Man’s previous coma a question in his testimony
A Santa Monica jury will decide how much money, if any, a local property owner owes a lawyer he hired to work on an insurance dispute after the 1993 firestorms in Malibu.
In his closing arguments on Tuesday, Richard Grimwade told jurors that Orlando Aliberti, 84, owes him $146,000 for legal work. He said Aliberti agreed to pay him $125 an hour but let bills go unpaid for years.
“He now owes me close to $150,000,” said Grimwade, who is representing himself in the trial. “I told him something needs to be done about this. I can’t continue to represent you and not get paid.”
At issue in the trial is what contract existed between Aliberti and Grimwade while he worked on the case, a lawsuit seeking to recover as much as $3 million or more from Allstate Insurance Co. to rebuild a six-unit apartment building Aliberti owns on Rambla Pacifica.
Though Aliberti first hired Grimwade at $250 an hour, the two later reworked the contract to $125 an hour and agreed Grimwade also would receive 20 percent of any money recovered from Allstate. Aliberti contends the pair later agreed to a strict 40 percent contingency rate and that he owes Grimwade nothing because they lost the case.
In his closing arguments, Paul Cohen, Aliberti’s new lawyer, questioned the quality of the work Grimwade performed. He said Grimwade “milked this cash cow for all it’s worth” before pulling out of the lawsuit and suing Aliberti for legal fees.
Cohen told jurors something was amiss and pointed to Grimwade’s bills for 14- and 16-hour days, often seven days a week.
“This is ridiculous. This just goes on and on and on,” he said. “There’s not enough hours in the day. Time runs out. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s ridiculous. It’s pathetic.”
Aliberti, who lives in a house just uphill from the apartment building in Malibu, first hired Grimwade in 1994 to help him recover money from Allstate. In a separate claim, Allstate paid Aliberti more than $2 million rebuild his charred home.
But because he had a “limited liability” clause in the insurance policy covering the apartment building, Aliberti was given only $450,000 by Allstate to rebuild the apartment building and cover lost rent.
Unsatisfied, Aliberti sued Allstate. The case was first tossed out of court on the grounds that Aliberti waited too long to file it. Grimwade appealed that ruling and won, but when it finally went to court, after prolonged negotiations and other behind-the-scenes legal wrangling, a jury ruled that Allstate didn’t owe any additional money.
Aliberti wanted Grimwade to represent him in an appeal. But because he said he was due an outstanding payment of $146,000, Grimwade refused and dropped the case. Grimwade said he was only paid about $5,000 for settling the insurance payment relating to the house and a total of about $4,000 in two other separate payments.
Grimwade said he negotiated a settlement offer from Allstate for $500,000 before the trial that he strongly suggested Aliberti accept, but that Aliberti pushed for the trial anyway and lost. But Aliberti said Grimwade called the case a “slam dunk” and encouraged him to pursue it.
Lawyers took nearly the entire day to deliver their closing arguments, capping a four-day trial. A verdict is expected today, they said.
In his final statements to jurors, Grimwade tried to poke holes in the testimony of Aliberti, who spent four weeks in a coma after he slipped at his home in February of 2000 and hit his head.
“I want to remind you of Mr. Aliberti’s unfortunate accident,” he said. “He’s told us he doesn’t think clearly now.”
But Cohen said Aliberti, a WWII veteran who fought under Lt. Jimmy Doolittle in the Army Air Corps, is to be trusted and only suffers from some minor memory loss, which is normal for his age.
On the contrary, Cohen said it’s Grimwade that should be doubted. Cohen pointed to one of Grimwade’s bills for time spent preparing for court in the early morning hours before a 2000 appearance. Grimwade said during the trial he was at the McDonald’s on Colorado Avenue while he worked. The only problem, Cohen said, is the case was being heard in the valley.
“He just flat-out lied,” Cohen said. “He’s a liar.”
Grimwade disagreed, saying he mistook the McDonald’s for some other fast-food restaurant and asking, “Is that enough to call a man a liar?”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 28, 2003. Read the original PDF.