EAST ST. LOUIS - Lawyer Branden Stein claims lawyer Joseph Bartholomew offered to dismiss an Illinois defendant from an injury suit in exchange for a promise not to remove a Georgia defendant to U.S. district court.
Stein removed the suit to district court on Nov. 1, claiming Bartholomew’s offer showed he didn’t have grounds to sue St. Clair County resident Keith Zarczynski.
Bartholomew represents Cheryl Buescher of Missouri as estate administrator for husband Timothy Buescher.
Cheryl Buescher sued Zarczynski at St. Clair County circuit court in March, identifying him as quality compliance manager and safety director at Crysalis Biosciences in Sauget.
Bartholomew claimed Timothy Buescher was shocked last year while performing electrical work at Crysalis, causing a shoulder injury.
He claimed surgery on the shoulder resulted in a fatal pulmonary embolism.
He claimed Zarczynski failed to ensure that electrical circuits where Buescher worked were properly locked out.
He claimed Zarczynski failed to warn Buescher that the circuits weren’t locked out.
He claimed Zarczynski’s failure to repair damage to wiring resulted in circuits not working.
Zarczynski retained Gregg Kinney of St. Louis County.
Bartholomew added Crysalis, a Georgia business, as a defendant in July.
Stein stated in his removal notice that Bartholomew made an explicit offer to Kinney in August to drop Zarczynski.
Stein claimed the court should presume fraudulent joinder because the offer was an admission that Zarczynski was joined in the suit to defeat diversity jurisdiction.
He claimed Buescher worked for Bell Electrical Contractors repairing damage vandals caused.
He claimed Zarczynski had no experience with wires and didn’t hire the contractor.
He claimed Cheryl Buescher didn’t allege that Zarczynski owed a duty to Timothy Buescher.
“Rather, plaintiff assumes the existence of an all purpose duty through the general and vague allegation that Zarczynski managed quality compliance and safety,” he wrote.
He claimed Zarczynski’s job did not include managing or overseeing electrical wiring.
“Zarczynski did not cause the incident nor did he actively contribute to it,” he wrote.
“It was not Zarczynski’s duty nor Crysalis’s duty to ensure the electrical wiring that Crysalis hired Bell to investigate and repair was properly working.”
He claimed it was Buescher and Bell’s responsibility as trained professionals to verify the wiring was locked out and not live.
“Zarczynski not only owed no duty, but Buescher was more than 50% at fault,” he wrote.
Bartholomew practices at Bruce Cook’s firm in Belleville.
Kinney and Stein practice in St. Louis County.
The clerk randomly assigned District Judge Stephen McGlynn.
Sanket Gandhi of Georgia owns Crysalis.
In September, Gov. Pritzker announced that the state would assist Crysalis in a $240 million investment to develop an aviation fuel plant.
He said the plant would reduce the carbon footprint in Illinois.