Lawsuits & Settlements

The Enke Law Office, PLLC has been handling personal injury and wrongful death cases, breach of contract disputes and other business litigation, and will contests and trust litigation in Fort Dodge and the Mason City areas, and throughout Iowa, for over 30 years. Below are examples of some of the cases we have handled for our clients. To discuss your own legal matter with attorney Bill Enke, please contact us to set up a FREE INITIAL CONSULTATION.

• CATASTROPHIC INJURIES
• WRONGFUL DEATH
• CAR AND TRUCK CRASHES
• MOTORCYCLE CRASHES
• PEDESTRIAN INJURIES
• BICYCLE COLLISIONS
• DEFECTIVE PRODUCTS
• CELL PHONE RELATED ACCIDENTS
• BUSINESS LITIGATION
• WILL CONTESTS AND TRUST LITIGATION
• MEDICAL MALPRACTICE

CATASTROPHIC INJURIES

• A client in his 30s, with a wife and children, suffered burns over 3/4ths of his body. The injuries were received in an intersection collision in Webster County when the fuel tank in his pickup truck exploded on impact. After recovering against the driver of the other vehicle, suit was filed in Federal Court against General Motors. The lawsuit resulted in a seven digit recovery against General Motors. Expert witnesses from Michigan and Arizona were retained on behalf of our client.
• A grade school girl was struck in a school crosswalk by a pickup in Pocahontas County. Suit was filed against the driver and owner of the vehicle. Suit was also filed against the school district based upon allegations of insufficient training of the school's crossing guard and negligence of the crossing guard in allowing the young girl to be on the crosswalk unprotected. The girl's face was initially severely disfigured. However, after numerous surgeries, her facial features were restored to normal. A six-digit recovery was obtained against the driver and owner of the vehicle and the school district.
• A woman in her 50s received a severe brain injury and multiple crushed bones in her face and jaw requiring numerous surgeries. The injuries were caused by the actions of another car turning in front of her car in Boone County. Recovery was in excess of a half-million dollars.
• A boy was shot by another boy with a BB gun in Boone County. The BB struck the boy's eye and permanently blinded him in one eye. A confidential settlement was reached after a lawsuit was filed.
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WRONGFUL DEATH

• In North Central Iowa, a husband and father in his 40s was killed when another car crossed the center line, crashed into the man's car, ejected the man and broke his neck. Recovery was made for the policy limits of the other driver in addition to a large recovery against the man's underinsured carrier.
• A 16-year old boy was killed in Humboldt County when the car in which he was a passenger pulled out from a stop sign into the path of a speeding semi. Following a week-long trial, the case was settled after closing arguments for a confidential amount against the driver of the car in which the boy was a passenger as well as the driver of the semi.
• Recovery for the estate of a teenager in Pocahontas County, against the driver of a car in which he was a passenger, when the driver lost control and killed the young man. The case was settled for a confidential amount without a lawsuit being filed.
• A 35 year old husband and father died from crushing asphyxiation in a sand pit. The pending lawsuit in Cerro Gordo County alleges the Defendant failed to implement the required safety procedures over a nine year period even though his representative had represented to OSHA that the corrective safety procedures had been implemented nine years ago.
• A teenage girl was killed in a house fire in Omaha. A confidential settlement was obtained against the homeowner's insurance company based upon negligence on the part of the homeowner.
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CAR AND TRUCK CRASHES

• A client in his 30s, with a wife and children, suffered burns over 3/4ths of his body. The injuries were received in an intersection collision in Webster County when the fuel tank in his pickup truck exploded on impact. After recovering against the driver of the other vehicle, suit was filed in Federal Court against General Motors. The lawsuit resulted in a seven-digit recovery against General Motors. Expert witnesses from Michigan and Arizona were retained on behalf of our client.
• A woman in her 50s received a severe head injury and multiple crushed bones in her face and jaw requiring numerous surgeries. The injuries were caused by the actions of another car turning in front of her car in Boone County. Recovery was in excess of a half-million dollars.
• A young man in his early 20s was seriously injured when a car pulled out from a stop sign into the path of his car in Humboldt County. The injuries eventually required two surgeries on his ankle, including an ankle fusion, with possible additional surgery in the future. The case was settled for a confidential amount after a lawsuit was filed.
• A six digit recovery was made against a co-op in Webster County when one of the co-op's semis pulled out in front of a truck in which our client was a passenger. The crash resulted in serious injuries and multiple surgeries on our client's ankle with a possible ankle fusion surgery in the future. A six digit recovery was obtained prior to filing a lawsuit.
• Bill represented a nurse who received multiple fractures following an accident in Chicago when another driver failed to yield at an intersection. The case was settled prior to suit for a confidential amount.
• A six digit recovery was obtained in a case in which Bill was the lead attorney, where his client was a conductor on a train that crashed into a semi in Postville after the semi failed to obey the railroad warning signals. The client's injury initially resulted in his inability to return to his previous job.
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MOTORCYCLE CRASHES

• A woman in her 40s was seriously injured when she was a passenger on a motorcycle driven by her fiancé in Cerro Gordo County. She suffered multiple fractures in her shoulder and required numerous surgeries, including the insertion of plates and screws to try to regain some of her former mobility. She had a physically-demanding job and was an avid outdoors woman before the crash that occurred when the motorcycle was struck by a car. A six-digit amount was recovered from the driver of the car and the woman's underinsured motorist carriers.
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PEDESTRIAN INJURIES

• A man in his 40s was struck in a crosswalk in Polk County by a car being driven by a woman who ran a red light while she was talking on her cell phone. The collision crushed the man's leg. Surgery followed, leaving an incision over a foot long. The leg then became infected and the man was readmitted to the hospital for another week and a half. The case resulted in a six-digit recovery.
• A grade-school girl was struck in a school crosswalk by a pickup in Pocahontas County. Suit was filed against the driver and owner of the vehicle. Suit was also filed against the school district based upon allegations of insufficient training of the school's crossing guard and negligence of the crossing guard in allowing the young girl to be in the crosswalk unprotected. The girl's face was initially severely disfigured. However, after numerous surgeries, her former facial features were restored. A six-digit recovery was obtained against the driver and owner of the vehicle and the school district.
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BICYCLE COLLISIONS

• A middle-aged man was struck by a vehicle that ran a stop sign in Webster County. A severe injury resulted in medical expenses for past surgeries and future surgery, including a knee replacement, in excess of $65,000. The case was mediated with a six-digit recovery.
• In Dickinson County, a woman in her late 60s was struck by a young boy on a bike, who rounded a corner on a bike trial in the Okoboji area at a high rate of speed. The resulting fracture incapacitated the woman, an avid biker, for a significant period of time. She made a complete recovery, and the case was settled after suit was filed.
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DEFECTIVE PRODUCTS

• Recovery was made on behalf of a woman in her late 60s without necessity of a lawsuit, in Webster County. The woman was injured when a scooter she was using to help her get around her house developed a defective foot rest. When the woman stood up, the heavy foot rest came down on her legs, causing her to fall and resulting in multiple fractures in one of her legs.
• A client in his 30s, with a wife and children, suffered burns over 3/4ths of his body. The injuries were received in an intersection collision in Webster County when the fuel tank in his pickup exploded on impact. After recovering against the driver of the other vehicle, suit was filed in Federal Court against General Motors. The lawsuit resulted in a seven-digit recovery against General Motors. Expert witnesses from Michigan and Arizona were retained on behalf of our client.
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CELL PHONE RELATED ACCIDENTS

• A man in his 40s was struck in a crosswalk in Polk County by a car being driven by a woman who ran a red light while she was talking on her cell phone. The collision crushed the man's leg. Surgery followed, leaving an incision over a foot long. The leg then became infected and the man was readmitted to the hospital for another week and a half. The case resulted in a six-digit recovery.
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BUSINESS LITIGATION

• Six-digit recovery against the manufacturer of a turboprop aircraft for breach of various warranties. After the lawsuit was filed in Federal Court, depositions of various witnesses were taken in San Antonio and Lincoln. The case was settled shortly before trial for a confidential amount.
• Bill was the lead attorney in a case in which a hog confinement operator was forced out of business by a large U.S. corporation. After suit was filed in Federal Court and numerous depositions were taken, involving thousands of pages of exhibits, a six-digit recovery was obtained.
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WILL CONTESTS AND TRUST LITIGATION

• In Calhoun County, an elderly woman left most of her estate, valued in excess of $1,000,000, to various charities. She had given a Power of Attorney to a relative who proceeded to give most of the woman's assets to the children of the relative. An injunction was obtained by Bill forbidding any use or disposition of the estate assets by the children. After suit was filed, the entire estate value was recovered except a small amount that allegedly had been spent by the children prior to obtaining the injunction. Bill represented several of the beneficiaries whom the relative had attempted to defraud.
• Three siblings were to share equally in their parents' multi-million dollar trusts. In a pending lawsuit, it is alleged that, after a dozen years, with one parent deceased and the other parent in poor health, the trusts were changed so one sibling was to receive most of the trust proceeds. This same sibling was also a trustee of his parents' trusts.
• After a two-week trial in Mason City, the estate of a deceased woman received a jury verdict in the estate's favor. The trial involved claims by numerous grand-nieces and grand-nephews that the deceased woman's will should be overturned based upon allegations that she was incompetent at the time she signed her will and the terms of the will were a result of undue influence on the part of other relatives. The jury rejected both arguments and all of the estate's assets remained with the intended beneficiaries.
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MEDICAL MALPRACTICE

• In a pending lawsuit, it is alleged that a woman in her mid-70s walked into outpatient surgery in a Sioux City hospital for what she was told was routine back surgery. She was physically active before the surgery and enjoying a full life. She left the hospital a paraplegic. She is now confined in a nursing home, and needs help to shower, dress, and go to the bathroom. A medical malpractice lawsuit was filed against the surgeon.
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