John P. Sheehy: Procures $35.3M verdict in brain-injury case

By Barbara L. Jones
January 27, 2003
Reprinted with Permission of Minnesota Lawyer

It has been almost exactly 16 years since Minneapolis lawyer John Sheehy left Washington, D.C., after arguing his first case at the U.S. Supreme Court. As Sheehy watched the Washington Monument recede through the rear windshield of his cab, he thought, "This really is a great country. I grew up working in a gas station, and now I'm helping to decide a constitutional issue."

The 1987 case was Anderson v. Creighton, which held that FBI officials who participated in an unconstitutional search were immune from damages when they reasonably could have believed that the search was legal. Although Sheehy was not on the winning side of that case, he has gone on to win a number of significant verdicts on behalf of injured plaintiffs, culminating with a $35.3 million verdict in a brain-injury case in late 2002.

The case involved a 32-year-old factory worker, Gary Forde, whose skull was crushed between a moving mechanical arm and a conveyor belt on a box-stacking machine. The lawsuit alleged that the machine was defectively designed and did not have adequate safety guards.

The verdict represented the fourth multi-million award in the last six years for Sheehy and his partner at the Minneapolis law firm of Meshbesher and Spence, Michael Snyder. They garnered a $15.9 million verdict for another brain injury in Hennepin County, $5.9 million for a commercial vehicle accident that resulted in a traumatic leg amputation in Ramsey County, and $3.6 million in a wrongful death suit in Steele County. While both lawyers tried the Forde case, Sheehy served as lead trial counsel, handling jury selection, opening statement and closing argument.

Sheehy believes that communication is key to a successful trial result. "You have to edit and order the information and put it in a form," he explains. "You have to have dramatic impact with your good material. It's not just the law — it's who is lying and who is telling the truth. ... You have to understand the impression you might make in a courtroom. Every little thing matters — your behavior, how you treat your client. You put one grain of sand on the scale at a time."

In the Forde case, the important elements in procuring the verdict were his client's massive injuries and the failure of the manufacturer of the box stacker to attach guards to the machine to prevent such accidents from happening. As a result of the catastrophic brain injury he suffered, the plaintiff is frequently confined to a wheelchair, has lost the hearing in one ear, went blind in one eye and is losing the sight in the other and will require 24-hour care for life. He can't produce tears and can't close one eyelid without the help of a weight. His left wrist is surgically fused in a bent position. He has regular spasms and tremors requiring Botox injections. Although he can walk short distances, he now has a poor sense of balance. It took about a year after the accident for the plaintiff to regain the ability to speak. Therapists had to manually move his lips and tongue to retrain them.

At trial, the plaintiff testified that the worst part of his injury was the loss of freedom and privacy he suffered from losing his own home and his ability to care for himself.

Sheehy produced evidence at trial showing that the company had been manufacturing the machine for about 25 years. Ten years ago, the company added a light beam guard to its machines sold in Europe. The guard prevents the machine coming down if a worker is under the stacking deck in the spot the plaintiff was believed to be when he was hit. However, the defendant did not add the protection to machines sold in the United States. During the trial, about 570 documents were turned over that addressed the dangers of the machine and whether officials were aware of them, he says.

According to Sheehy, evidence produced at trial showed that the defendant knew of the dangers. He believes that some of the documentation unearthed in discovery diminished the credibility of the defendants. For example, the company president denied knowledge of the company's safety committee or its findings, but right before the trial, a witness brought in four boxes of documents addressed to the president concerning the safety committee's findings. Before introducing those documents, Sheehy had the company president repeat the statement that he had no knowledge of the safety committee.

"If there's something I do well, its cross-examination," says Sheehy, who started out with the Meshbesher firm doing criminal defense. "It's a huge part of criminal defense. The saying is: Don't ask a question you don't know the answer to. It really [should be], don't ask a question that will hurt you. A lot of cross-examination is closing doors and finding out little bits of information so you can build something."

St. Paul attorney William L. Tilton attributes Sheehy's success to his "maniacal focus" and his energy. "He's indefatigable," Tilton explains. "Once he gets on a subject he never lets go." Tilton also credits Sheehy's success with juries to his "Irish charm and love of a good story."

Going into the law was never a foregone conclusion for Sheehy. When Sheehy was 9 years old, his father died, leaving his mother to support eight children on Social Security. Sheehy then started caddying and delivering papers, and eventually went on to work at the neighborhood gas station, where he met his first lawyer. It seemed to him that practicing law would be a good job.

Sheehy didn't go on to college right after high school, but became concerned that if he didn't seek higher education, his younger brothers and sisters wouldn't value it. So one day he drove his truck over to the University of Minnesota and walked in an office and asked to register. Unfortunately, he soon discovered that he had walked into the chemistry department rather than the admissions office. He eventually found the right place to register, and embarked on the path that eventually made him a lawyer.

Sheehy prefers battling big business to representing it. "My father was a boxer and I came from a fighting family," he explains.

While growing up in St. Louis Park, Sheehy became aware of attorney Ron Meshbesher, and decided that his firm was where he wanted to practice. Sheehy began working with the Meshbesher firm while still in law school. "It was the only job I ever applied for," Sheehy observes.

The first case Sheehy handled on his own was Anderson v. Creighton — the case that eventually went to the U.S. Supreme Court. Sheehy recalls the day of the argument, when he nervously awaited Meshbesher, who was snowed in and didn't arrive until five minutes before the argument was to begin. He credits his professional success to co-counsel Snyder, Meshbesher and mentors he has had through they years.

"If I have been effective in courtrooms, it's because I've been working on some cases that were good cases and I've been working with people who have made great contributions," he says. "I got exposure to a lot of good lawyers."

Sheehy certainly enjoys his role as an advocate.

"I think that being a lawyer is a very good thing," he says. "That's why I went into it. Lawyers have to be proud of what they do. It is a privilege to do it."