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 John Anton
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Biography: When bad things happen, good people are suddenly robbed of their health, income, power and dignity. For more than thirty years, John Anton has devoted his legal practice to exposing wrongful behavior, attaching to it the entire cost of its serious consequences, and helping his clients find justice. His primary focus is on industrial products liability, workplace injuries, vehicular accidents and other personal injury claims. He also brings his skills as a trial lawyer to bear as part of the firm’s growing elder abuse practice. He has been the lead attorney in more than 75 trials, usually involving serious injuries sustained by those who work in the trades, including operating engineers, carpenters, pile drivers, painters, plumbers, sprinkler fitters and electricians. This experience has given him a strong understanding of both the dangers faced by these workers and the methods needed to deliver a satisfactory resolution to their claims. John has represented the victims of numerous industrial accidents involving panelized roofs, cranes, power tools, conveyor belts, scaffolding, gas appliances, trenches and more. He also has presented many vehicle cases involving cars, trucks, buses, forklifts, motorcycles, bicycles and hot rods. His professional negligence cases have included not only doctors and hospitals but also chiropractors, accountants and engineers. He is a respected lecturer on torts, medical-legal testimony and medical device litigation, and has published articles on a variety of legal topics. He is a graduate of the University of California at Davis Law School, where he received the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence. He has served on the State Bar of California’s Committee on Administration of Justice, is past president of the Redwood Empire Trial Lawyer’s Association and has served as a Regent of Bishop O’Dowd High School. When not practicing law he enjoys bicycling, motorcycling, skiing, mountaineering, woodworking and fishing. John is a partner at Boxer & Gerson. He has also worked at DeMeo & DeMeo, the Law Offices of Rodney A. Klein, the Law Offices of Eugene C. Treaster, the Sacramento Public Defender’s Office and the California Legislature’s Senate Committee on Judiciary. Case Highlights: Matamoras Pipeline welders Israel Hernandez and Victor Rodriguez lost their lives in the construction of EBMUD’s Walnut Creek pipeline project when the pipeline exploded on November 9, 2004. Their families retained Boxer & Gerson to find out how this tragic event occurred and to seek redress for their loss. The firm filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the companies involved in designing and managing the pipeline construction project. In the end, defendants EBMUD, Mountain Cascade, Kinder Morgan and Com-Force paid a total of $16 million, which will be allocated to the surviving family members of the two men. A Boxer & Gerson client injured his knee and subsequently developed Complex Regional Pain Syndrome in a slip-and-fall accident on a wet floor in a retail store. This central nervous system disorder disabled him and required multiple surgeries. Through aggressive discovery during litigation, Boxer & Gerson proved that the store and its contractors had failed to fix problems with the roof over a three year period prior to the incident. Trial attorney John Anton brought the case before a jury, resulting in a $10.6 million verdict against the store, the installer of the roof and the manufacturer of the roof. Boxer & Gerson represented the wife and young children of Darryl Clemons, a 33-year old painter who lost his life when scaffolds collapsed on the Bay Bridge seismic retrofit project in January 2002. Working with a team of metallurgists and mechanical engineers, Boxer & Gerson was able to build evidence that the company that produced the scaffold Mr. Clemons had been using had exaggerated its capabilities to get the public construction project and failed to build the scaffolding according to the design. The lawsuit resulted in a $3.1 million settlement for the family. Boxer & Gerson achieved a $3 million settlement for the family of a self-employed HVAC repairman who was killed in a rear-end collision while working on a CalTrans Project. After a truck on a highway construction project backed into a journeyman diesel mechanic, Boxer & Gerson sued to recover lost past and future wages and emotional distress damages. The resulting $2.25 million dollar settlement helped the union construction worker regain his financial security and move on with his life. After a Teamster warehouseman was hit by a forklift on a loading dock, Boxer & Gerson filed suit against the warehouse owner and a product manufacturer to prove the warehouse owner’s employee was negligent it driving the forklift and that a product he was transporting was dangerous and defective. The union worker received a $2 million dollar settlement to compensate for his injuries. A jury awarded one of Boxer & Gerson’s clients $1.1 million to compensate him for the physical injuries, lost wages, and emotional distress he suffered after he fell off a ladder while replacing light fixtures on a tennis court. The firm’s attorneys demonstrated to the jury that the defective design of the light pole was responsible for the fall. Boxer & Gerson obtained a verdict of $1.1 million for a condominium maintenance employee who severely fractured both ankles when he fell 28 feet while fixing a tennis court light. Nearly ten years earlier, the light had been installed without a bolt that would have prevented the accident, and Boxer & Gerson was able to prove that the developer of the condominium should be held responsible for the serious injury. Boxer & Gerson won a $1.05 million dollar jury verdict for a union electrician who suffered a broken wrist when he fell over an anchor bolt on a construction site at UC Berkeley. Trial attorney John Anton presented evidence that a subcontractor on the project left the premises in a dangerous condition and should have foreseen the possibility of injury. When a member of the Operating Engineers union fell into a poorly marked and poorly lit pit on a seismic upgrade project, Boxer & Gerson sued for his injuries, resulting in a $800,000 settlement for lost wages, medical expenses, and emotional distress. Boxer & Gerson represented a union carpenter who suffered a severe injury when a large rebar column fell on top of him, crushing his leg. This accident was ranked as the most severe injury sustained by any worker during the construction of Pac Bell Park. Although Cal-OSHA initially concluded that the general contractor did nothing wrong, the firm’s thorough investigation turned up evidence that proved otherwise, and the firm achieved a $550,000 settlement for the injured worker. Boxer & Gerson took the case of a union member who suffered an injured foot when he was hit by a car while picketing against unfair labor practices. The driver of the car paid out $370,000 in settlement for his negligence. When a veteran steelworker was caught in 50-year old machinery and suffered permanent injuries, including the loss of an arm, Boxer & Gerson had to prove that a present-day company was liable for the negligence of machinery’s manufacturer, which it had acquired years earlier. After a lengthy investigation that took him around the country and uncovered additional successor liability from other involved companies, Boxer & Gerson partner John Anton delivered a seven-figure settlement to assure the steelworker’s financial future and compensate him for the pain and suffering he endured. Boxer & Gerson brought suit on behalf of a client who became a quadriplegic while using the backyard water slide. The firm argued that the product’s design and warnings were dangerous and failed to guard against foreseeable injuries. To compensate the injured man for the life-altering effects of the injury, the firm negotiated a settlement on confidential terms. A disabled veteran was driving his motorcycle in Oakland when a young lawyer suddenly turned in front of him, resulting in the loss of the motorcycle rider’s left foot and other injuries. Boxer & Gerson was able to establish that the lawyer was at fault and that he was traveling on business. The result was a highly satisfactory settlement against the defendant lawyer’s law firm. A 14-year old who was riding his bicycle in Berkeley sustained significant head injuries when he hit a hole in the pavement caused by a leaking water main. Boxer & Gerson led an investigation that determined the cause of the accident, found witnesses who testified on the client’s behalf and delivered a structured settlement guaranteeing monthly payments for the rest of the boy’s life. For more than a decade, a major waste disposal corporation paid eleven of its employees wages as much as $20/hour less than the prevailing wage agreed upon with the local government. Boxer "Gerson uncovered the full story of the company’s cheating, including a quote from a vice-president who said "what [the workers] don’t know won’t hurt them", and won a settlement that included a sizeable compensation for the workers’ years of lost wages. Published Cases: State Compensation Insurance Fund v. WCAB (credit for third party recovery for taxi driver) (1982) 180 CA3rd 933 Terry Snow v. A.H. Robins Co. (fraud in promoting Dalkon Shield IUD) (1985) 165 CA3d 120 Lake v. Lakewood Chiropractic (chiropractic malpractice) (1993) 20 CA4 47 Seminars/Symposia: British Columbia, March 2006. British Columbia, January 2006. British Columbia, January 2005. British Columbia, January 2004. British Columbia, January 2003. British Columbia, January 2002. The Patient Care Symposium, British Columbia, 2000. Memberships:
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