Morrison Mahoney Associate Linda Smith received a defense verdict after a three-day trial in New Hampshire Superior Court. The plaintiff alleged that a verbal and threatened physical altercation with our client constituted assault and caused him to suffer severe emotional distress.
Our client, with his young daughter in his car, entered his private condominium neighborhood and saw the plaintiff, and adult male whom he did not recognize, riding a bicycle in circles at the end of a neighborhood road. Still in his car, our client approached the plaintiff and asked the plaintiff if he was a neighborhood resident or guest. The plaintiff responded that he was neither. Our client asked the plaintiff to leave, and the plaintiff declined, allegedly using vulgar and racially-insensitive language (our client was an immigrant from India) and threatening a lawsuit. Our client testified that he ended the conversation and watched the plaintiff from a distance. The plaintiff, however, claimed that our client then “drove at him,” putting the plaintiff in fear of bodily harm. The plaintiff also claimed that our client parked in the middle of the road in an attempt to intimidate him.
The plaintiff presented testimony from a psychiatrist and a therapist to support his claim of PTSD. The jury took less than thirty minutes to select a foreperson, deliberate, and issue a verdict in our client’s favor.
