Bruce Broillet

Broillet has won major verdicts over the years against the tobacco industry and for a female sportscaster spied upon as she undressed in her hotel room.

Lately, he has been working on a few cases against schools, gyms or other entities that fail to properly resuscitate someone suffering a medical emergency, especially a heart arrhythmia. He said he has had a half-dozen or so such cases in the last few years.

Currently, he is representing the parents of a 12-year-old boy who died from arrhythmia after running laps at school. The lawsuit accuses the school of failing to render aid and of waiting too long to call 911. Alagba v. Los Angeles Unified School District, 19STCV10897 (L.A. Super. Ct. filed March 29, 2019).

What particularly frustrates Broillet about that and similar cases is the defendants' failure to have or properly use automatic external defibrillators. State law requires many larger businesses and other institutions to have the AED devices, which guide someone rendering aid easily through the process of jolting a fluttering heart back into a steady rhythm.

"I've seen this issue come up in multiple cases, and I just thought it was important to say something about it," he said. "There've been multiple cases against schools for not properly resuscitating a child that has an arrhythmia."

He first learned about the issues by suing a gym that failed to render aid properly or to call 911 promptly for a man who had a heart attack playing basketball. Broillet won a $14.6 million jury verdict for the man, who was left with severe brain damage. Alegre v. LA Fitness International LLC, R10512506 (River. Super. Ct., filed Nov. 7, 2008).

In 2019, he won a $12 million verdict for the mother of philanthropist William M. Keck III, who died from heat exhaustion when the Bel-Air Bay Club delayed giving him proper aid or calling 911.

In a very different sort of case, he is preparing to go to trial Aug. 8 on behalf of a woman who suffered severe face and eye injuries when she was struck by a bicyclist speeding downhill as she was walking in Mandeville Canyon. Smookler v. Goldberg, 20STCV27832 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed July 23, 2020).

-- Don DeBenedictis