O'Malley et al. v. Diamond Resorts Management Inc.

Dollar Amount: $60.44 million

Case Name: O'Malley v. Diamond Resorts Management Inc.

Type of Case: Premises Liability and negligence

Court: Orange County

Judge(s): Superior Court Judge Frederick Horn

Plaintiff Lawyers: The Homampour Law Firm, Arash Homampour; Biren Law Group, Matthew B.F. Biren, John A. Roberts

Defense Lawyers: Yoka & Smith, LLP, Christopher E. Faenza; Taylor Anderson, LLP, Brent D. Anderson, Floyd R. Hartley, Jr.

How hotels deal with guests in crisis was the topic when lawyers for a brain-damaged woman sued the resort where she was staying and persuaded jurors to award her and her husband $60.4 million for failing to respond effectively to a call for help.

Priscilla O'Malley checked into a Diamond Resorts hotel in Capistrano Beach alone in March 2014 and told her husband and sister by phone that she planned to stay in her room to watch the sunset. When she failed to answer later calls, husband Michael O'Malley phoned the front desk and asked the clerk to send someone to her room to see if his wife was OK.

What happened next was key to the case, said Matthew B.F. Biren of Biren Law Group, who filed the complaint on the O'Malleys' behalf in 2015 and crafted the "negligent undertaking" liability theory that eventually prevailed in court. According to court filings, the clerk sent a maintenance worker to the room who opened the door and looked inside, but failed to see Priscilla O'Malley lying on the floor, incapacitated. She was later diagnosed with a ruptured aneurysm that, due to delayed treatment, led to permanent memory loss.

"Once they volunteered to perform the welfare check, they had an obligation to do it reasonably," Biren said. He coupled that claim with a cite to the hotel's internal rules to build his case that the hotel and a staffing agency were liable for Priscilla O'Malley's condition. O'Malley et al. v. Diamond Resorts International, 30-2015-00771021-CU-PO-NJC (Orange Co. Super. Ct., filed Feb. 10, 2015).

A trial judge dismissed the case on summary judgment, but Biren and colleagues won a reversal at the Court of Appeal. The published opinion validated Biren's theory. "Ordinarily, a person has no legal duty to come to the aid of another," the panel held. "But if a person does come to the aid of another, and does so without exercising reasonable care, that person may be responsible for any damages caused under a 'negligent undertaking' theory of liability," the panel wrote.

Arash Homampour, the founder of The Homampour Law Firm PC, read the opinion, applauded Biren's approach to the case and came on board when the case went back to court. "It was an awesome legal strategy," Homampour said. "I realized we needed his unique and wonderful skills for trial," Biren said.

A further appeal is currently pending.

Defense lawyers did not return a message seeking comment.

--John Roemer