In the Press

Greg Monforton and Partners

Big Tobacco

A lawsuit against a major tobacco company that is being tried in Escambia County is being closely followed by a team of Canadian lawyers interested in fighting “Big Tobacco” in their own country.

This case (Martin v. R.J Reynolds) is the first Engle case to be tried in Escambia County since the Florida Supreme Court in 2006 threw out a record $145 billion class-action verdict, known as the Engle case. The Supreme Court said each case would have to be decided individually and about 8,000 such cases have been filed around the state.

Two Canadian attorneys, Paul Harte and Brad Robitaille, are in Pensacola to follow the case which will take about four weeks to try. Harte and Robitaille are putting together a national coalition of Canadian law firms that hopes to sue the major tobacco companies in courts of each of the provinces.

Big Ideas for Small Firms

Lawsuit Settled in Death that Led to Overpass

Lawsuit Settled in Death that Led to Overpass

The children of a Windsor woman struck and killed by a tractor-trailer while crossing Huron Church Road in 2003 have settled a lawsuit against the city and a trucking company.

Lawyer Greg Monforton announced the out-of-court settlement Tuesday but declined to release the amount of the settlement at the family's request.

Huron Church Lawsuit Settled

Windsor lawyer Greg Monforton today announced that the City of Windsor and a Michigan trucking company have agreed to settle a lawsuit commenced against them by the surviving children of the late Jacqueline Bouchard.

Lawsuit Cites Timing of Stoplights

The Windsor Star
November 28, 2003

The family of a pedestrian killed by a transport truck on Huron Church Road last month is planning to sue the trucker, his employer and the City of Windsor for negligence.

Jacqueline Bouchard, 50, died after being struck by a transport truck Oct. 16 while crossing Huron Church Road at Girardot Street.

Windsor lawyer Greg Monforton said Thursday a statement of claim will be filed in Superior Court in Windsor within two weeks. He is also calling for a coroner's inquest into the accident.

Accident Seriously Injures High School Student

Teen Battles Back

A 14-year-old girl who has been in a coma since she was struck by a van in November has started showing tentative signs of recovery.

Angeline Burleigh was transferred Tuesday from Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital, where she was treated in the trauma centre, to the Metropolitan Campus of Windsor Regional Hospital. She is under the care of neurosurgeon Dr. Balraj Jhawar.

"Her physicians are describing her currently as being slightly responsive," family lawyer Greg Monforton said Thursday. "She still has a tracheotomy tube inserted, although she is not currently on a respirator."

The family of a 14-year-old Windsor girl critically injured after being hit by a vehicle while walking across Tecumseh Road West Nov. 30 has retained a lawyer to investigate a civil suit.

"We're in the midst of interviewing all the witnesses," Greg Monforton told The Star Sunday. He said is office is "very carefully and aggressively" looking into the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Hotel Dieu Grace Hospital Doctor Murders Nurse

More Names To Be Added to Dupont Civil Suit

The list of targets in the Dupont family's multimillion-dollar wrongful death civil suit is expected to grow in the wake of the coroner's inquest into the deaths of Lori Dupont and Dr. Marc Daniel.

"We will likely be adding additional defendants into the mix," Dupont family lawyer Greg Monforton told The Star Wednesday.

While not willing to divulge names, he said it was a "safe assumption" that they will be culled from the list of more than 50 witnesses heard during the 11-week inquest which concluded with the jury's verdict Tuesday.

Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital's chief of medical staff was "reckless" in assuming in the spring of 2005 that Dr. Marc Daniel was mentally ill and that it was therefore inadvisable to confront him on his "destructive" workplace behaviour, a coroner's inquest heard Tuesday.

On his second day of testimony, Dr. Arthur Kidd said he and several other medical colleagues—none of whom has psychiatric training or qualifications—made the "presumption" that Daniel was mentally ill at the time of his February 2005 suicide attempt, and that he remained mentally incompetent for several months after that.

When he was asked under cross-examination by Greg Monforton, representing murdered nurse Lori Dupont's family at the inquest, what type of mental illness Daniel suffered from, Kidd replied he was "not qualified" to say.

Toronto Star
March 25, 2006

In the nine months before her death, Lori Dupont had been harassed by Marc Daniel at the Windsor hospital where she was a recovery room nurse, and he an anesthesiologist.

He would follow Dupont into the lunchroom, trying to stare her down. He left pictures of her semi-naked on her car. When Daniel would enter the recovery room, nurses would form a circle around her, protecting her from his glare.

The mother of a nurse who was stabbed to death by a doctor at a hospital in Windsor last year says she's grateful a coroner's inquest will investigate the attack.

The family's lawyer, Greg Monforton, said the inquest will bring grieving relatives closer to learning the truth about what happened to Dupont. "Uncovering all the facts in this case is clearly in the public interest because what happened to Lori should never have happened and should never happen again," Monforton said in a release.

Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital and nine of its senior administrators and doctors face a $13.5-million lawsuit in the murder of nurse Lori Dupont.

Greg Monforton, the lawyer for Dupont's family, said Friday the hospital should not have allowed anesthetist Dr. Marc Daniel any contact with his former girlfriend.

The family of a murdered Ontario nurse has launched a $13.5 million lawsuit against her hospital and her killer's spouse.

Lori Dupont, 36, was stabbed to death at the Hotel Dieu Grace in Windsor by her former boyfriend, Dr. Marc Daniel, on November 12. Daniel, an anesthetist, was found unconscious in his car from an apparent drug overdose and died later.

Their lawyer, Greg Monforton, says the hospital allowed daniel into the facility even though it knew he was mentally unstable.

The family of a Windsor nurse who was stabbed to death at work is suing the hospital as well as the estate of the doctor who killed her.

Lori Dupont was killed in November at Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital by her former boyfriend, Dr. Marc Daniel. He died in the hospital days after injecting himself with a lethal substance shortly after killing her.

A doctor—who was charged after a nurse was stabbed to death in a hospital in Windsor, Ontario—has died.

Dr. Marc Daniel, 50, who worked at the same hospital and once had a relationship with Lori Dupont, had been in critical condition after injecting himself with a lethal substance Saturday morning.

A doctor in the southwestern Ontario city of Windsor has been charged after a nurse was stabbed to death in a hospital recovery room, police said Monday.

Dr. Marc Daniel, 50, has been charged with first-degree murder following the weekend slaying of Lori Arlene Dupont at Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital early Saturday, Windsor police said.

Tainted Tissue

21 Surgery Patients in Windsor Fear Tainted Tissue

A tainted-tissue scandal involving the sale of unscreened body parts to health-care facilities in Canada and the United States has made its way to Windsor, affecting 21 surgery patients at a major city hospital.

The media have focused on a Windsor woman who appeared on CBC's The National with her lawyer expressing concerns for her health after being contacted by hospital officials.

Windsor lawyer Greg Monforton is assisting her, and his office has fielded numerous calls for information.

He said his client is concerned about her health and that of her family, and she was scheduled to undergo blood testing yesterday to determine if she has cause for alarm stemming from spinal fusion surgery in late 2004.

Guidant Class Action Lawsuit

A national class-action lawsuit against a maker of faulty defibrillators and pacemakers has drawn interest from people in this province.

But it's too early to tell exactly how many from Newfoundland and Labrador will qualify as part of the class if the suit against Guidant Corp. proceeds and compensation is awarded.

Brad Robitaille, a managing partner with Greg Monforton and Partners in Windsor, Ont., said his firm has received correspondence from "about a half-dozen" residents of this province.

Canadian physicians who implant cardiac defibrillators are calling on Guidant Corporation and other manufacturers to notify doctors and patients as soon as device failures occur.

On August 22, lawyers James Newland, Brian Moher and Greg Monforton filed a class-action lawsuit in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice against Guidant Corporation, Guidant Canada, and subsidiaries.

"These are people who have a life-threatening condition to begin with, so on top of that, you're layering not only the risks and trauma, both physical and psychological associated with future surgery, but also the dread," Monforton said of his clients.

A class action suit being filed this week seeks redress for Canadians who have received potentially defective defibrillators and pacemakers.

"[Guidant] knew of significant problems with certain models of defibrillators and pacemakers yet did nothing to warn medical professionals and patients of these problems," personal injury lawyer Greg Monforton said in a statement announcing the class action.

Vioxx Lawsuit

A Texas jury's decision to award US$253 million to a widow who sued pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. should help Canadians pursue their own lawsuits against the maker of rofecoxib (Vioxx), says a Canadian lawyer.

Windsor, Ont., lawyer Greg Monforton is representing more than 200 Canadians who suffered a stroke or heart attack or who had family members who died while taking rofecoxib.

"We believe that most, if not all, of the documents produced in the Ernst case will be admissible in our Canadian courts because they are relevant to Merck's conduct from the time of the rofecoxib's development, approval and worldwide sales, right through until its withdrawal," says Monforton.

Drug giant Merck & Co. Inc. has suffered a severe setback in the first of thousands of lawsuits in the United States and Canada as a Texas jury awarded more than $253-million (U.S.) to the family of a man who died after taking the company's Vioxx painkiller.

"This loss means that this particular jury believed the plaintiff's story about the company's wrongful conduct, which we believe will carry into the future," said Windsor, Ontario lawyer Greg Monforton, whose firm has some 200 Vioxx clients across Canada.

A law firm in Windsor, Ontario, says it is being inundated with requests for legal help from people who took the arthritis drug Vioxx, which was pulled off the shelves over heart disease risks.

While other firms in Canada and the U.S. are trying to launch class-action lawsuits against Merck, Greg Monforton's firm expects to file hundreds of individual lawsuits.

A Windsor law firm is working toward filing hundreds of lawsuits on behalf of Canadians who suffered heart attacks or strokes while taking the controversial arthritis drug Vioxx.

Greg Monforton, a personal injury lawyer with Greg Monforton & Partners, said Tuesday five lawyers at his office are sifting through more than 3,000 inquiries from Vioxx users—roughly 15 to 20 of whom are from the Windsor area.

Bolyantu Family Sues Customs Over Death

The Windsor Star
May 26, 2005

Canada Customs and the federal government are being sued for more than $1 million in punitive and other damages by murder victim Brian Bolyantu's family, which accuses authorities of negligence in allowing a deported criminal to re-enter the country on the night he was killed.

"This killer was let into our country because our government failed to properly identify him and turn him back at the border."

"Had ... mistakes not been made, Brian Bolyantu would be alive today," Windsor lawyer Greg Monforton said Wednesday.

Relatives of a murdered Windsor man are suing border agents after his killer was allowed to enter Canada.

The family of Brian Bolyantu plans to file a lawsuit seeking over $1 million in damages from Canada Customs and the Federal Government.

Lawyer Greg Monforton, who represents the family, says Bolyantu would be alive today if customs officials had not made mistakes.

Had a Canadian border agent been a better typist, Brian Bolyantu might still be alive.

Bolyantu's killer, American Jack Monroe Pharr, was let into Canada with a .22-calibre semi-automatic pistol in his boot despite an order banning him from this country because of his criminal record.

Portus Hedge Fund Lawsuit

Boaz Manor, co-founder of hedge fund Portus Alternative Asset Management, agreed to speak with the Canadian Unit of accounting firm KPMG LLP, which is investigating possible fraud at the fund, a lawyer said.

The hedge fund, whose customers invested C$717 million ($574 million), spent C$87.6 million of the hedge fund's assets on commissions, referral fees and other expenses, investor lawyer Greg Monforton said.

A number of Portus Alternative Asset Management Inc. investors are lining up to join a class-action lawsuit while regulators dispatched investigators to conduct on-site reviews at the offices of dealers who referred clients to the beleaguered hedge fund firm.

Greg Monforton, a class-action litigator based in Windsor, Ont., said dozens of Portus investors, some with as much as $100,000 locked up, have contacted his firm since the OSC banned Portus from trading and returning funds to clients last week.

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