage phony motor vehicle accidents and bring ostensibly injured parties to a clinic at 1090 St. Nicholas Avenue in Manhattan. Services at the clinic were provided by medical doctors and other healthcare professionals, who were part of the enterprise. In the case of staged accidents, there were no actual injuries to treat, but the medical providers prescribed unnecessary treatments, procedures and medical equipment, falsified medical records and other documents and submitted false claims to insurance companies. In some instances, the services billed for were provided only in part or not provided at all. The enterprise followed the same fraudulent practices with persons who came into the clinic with injuries from real accidents, billing insurers for treatment or equipment that either was unnecessary or was not actually provided.

At the top of the criminal enterprise’s hierarchy was GREGORY VINARSKY and the companies he incorporated. VINARSKY paid the "runners" to stage car accidents and bring uninjured passengers to the enterprise’s clinic. VINARSKY was not a licensed physician and for that reason could not legally exercise control over the clinic. However, he did exercise control and directed the medical providers to prescribe unnecessary tests, procedures, durable medical equipment and other medically unnecessary courses of treatment. Further VINARSKY used his four companies, VIGAR MANAGEMENT CO., INC., UPPERSIDE MGT. CO., INC., SAINT NICHOLAS AVE. REALTY, INC. and REVICK REALTY, INC., and their bank accounts, to conceal his operation and control of the professional corporations and to launder the proceeds of the criminal scheme. More than $3.5 million of the insurance proceeds illegally taken in by the enterprise was traced to VINARSKY and his four companies.

The next tier of the criminal enterprise included medical doctors, other licensed healthcare providers, and the professional corporations they used to conduct business. All the providers worked out of the St. Nicholas Avenue clinic. Among them were ARON GOLDMAN, a medical doctor, and his professional corporation, SAINT NICHOLAS AV. MEDICAL CARE, P.C.; CHANTAL HILAIRE, a medical doctor; MATTHEW KESCHNER, a chiropractor, and his two professional corporations, MATTHEW G. KESCHNER, D.C., P.C. and CHIROPRACTIC SPECIALTIES OF NEW YORK, LLC; YAKOV BLETNITSKIY, an acupuncturist, and his professional corporation, ORIENT ACUPUNCTURE SERVICE, P.C.; YING MU, an acupuncturist; and ROMAN TABAKMAN, a medical doctor, and his professional corporations, EAST SIDE NEURO DIAGNOSTICS, P.C. and ROMAN MEDICAL SERVICES, P.C.

According to the indictment, the health care providers, GOLDMAN, HILAIRE, KESCHNER, BLETNITSKIY, MU, and TABAKMAN, all falsified medical reports, patient evaluations, and other documents for submission to insurance carriers in support of fraudulent claims for reimbursement, and they routinely prescribed unnecessary tests, procedures, durable medical equipment, and other medically unnecessary courses of treatment to facilitate the criminal scheme. GOLDMAN, KESCHNER, BLETNITSKIY, and TABAKMAN also used their professional corporations and their bank accounts to launder the proceeds of the group’s criminal scheme and to conceal VINARSKY’S unlawful control of the professional corporations.

The next tier of the enterprise comprised clinic employees responsible for administration of the medical clinic, communication with patients, transportation of patients, and preparation of documents and billing for submission to insurance carriers. It is alleged that NIDIA CORADIN, who was the front desk manager at the clinic, solicited patients, paid runners who brought uninjured passengers to the clinic for treatment, falsified prescriptions and other medical documents, and directed patients to falsify no-fault insurance applications, receipts for durable medical equipment, and other documents. This tier also included clinic employees who acted as technicians and performed medical tests and procedures, such as biofeedback, electrocardiograms, and nerve conduction studies. NIRMALEE MARRERO, TABAKMAN’S technical assistant, falsified medical reports and other documents for submission to insurance carriers, and NATALIA NEVEROVA, administered bogus biofeedback procedures to patients, thereby enabling members of the enterprise to submit falsified medical reports and other documents to facilitate the group’s criminal scheme.

The fourth tier was made up of runners, including CORADIN and ELEUTERIO SUERO. The indictment charges that ELEUTERIO SUERO, who was paid to stage car accidents and bring uninjured passengers to the clinic, forced another runner, at gun point, to stage an accident.

Defendant Information:

GREGORY VINARSKY a/k/a Gary Vinarsky, DOB: 3/29/46
176 E. 71st St., 6D
New York, NY 10021

ARON GOLDMAN, DOB: 8/26/51
1621 3rd Ave., 4A
New York, NY 10021

CHANTAL HILAIRE, DOB: 5/27/62
15 Melton E. Drive
Rockville Center, NY 11570

MATTHEW KESCHNER, DOB: 10/15/72
240 E. 86th St., 5E
New York, NY 10028

YAKOV BLETNITSKIY, DOB: 6/13/95
150 E 61st St., 6E
New York, NY 10065

YING MU, DOB: 6/25/35
61-56 Austin St.
Rego Park, NY 11374

ROMAN TABAKMAN, DOB: 8/9/55
409 Center Street
Fort Lee, NJ

NIRMALEE MARRERO, DOB: 5/24/75
1150 St. Lawrence Ave., B
Bronx, NY 10472

NATALIA NEVEROVA, DOB: 7/3/74
2926 Brighton place
Brooklyn, NY 11235

NIDIA CORADIN, DOB: 8/22/69
1504 Amsterdam Ave., 3A
New York, NY 10031

ELEUTERIO SUERO, a/k/a Tim, a/k/a Jose, DOB: 9/9/77
601 W. 185th St.
New York, NY 11230

MARGARET DEJESUS, DOB: 7/14/68
638 Underhill Ave., 2
Bronx, NY 10473

MARGARITA SERPER, DOB: 1/16/64
5 Pasture Lane
Roslyn Heights, NY 11577

Commentary:  So there were two different, overlapping schemes. One with phony accidents and pretend injuries, and a second with actual accidents and exaggerated or pretend injuries.

Apparently a "runner" alerted cops to the scheme. Then undercover officers posed as runners and pretended to join in the corruption.

Of course there had to be lawyers in on this too. Just wait and see if I’m right. Betcha there are attorney arrests to follow.

My condolences to any patients with a legitimate case and injury that treated at the St. Nicholas Avenue facility. Their medical records are in the prosecutor’s office; their doctors unavailable to testify at trial, and may be going to jail; and their cases ruined because the clinic that treated them is known to be crooked. For more on this, see my FREE book, "Good Lawyers Don’t Call You First."

From:  New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

The time: this past Sunday at around 6:00 A.M.

The place: the southbound Cross Island Parkway near Northern Boulevard in Queens.

What happened:

FIRST: An SUV crashed into the center divider, then ricocheted into the right-hand lane of traffic; the driver was not injured. Her loss of control may have been caused by ice on the roadway.

SECOND: A tow truck arrived on the accident scene and parked behind the SUV.

THIRD: A 2005 Hyundai also lost control struck the tow truck. The driver, not injured in the accident, parked between the tow truck and the SUV..

FOURTH: As the three vehicles' drivers stood by the side of the road, a driving a late-model Mercedes veered to the right side and plowed into the rear of the tow truck. The Mercedes
caught fire. The Mercedes' driver, Emmanuel Rosa, 25, of Freeport, Long Island, could not escape and burned to death.

The Mercedes’ passenger escaped the automobile, but was injured and was taken to North Shore University Hospital.

Emmanuel Rosa had a suspended driver’s license; no one has been arrested or charged in connection with the accidents.

Commentary: It’s amazing and a stroke of luck for the others at the accident scene that only the occupants of the Mercedes were hurt.

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

ATTORNEY DISCIPLINE

Matter of Arelia M. Taveras

Second Department
Admitted to N.Y.S. Bar: 2002

Discipline imposed: Disbarred (on default) in June 23, 2007

There is a wonderful word in the Yiddish language that many of you may know: chutzpah. Simply put, chutzpah translates into "colossal nerve." A classic example of chutzpah – in a legal context – is that of a man who murders his parents and then begs the judge for mercy because he is an orphan. The disbarment case I wish to discuss has taken a recent turn from fabulous greed and larceny resulting in the disbarment of attorney Taveras, into Chutzpahville, truly a strange place to visit.

According to newspaper reports, Taveras had a fairly lucrative and successful law practice representing the families of airplane accident victims. Her short legal career was highlighted by appearances as a T.V. commentator and by being named one of the "21 New Yorkers to Watch in the 21st Century" by the New York Daily News in the year 2000.

Her fall from grace starts (sort of) on February 20, 2007, with Ms. Taveras’ suspension from the practice of law by the Appellate Division, Second Department. This was a rather unusual early or immediate suspension, intended to protect the public. The Court found that Taveras, "[w]as guilty of professional misconduct immediately threatening the public interest based upon uncontroverted evidence of professional misconduct." The Court also appointed a Special Referee (a retired judge) to look over Taveras’ files and take action to protect her clients.

Taveras did not fight the five charges made against her by the lawyers’ Grievance Committee, which were:

*engaging in a pattern and practice of converting escrow funds entrusted to her as a fiduciary (in other words, stealing),

*knowingly providing altered and falsified records of her attorney escrow account to the Grievance Committee,

*improperly commingling personal and fiduciary funds (mixing clients’ money with her personal money),

*improperly drawing an escrow check to cash,

*failing to maintain required records for her IOLA (escrow) account.

She was found in default and deemed to have admitted the truth of the charges against her. Then she was disbarred.

This story is not nearly over. We now turn to a press release from the Queens County District Attorney, issued on November 28, 2007, which has the following heading:

"D.A. BROWN: TWO QUEENS ATTORNEYS CHARGED WITH RAIDING THEIR
ESCROW ACCOUNTS AND STEALING NEARLY $200,000 FROM CLIENTS"

District Attorney Brown said, "According to the charges, the defendants not only violated the trust that their clients placed in them but they let down the entire legal system which counts on members of the bar to conduct themselves in an ethical matter. Each of the attorneys has been disbarred, and each now faces serious criminal charges."

District Attorney Brown identified the defendants as Arelia Taveras, 46, presently of Bloomington, Minnesota, and Mark Jacobs, 58, of Glen Head, New York. Taveras, accused of stealing a total of $99,142 from four clients, was charged with three counts of third-degree grand larceny, second-degree forgery, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing and scheme to defraud. Jacobs was charged with second-degree grand larceny for allegedly stealing $91,564 from a client. If convicted, Taveras faced up to seven years in prison.

I’m sure you may not care how Taveras ended up in Minnesota. But I’m wondering.

District Attorney Brown also said that, according to a criminal complaint, Taveras accepted $2,500 from a buyer as a contract deposit and an additional $22,500 as a down payment on a cooperative apartment in Bayside that the defendant was selling. It is alleged further that the buyer’s application was subsequently denied by the cooperative board, but when she tried to get her deposit back Taveras allegedly refused. After numerous requests, according to the criminal complaint, the buyer received a call from Taveras’ lawyer stating that she would not repay the money and that she was in a rehabilitation center in Colorado.

In addition, according to the criminal complaint, Taveras is accused of ripping off three clients including one who retained her in connection with a real estate transaction. The complaint charges that Taveras failed to release $10,000 of the client’s money that was held in escrow. Another client was allegedly bilked of $30,000 after retaining the defendant to represent her in the sale of commercial real estate. And finally, Taveras is accused of stealing $34,142 from a third client who allegedly retained her to represent him in connection with a divorce proceeding.

The criminal charges against Taveras are unresolved and still pending.

Now this story gets more interesting. Taveras had sent a videotape to the lawyers’ Grievance Committee saying that she took client money because of a gambling addiction and that she was remorseful.

Today the papers are reporting that Taveras has filed a $20,000,000 Federal lawsuit in United States District Court in New Jersey against seven casinos, claiming that they were responsible for her compulsively gambling way $1,000,000 and that they should have stopped her. (This is the chutzpah part.)

Taveras says her gambling problem was so over-the-top that she once spent five straight days at Resorts Casino’s tables in Atlantic City eating only chocolate candy bars and drinking orange juice. She claims that she would go for days and nights without food or sleep.

While she gambled in Las Vegas as well as Atlantic City, Taveras claims to have suffered the most damage at Resorts in Atlantic City, supposedly losing $850,000 there in two years.

According to her complaint, Taveras even played seven blackjack hands at one time so she could have an entire table to herself, while losing some $5,000 per hour.

Commentary:  Compulsive gamblers suing casinos rarely win, because the casinos claim not to know who needs help and who doesn’t. Gamblers can voluntarily bar themselves from casinos, either for a few years or for life. While they are on the list, casinos cannot solicit them. Taveras, of course, never did this.

The short of it is, that courts are reluctant to find that a casino has a duty to protect a gambler from herself.

From:  New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

A tanker truck hauling gasoline flipped over on the northbound curved ramp of the Van Wyck Expressway (North Conduit Avenue) in Queens Monday shortly after noon, bursting into flames. The unidentified driver was incinerated. No one else was injured.

Traffic was tied up for hours as firefighters sprayed the gasoline hauler with foam, and then worked to clear the roadway, which feeds into J.F.K. International Airport. The two-alarm fire blanketed the area with billowing black smoke.

Almost 300 firefighters responded to the scene. The fire – caused by the ignition of about half of the 9,000 gallons of gasoline being hauled – took more than two hours to extinguish and tied up traffic for more than six hours. Emergency personnel say that windy conditions at the Expressway helped by cooling them off.

Firefighters could not approach the truck’s cabin to extract the driver’s body even several hours after the accident, because it was too hot.

The ramp is being inspected by the State for structural damage. There is no word on when it will reopen. The cause of this accident is also being investigated.

Drivers are warned to expect heavy traffic if they're headed to J.F.K. Airport.

Air traffic at the airport was not affected.

Commentary:  Sounds like the driver took the curved ramp too fast. A lousy way to die, though; burned alive.

From:  New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

A Honda Accord struck a subway support pillar under elevated subway tracks a short while after midnight this morning on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.

Pronounced dead at the scene were: Naquana Kilpatrick, 25, and Gilberto Howard, 17.

The Accord’s teenage driver and another passenger were also injured in the accident; the driver is in critical condition and the passenger, a woman, is in stable condition. The driver was not arrested.

Commentary: I don’t know for certain, but I’m willing to bet that seatbelts were not worn here, or else the injuries would not have been so horrific. Just an educated guess, because when I see horrible crashes and the occupants of the car walking around (or into my office to see me), they were almost always wearing seatbelts. It sounds corny but I’ll say it anyway, "Seat belts work."

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

Matter of Keith G. Rubenstein

First Dept.
Admitted to Bar: 1991

Discipline imposed: Disbarred

On May 29, 2002 Rubinstein signed an employment agreement with Gem & R Management Corp., owned by a non-attorney. He agreed to be a front for Gem & R’s personal injury practice and acted as such from May 2002 through December 2004. Gem & R. was owned by one Simon Garber, the owner of several hundred taxi medallions.

Gem & R had complete authority to accept or reject clients and to set legal fees, controlled the files and checkbooks, and had paralegals that did all the legal work.

Rubinstein also filed approximately 180 false retainer statements with the N.Y.S. Office of Court Administration indicating "self" as the source of case referral, when all his clients had come from Gem & R.

Rubenstein admitted that it was even possible that he was the attorney of record on personal injury cases of which he was unaware; but that he had expanded from real estate into personal injury when his law practice was not going well and he was in the midst of a divorce

The Appellate Division held:  Even though no clients were harmed, he is guilty of serious professional misconduct, including allowing non-attorneys to exercise control over his law practice, maintaining escrow funds in a non-escrow account, and falsely holding himself out as partner with another attorney who has since been disbarred. Noting Rubinstein’s, "Total abdication of control over his practice to non-attorneys," the Court disbarred him.

Commentary:  Don’t cry for this ex-attorney: he’s a principal of real estate firm Somerset Partners, and all indications are that he’s very wealthy now, having outbid Madonna for a $35 million Upper East Side townhouse that he is planning to gut, renovate and then live in. For more on the ills of cavorting with non-lawyers on personal injury lawsuits see my free book, Good Lawyers Don’t Call You First.

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)

At 6:15 this past Thursday morning, off-duty New York police sergeant Cherrice Blount, age 39, was pulling away from a Dunkin’ Donuts in Brooklyn when a garbage truck rammed into her car.

The accident occurred on Flatlands Avenue and East 83rd Street in Canarsie.

As a result of her injuries – brain swelling and a punctured lung – doctors at Brookdale University Hospital placed her into a medically-induced coma. She is in critical but stable condition.

No charged were made against the truck driver, who works for Regency Recycling Corp.

Commentary:  Sergeant Blount was on her way to a range for weapons practice when the accident happened. Fortunately, she was wearing her seat belt.

From:  New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx)