Former White & Case Chairman's Fatal Car Accident Results in $5.4M Settlement

January 23, 2018

By Cogan Schneier, Connecticut Law Tribune/Law.com (January 22, 2018) -- The widow of a former White & Case chairman reached a more than $5 million settlement in her wrongful death lawsuit last month.

James Hurlock, who oversaw global expansion at White & Case during the last two decades of the 20th century, died in April 2016, roughly two months after he sustained injuries in a car accident. His wife, Margaret Hurlock, sustained a permanent neck injury as well as fractured ribs and a broken thumb.

Mrs. Hurlock sued the driver of the opposite car, Sebastian Rodriguez-Boulan in September 2016 in Stamford Superior Court. Her lawyers from Silver Golub & Teitell reached a $5.4 million settlement with Rodriguez-Boulan last month, a couple months before a scheduled trial date.

Silver Golub partner Ernie Teitell said the key to reaching the settlement was the discovery that the initial police reports from the incident contained errors about the location of the vehicles on the road and road measurements. Through their own research and reconstruction of the accident, Teitell said the lawyers were able to show that Rodriguez-Boulan was responsible for the incident.

“The tragic consequences and the demonstration that it really was [Rodriguez-Boulan's] fault — I think that’s why we were able to achieve that settlement,” Teitell said. Silver Golub & Teitell attorney Marco Allocca also represented Hurlock.

Rodriguez-Boulan denied any liability in the settlement, though his payment exhausted the limits of his insurance policy.

James Hurlock worked at White & Case for 41 years, and served as chairman for 20. He served as chairman of the Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law at Columbia University. He was awarded the New York State Bar Association’s Root/Stimson Award for community service in 2010. The Hurlocks have three sons and eight grandchildren.