Lawyers representing trucking co. in vehicle injury case move to transfer suit to federal court

Attorneys for a New Jersey-based trucking company have filed a request to transfer a

personal injury claim initiated against their client from the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Dawn C. Doherty and Thomas A. Dinan, lawyers with the Philadelphia firm Marks, O’Neill, O’Brien, Doherty & Kelly, filed a notice of removal March 11 at the federal court in Center City on behalf of Delran, N.J.-based Gondul Trucking Inc. and its proprietor.

The underlying claim involves allegations by Bristol, Pa. resident Lauren Konefal that she was seriously injured after a Gondul vehicle driven by co-defendant Sawash Shukur violently struck the rear of the plaintiff’s car while both were driving along Route 13 in Bristol on March 26, 2012.

Konefal’s attorney, Brad S. Rush, of the firm Kovler & Rush P.C., filed the injury claim Feb. 26 at Philadelphia’s Common Pleas Court.

The complaint alleges that Konefal sustained injuries including cervical sprain and strain, lumbar and thoracic sprain and strain, post-traumatic anxiety reaction, post-concussion syndrome, and disc bulges and herniations as a result of last year’s accident.

The incident also allegedly caused the plaintiff great financial detriment and loss.

The suit accuses the defendants of various acts of negligence, including failing to give proper and sufficient warning of an approaching vehicle, failing to keep a proper lookout and operating a vehicle at an excessive rate of speed.

Konefal says she  is seeking damages in excess of $50,000.

In the defendants’ removal notice, attorneys Doherty and Dinan wrote that the matter would be best handled at the federal venue because it involves a controversy between citizens of different states, and because the amount of damages sought may exceed the jurisdiction of a Pennsylvania state court.

 

The federal case number is 2:13-cv-01275-JS.