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Mase, Lara, Eversole's attorneys are dedicated to providing aggressive cost effective legal representation to our clients.


Mase, Lara, Eversole's attorneys pride themselves on innovative representation – in the office and in the courtroom – to achieve superior results and client satisfaction.


Mase, Lara, Eversole's highly skilled attorneys make zealous representation their utmost priority. They work tirelessly to achieve their clients' goals and have earned a reputation for excellent representation.



 

News

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    PROUDLY ANNOUNCES NEW SHAREHOLDER

     

     

    Mase Lara Eversole is pleased to announce that Scott P. Mebane has been named a partner with the firm.  Mr. Mebane joined the firm in 2006.  After receiving a full scholarship to Wake Forest University School of Law, from which he graduated in 1990, Mr. Mebane clerked for United States District Judge Hiram H. Ward.  He subsequently became an Assistant United States Attorney in the Middle District of North Carolina, where he handled numerous jury trials and appeals.  In 1997, Mr. Mebane entered civil practice with Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, in its product liability practice group.  He was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2000, and continued his trial and litigation practice in Miami.  Mr. Mebane primarily represents our cruise and maritime clients.  He is a member of the American Bar Association and the Dade County Bar Association.  We are pleased to welcome Mr. Mebane as a shareholder with the firm.

  • Mase & Lara Prevails at Trial in NCL Rogue Wave Case.  Mase & Lara obtained a significant defense verdict in June 2007, in a highly publicized case brought by more than 400 individual plaintiffs for damages alleged to have been caused by NCL negligently navigating the M/V Norwegian Dawn into a storm and freak wave from Miami to New York in 2005. Plaintiffs claimed that NCL was rushing to honor an appearance on Donald Trump's television show "The Apprentice." Earlier in the case, the plaintiffs were defeated in their motion to certify a class action of more than 2,600 passengers. Thereafter in this initial bellweather trial before U.S. District Court Judge Cecilia Altonaga, the first four plaintiffs ( out of more than 400 named plaintiffs) tried their claims for alleged negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress, as well as punitive damages of $100 million. The trial lasted three weeks; over a dozen witnesses and experts testified and thousands of documents were introduced into evidence. Exemplifying true trial advocacy, lead counsel Curtis J. Mase and Richard D. Lara elected not to call a single witness to testify and obtained the defense verdict after only 2 and a half hours of jury deliberation. The verdict was a decisive blow; all 400 named plaintiffs thereafter abandoned their lawsuit and stipulated to a dismissal with prejudice.  For media coverage of the Rogue Wave trial verdict, click on the links below:

    http://www.dailybusinessreview.com/news.html?news_id=43574

    http://sdfla.blogspot.com/2007/05/civil-trial.html 

    http://www.ncl.com/nclweb/pressroom/pressRelease.html?storyCode=PR_060607

  • M&L Defeats Plaintiffs' Motion To Certify Class Action in Rogue Wave Case.  Mase & Lara successfully opposed Plaintiffs' motion to certify a class action allegedly involving over 2,000 passengers who traveled aboard the M/V Norwegian Dawn when it encountered a severe storm en route to New York. In a 20 page opinion issued on August 31, 2006, Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga of the Southern District of Florida denied plaintiffs' motion and agreed with Mase & Lara on behalf of Norwegian Cruise Line that the case was not amenable to class action status, especially where plaintiffs claimed alleged emotional distress. With this most recent victory, Mase & Lara continues to maintain its winning track record for its corporate clients in opposing class actions. Norwegian Dawn Order                                                       

  • Mase & Lara obtain Dismissal of Class Action Lawsuit in the Southern District of Florida filed by Cruise Ship Passenger Plaintiffs Claiming Damages under Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (Cyrusmarshallorderdismissal.pdf)
  • Mase & Lara prevailed in four appeals argued before the Third District Court of Appeal.   In the first, Carnival v. Middleton, 941 So.2d 421 (Fla. Third DCA 2006) Carnival Cruise Lines appealed a non-final order reinstating a negligence cause of action against Carnival for injuries sustained by a passenger.  Based on a forum selection clause in the passenger's ticket, which provided for the resolution of any dispute to be litigated in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami, the lower court dismissed the action. After the passenger filed suit in the federal court, the federal court dismissed the federal action on grounds that the passenger failed to file suit in federal court within the applicable ticket-contract provision of one year for personal injury actions. The passenger, upon reinstatement of the action in the lower court, argued that the venue provision in the passenger ticket was unenforceable. The Third Distrct found that the federal court's findings regarding forum selection and limitations grounds were binding upon the lower court under the principles of collateral estoppel and that the lower court was without authority to reinstate the cause of action.
  • Following Middleton,the Third District ruled on Carnival v. Booth, 2006 Fla. App.LEXIS 20780; 31 Fla.L.Weekly D. 3115 (December 13, 2006). In that case, the estate of deceased cruise ship passenger, sued appellant cruise line, alleging it was negligent in marketing a scuba diving excursion. The trial court held that by engaging in this discovery, the cruise line waived the defense of improper venue. The Third District disagreed. The cruise line's limited participation in the instant case did not amount to a waiver of its rights to enforce the forum selection clause. Further, enforcement of the clause was not unreasonable under the circumstances.
  • In Gadea v. Star Cruises Ltd. 2007 Fla. App. LEXIS2807 (February 28,2007) Rafael Gadea appealed from an order granting with prejudice Star Cruises, Ltd.'s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. The Third District found that because Gadea had failed to demonstrate jurisdiction over Star under either section 48.193(1) or 48.193(2) of the Florida Statutes, the court could not exercise personal jurisdiction over the cruise line.
  • The final case of Carnival Corpoarion, Appellant v. Digno Rivera Mendoza, 07 Fla. App. LEXIS 2731 (February 28, 2007) the Third District reversed an award of $780,000 for future pain and suffering in favor of a crew member. Carnival asserted that this award was in error because there was no evidence to support these damages.  The Third District agreed.
  • South Florida Legal Guide's "Top Lawyer" and "Top Up and Comer" Selection for 2007:  South Florida Legal Guide magazine, Florida's leading business publication, has just published its 2007 annual survey results of Florida's lawyers.  We are pleased to report that Curtis J. Mase has again been selected by his peers as one of the "Top" lawyers in the profession, and that Richard D. Lara has again been selected as a "Top Up and Comers."  There are nearly 60,000 lawyers in Florida, and less that 900 were selected in this survey covering 32 different practice areas.  Those selected represent just over 1% of the lawyers in Florida, a high honor indeed.  There are very few law firms where several of the principals in any one firm were selected, and we are proud to have been honored in this way.  (www.floridalegalguide.com)
  • Mase & Lara obtains defense verdicts in trials for cruise lines: In December, 2006, Mase & Lara won a highly contested case in which a former crewmember sued his cruise line employer following a slip and fall while he was working as a waiter aboard ship. He claimed that he had suffered a neurological injury which caused osteoporosis to develop in his left leg. He claimed to be permanently disabled and had to walk with crutches. The osteoporosis was not discovered until almost two years after the shipboard incident, when the plaintiff was severely injured in an automobile accident in his home country. Plaintiff sought damages exceeding three million dollars at trial, on the basis of Jones Act negligence, unseaworthiness and failure to pay maintenance and cure. After six days of trial, a jury in Miami Dade County returned a defense verdict on the issues of negligence and unseaworthiness. They orderd the cruise line to pay plaintiff $13,860 in maintenance and cure, which the cruise line had already agreed to pay.
  • In another case on May 19, 2006 Mase & Lara obtained a defense verdict on behalf of Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd.in the matter of Thomas Traveler v. RCL. Traveler claimed that an exercise class he attended onboard an RCL vessel exacerbated a ten year old chronic back problem resulting in a herniated disc at L5-S1 which caused Cauda Equina Syndrome (CES). Traveler was disembarked to a hospital in Grand Caymon and subsequently flown to Miami for his surgery, where he underwent two operations for the herniated disc and compression of the spinl nerves. Over ten years after the incident, he alleges that he still has numbness in one leg, decreased sexual function and occasional incontinence of his bladder and bowels. Traveler alleged several causes of action against RCL: 1. medical malpractice of the shipboard physicians; 2. neglignet hiring of the shipboard physicians; 3. negligent misrepresentation of the exercise instructor's qualifications; 4. fraudulent inducement by representing the onboard fitness center as a place where passengers could receive relief from back pain; and 5. breach of the passenger ticket contract. Mase & Lara obtained a directed verdict in RCL's favor on the breach of contract claim during the trial. After a week long trial, the  jury returned a verdict absolving RCL of any liability for the Plaintiff's four remaining counts.   
  • On August 23, 2005, Judge Patricia Seitz of the Southern District of Florida agreed with NCL that the plaintiffs had failed to raise facts in support of their claims under general maritime law, and granted summary judgment in a case where the plaintiffs alleged false imprisonment and breach of contract when they were questioned by the captain for harassing crewmembers about a class action lawsuit that had been brought against NCL by the employer of one of the plaintiffs, and were subsequently removed from the vessel. (Lurie - Order Granting MSJ)
  • On June 10, 2005, Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga of the Southern District of Florida granted a motion to dismiss or for summary judgment, which was filed by M&L on behalf of Carnival Cruise Lines.  The issue was whether a plaintiff's suit was untimely, per the one-year limitation provision in Carnival's passenger ticket contract, where the plaintiff had been only seventeen years old at time of alleged injury, but had reached the age of majority (18 years) more than a year and a half prior to bringing suit.  Judge Altonaga agreed with Carnival that the one-year limitation period began to run from the plaintiff's eighteenth birthday, and granted summary judgment, dismissing case with prejudice.  (Harts - Final Order)
  • M&L Attends 2005 Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention - March, 2005; For coverage and photos:

              http://www.iccl.org/EvenKeel/05spring/seatrade2005.cfm

  • "Ships Have Legal Duty to Medically Care for Crew" (Legal Corner) published by Curtis J. Mase in Section on Cruise Ship and Maritime Medicine, A Newsletter from the American College of Emergency Physicians (December 2004)

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